City and State Leaders Tour Proposed Site for Veterans Cemetery in Augusta

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AUGUSTA, Georgia (WJBF) — A 20-year-old project is moving forward.

“We were able to push this project so far that it would be on the VA’s funding priority list,” said Bob Young.

Former Augusta Mayor Bob Young has worked for years to establish a veterans cemetery in Augusta.

“It’s important for our community with a veteran population of 66,000 to be able to meet this need,” Young said.

On Thursday, he was joined by city leaders and Georgia’s new commissioner of veterans services, to tour the proposed 200-acre cemetery property in Gracewood.

“Veterans will be buried here for generations. For over a hundred years there will be active funerals,” Young said.

The state project has received a lot of local support, but now has federal help from Veterans Services Commissioner Patricia Ross.

“Having such a large military population here in Augusta, it just seems logical that it would be an advantage that would be very viable and usable in this very military friendly city,” Ross said.

Young said that although the project was not funded for this year, the application will be postponed until next year.

In the meantime, they are trying to secure funds in the federal budget.

“We decided to go a parallel route by seeking an allocation through Senator Warnock’s office to secure line-item funding in the federal budget for the State Veterans Cemetery in Augusta,” Young said.

Its estimated that the project would cost around $10 million.

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