|
| Date: | July 21, 2011 | | Contact Name: | Chris Van Guilder | | Contact Phone: | 651-296-1388 | | Contact Email: | christopher.vanguilder@senate.mn | | For Immediate Release | |
|
| SENATOR MILLER REPORTS SPECIAL SESSION BONDING BILL DESIGNATES SOUTHEASTERN MN FOR VETERANS CEMETERY |
St. Paul – State Senator Jeremy Miller (R-Winona) reports that the $500 million bonding bill passed in the special session of the legislature designates southeastern Minnesota as the location for a cemetery authorized in an earlier bill. The bill also requires the commissioner of veterans affairs to seek donations of land. Fillmore County has offered to donate 153 acres of land along the Root River near Preston and initial studies have already been conducted.
“I am extremely pleased that southeastern Minnesota will have the opportunity to honor our veterans in this way,” said Miller. “I am grateful to Fillmore County for its generosity; it is a beautiful spot for a final resting place for these Minnesotans whom we respect and cherish.”
This official designation enables the Department of Veterans Affairs to apply for grant money to repay the cemetery design costs. The federal government will also reimburse for construction costs, but the state is responsible for operating and maintaining the cemetery. Yesterday the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs took the next steps towards approval of the site and federal approval is expected in October 2012.
The National Cemetery Association determined in 2008 that southern Minnesota is beyond the reach of a recommended 75-mile service area for the state’s two existing veterans cemeteries, one at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis, and one in Little Falls. The 2010 legislature directed the state commissioner of veterans affairs to determine a suitable site and plan for new state veterans cemeteries in both southwestern Minnesota and southeastern Minnesota.
###
