State To Purchase White Co Land For UC Veterans Cemetery

The State will move forward to purchase land in White County for an Upper Cumberland Veterans Cemetery.

Tilman Goins is the Department of Veterans Services Deputy Commissioner. He said putting a veterans cemetery in the region offers a huge veterans benefit.

“The burial benefit is obviously a big benefit to veterans and their families,” Goins said. “White County, and that whole region, is greatly under-served. White County, itself, is an at-risk county, and we estimate that seven of the distressed counties in Tennessee would be served by this request.”

The state first approved money for a veterans cemetery in the Upper Cumberland in 2018. The state’s goal of finding a site by a July 2019 deadline faced roadblocks including property prices and reneged land deals. A deal for 93-acres adjacent to I-40 in Cumberland County fell apart in April after the owner raised their original asking price.

Goins said even if land were purchased immediately, it will still take years to get the land ready to use. He said the department would have to seek funding to develop the property into a cemetery.

“Our budget request would need to be made on our end once the property acquisition is complete for 10-percent up front,” Goins said. “That is 100-percent reimbursable by the federal government. We can get on their grants list through a pre-application once the property is available before we would make that 10-percent request. But given the budget cycles don’t necessarily line up between us and the federal government, that adds a little more delay. Potentially, if everything went well, and the coronavirus outlook became better in the immediate future, we could potentially see something happening here within 4 or 5 years.

The Department of Veterans services has said it is the desire of both the state Veterans Service and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to have a cemetery within 75 miles of all citizens. Goins said making that a reality would benefit thousands of Upper Cumberland Veterans.

“If we took White County, and the counties surrounding it,” Goins said, “it reaches about 20,000 veterans, with a total service area of 50,000 veterans and their families in that 70-mile range.”

The Executive Subcommittee of the state’s Building Commission on Monday approved the purchase of 127.52 acres outside Sparta.