Another 9 acres of the Arkansas Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock will be developed and improved with $4.4 million in federal grant money, state Department of Veterans Affairs leaders said Monday at a brief ceremony at the cemetery.
This is the third time in two years that the state has received money to update the cemetery from the national Veterans Cemetery Grants Program.
The grant announced Monday will pay for the second phase of four in a planned expansion for the 82-acre cemetery in North Little Rock where more than 5,500 Arkansas veterans and family members of veterans are buried. Improvements will include 3,800 pre-placed crypts, a memorial wall, roadways and an updated irrigation system.
In 2012, two U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs grants totaling about $1.1 million paid for the first phase, which included realigning and cleaning headstones and constructing a columbarium with 720 niches to hold cremated remains.
“If you ask yourself whether it’s unusual for one cemetery to receive three grants from the VA in two years, the answer is yes. Definitely yes,” the grant program’s acting director, George Eisenbach Jr., said. “Our commitment reflects Arkansas’ commitment to achieving the highest standards of appearance and service for deserving veterans and their families.”
Phase two, tentatively set to begin Labor Day, will include a memorial wall with the names of veterans who chose to give their bodies to science, were buried at sea or were missing in action.
Upgrading the cemetery’s irrigation system will save between $35,000 and $50,000 per year, Eisenbach said. The pre-placed crypts, to be located in seven new areas around the cemetery, are more efficient and require less maintenance, he said.
Gov. Mike Beebe praised state Department of Veterans Affairs Director Cissy Rucker for her persistence in applying for and obtaining the grants.
Arkansans are patriotic, and the service the cemetery provides to veterans and their families is enough for people in the state to support the projects, Beebe told a group of about two dozen who attended the ceremony.
“It’s more than words. Oftentimes the words aren’t followed by the action. … What we see here is people put their money where their mouth is,” he said.
The improvements also have an emotional payoff for the many visitors to the grounds, Rucker said.
“Every day there are hundreds of visitors. You don’t think about that, but there are people who come out here to visit their loved ones. They come out to just sit and have a quiet moment. We have some people who come out and just give praise,” she said. “The thing that we like here is that besides being respectful and dignified, it’s a place of gratitude where we can say ‘thank you’ to those who have given everything and to those who have lived a life of service.”
While the second phase’s updates are what’s being focused on now, there will be two more development phases in the cemetery’s future.
“Phase three will require another grant to complete,” said Kelly Ferguson, a state Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman. “Any work in that direction would happen 10 to 12 years after this project is complete.”
Dwight Witcher, a Vietnam War veteran and representative of Conway’s Marine Corps League, said the planned expansions allow for more space to dedicate to the state’s heroes.
“This kind of stuff means a great deal to us,” he said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 08/13/2013