$600K Approved For Upper Cumberland State Veterans Cemetery

State lawmakers have passed a $37.5 billion dollar budget that includes $600,000 for constructing an Upper Cumberland State Veterans Cemetery.

Chuck Mateyka serves on the Upper Cumberland State Veterans Cemetery Association board.

“It’s definitely needed in the state of Tennessee and in our region of the Upper Cumberland,” Mateyka said. “We are very pleased that they have done this and we hope it will help expedite our project immensely.”

“We believe it will assist us in hopefully making a commitment for a piece of land much sooner than later,” Matekya said.

The land will more thank likely be in Overton, Putnam, or White County.

“It should be somewhere not too far from Cookeville,” Mateyka said. “That would be centrally located to support all the families of the Upper Cumberland.”

The Tennessee Department of Veterans Services established a committee to begin searching for sites for the cemetery in 2013. It would be the sixth veterans cemetery in the state. Work on the fifth being built just outside Jackson continues.

“We greatly appreciate the state legislature that worked hard to include this in the budget,” Mateyka said. ”

Local funds have already been raised to assist with the project. The state fiscal year begins in July.

The next UCSVCA board meeting will be held May 4th in Cookeville.

For more information on the project, you can visit the Upper Cumberland State Veterans Cemetery website.