New VA cemetery planned in region
WASHINGTON – The nation’s newest veterans’ cemetery will be located in Washington County. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has reached an agreement with two Washington County brothers to buy 275 acres of farmland along Interstate 79, just south of the Allegheny County line, for the new cemetery. The details of the purchase agreement with William and Robert Morgan have not been released, but the sale is expected to be a multimillion-dollar deal.
“It was a firm offer to sell that the Morgans made to the VA. We can’t disclose the price until the closing,” said Jo Schuda of the VA.
Schuda said the closing should come sometime in October, after the U.S. Department of Justice completes the title search on the land.
“We probably will award a contract for phase-one construction in late 2003, for completion in 2005,” Schuda said.
Phase-one construction will include gravesite development, administration and maintenance buildings, an entryway, a flag area and shelters where services can be held before interment. It also may include a public information center, Schuda said.
According to Schuda, $16 million has been set aside for phase one. That amount does not include the funds already spent for planning and design or for the acquisition of the land.
Schuda said the total cost through the end of phase one will be $20 to $30 million, with a long-term cost of about $40 million when the entire site is developed.
“Our veterans will be able to be buried close to home. We’re proud of the fact that we have so many veterans from Washington County and southwestern Pennsylvania,” said county Commissioner J. Bracken Burns Sr.
The nearest veterans’ cemetery in the state is Indiantown Gap National Cemetery in central Pennsylvania.
Burns said the new cemetery will be an asset to the county by providing a destination for people doing genealogical research and for the family members of veterans who will come to pay their respects to their relatives.
It also provides a green space between development areas, Burns said, serving as an environmental buffer for future generations.
In 1999, the federal government ordered six new veterans’ cemeteries to be constructed in the areas with the most need. The Pittsburgh region was identified as one of those areas.
Schuda said the number of burials in veterans’ cemeteries has more than doubled since 1973, when the number stood at 36,400. That figure climbed to 84,800 in 2001, and it is expected to grow until it peaks in 2008 at an estimated 107,000 nationwide.
Schuda said the projections show the number staying above the current level until 2016.
Washington County human-services director George Krcelich said area veterans have been looking forward to having a local cemetery.
“This is something they had been waiting for. They didn’t feel they have been treated fairly, having to go all the way to Fort Indiantown Gap,” Krcelich said.
Veterans, their spouses and their dependent children are eligible for burial in VA cemeteries. The benefit includes a gravesite, opening and closing of the grave, perpetual care, a government headstone or marker, a grave liner, a burial flag and a presidential memorial certificate at no cost to the family.