VETERANS MAKE CEMETERY PITCH; INTEREST VOICED AT LOCAL MEETING

The Cape Girardeau Veterans Council and about 40 veterans expressed interest in getting a state-run cemetery for veterans in Cape Girardeau County during a meeting Tuesday attended by the executive director of the Missouri Veterans' Commission.

The council, made up of members of veterans organizations in Cape Girardeau and Jackson, has been unsuccessful in a search for land for a cemetery. Even so, the group wants the state commission to consider Cape Girardeau County as a site for the regional cemetery.

"We believe Cape Girardeau is a logical location for the Southeast Missouri site," said Charles Woodford, chairman of the local veterans council. "It behooves us as a committee to get this rolling."

Robert R. Buckner, executive director of the commission, answered questions related to the cemetery selection process during the meeting at the Missouri Veterans' Home.

The commission was authorized by law in 1996 to create a system of state cemeteries so that the majority of veterans in Missouri would live within 75 miles of a veterans cemetery. It is accepting site proposals from interested communities in the southeast and northeast regions of the state through July 1.

Sites already have been selected in the southwest and west-central parts of the state. Those cemeteries will be built at Springfield and Higginsville.

Each cemetery will cost about $3.5 million to construct and $350,000 annually to maintain, said Buckner. Funding for the projects will come from $90 million in riverboat-gambling admission fees expected to be collected by the state by July.

A prime cemetery site would be capable of serving a region for at least 20 years and meet all state and federal regulations, he said. The commission will give chief consideration to those communities that donate land for the burial plots, administration buildings, committal shelters, and roadways and walking trails, although the state will pay for land if necessary, he said.

About 40 acres of usable property will be needed, but smaller site proposals will be considered, said Buckner.

"We want these to be real nice places of repose for veterans," said Buckner. "We're not going to try and do this on a shoestring. If we're going to have veterans cemeteries we're going to make it a beautiful place of honor."

Woodford said the council has considered several sites in the county, including two area parks, but "everything's turned to dust." The council has approached the Cape Girardeau County Commission about donating its Klaus Park as a cemetery site, and the city of Jackson has been approached about its Brookside Park, where a veterans monument stands.

No decision has been made on either request, he said.

Buckner said Cape Girardeau and Poplar Bluff have the densest populations of veterans in Southeast Missouri. The council still has about four months to find a viable site.

"The only thing we've received is a letter of intent from Bloomfield," said Buckner. "Interested communities still have plenty of time before the July 1 deadline to submit a proposal."