Veterans Work To Secure Land Purchase For Cemetery

A local veterans organization hopes to secure land for an Upper Cumberland State Veterans Cemetery by the end of the year.

Donna Fare chairs the Upper Cumberland State Veterans Cemetery Association.

“We have several people in the Department of Veterans Services that have worked with us on this project and may be leaving for retirement or other positions and of course, the governor will no longer be in office,” Fare said. “We will have new leadership at the state level and we would like to get the land purchased prior to those changes in leadership.”

Fare said the State of Tennessee Real Estate Asset Management (STREAM) group has taken charge of finding the land.

“They (STREAM) work really close with the Department of Veterans Services in Nashville to make sure the land meets the requirements for a veterans cemetery,” Fare said. “We are really excited that they are actively looking at land since there is now money in the coffers to purchase the property.”

Fare said the state’s 2018-2019 fiscal year budget includes $600,000 to help purchase land for a veterans cemetery in the Upper Cumberland and the association has raised an additional $170,000.

“We don’t know how much the land is going to cost, but we are going to need between 75 and 100 acres,” Fare said. “That will ensure that we have about 50 years of potential land for veterans to be buried in the Upper Cumberland.”

Fare said the land for the cemetery must be positioned where no family member would have to travel more than 75 miles to a veterans cemetery.

“We’re the last area in Tennessee that does not have that requirement met,” Fare said. “If you look at the 14 counties of the Upper Cumberland, the middle part of that area is part of DeKalb, Putnam, White, and Cumberland Counties.”

Once the state purchases the land, the National Cemetery Association will be heavily involved with the construction of the cemetery.