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Subject: Cherry Lane Cemetery/Veterans/part 2
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 08:34:35 EDT
Re: Cherry Lane Cemetery, Springfield, MA. Union News/MassLive.com April 5,
2001.
Roberta Cyr
Springfield, MA.
Union News-Sunday Republican
OPEN HOUSE AND DEDICATION SLATED FOR VETERANS CEMETERY
Thursday, April 5, 2001
By KEN ROSS AGAWAM — Plans to begin burials next month at the new
Massachusetts Veterans Cemetery on Main Street remain on schedule, according
to officials. "We're coming right along," Robert C. McKean said yesterday.
McKean serves as director of state Veterans Memorial Cemeteries, which is
part of the state Department of Veterans Services. The first state-operated
veterans cemetery is accepting reservations to intern deceased veterans in
the cemetery, McKean said. The cemetery plans to begin burying the remains of
veterans in late May. Before then, the cemetery will hold an open house April
22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A formal dedication ceremony will be held May 21,
McKean said. The public is invited to attend both events. When completed, the
$7.2 million, federally funded cemetery will have room for 40,000 to 45,000
burial plots, McKean said. Currently, 21 acres of the 60 acre cemetery have
been developed. Scattered throughout the unfinished cemetery, 2,241 concrete
vaults have already been placed underground to hold caskets for one or two
people, McKean said. There is also room underground for the cremated remains
of 1,350 people. Above ground, a brick wall built atop a hill visible from
the entrance will be able to hold the remains of 955 cremated people.
Meanwhile, officials also hope to move the remains of three Revolutionary War
veterans and one Civil War veteran from Springfield's Cherry Lane Cemetery
into the new veterans cemetery. The four veterans might be the first interned
in the cemetery. But first, officials must obtain permission from relatives
of the long-deceased veterans, something officials are still trying to do,
according to Daniel M. Walsh III, director of veteran services for the City
of Springfield. If officials obtain permission, the four veterans would be
interred at the new cemetery May 23, Walsh said. Officials want to move the
four veterans to the new cemetery since the cemetery where they are currently
buried "has a history of falling into disrepair," Walsh said. The new
veterans cemetery in Agawam will serve the westernmost part of the state's
veterans' population, their families and loved ones. A second state-operated
veterans cemetery will be built in Winchendon. That cemetery is scheduled to
open in 2003, McKean said. Until now, the only Veterans Cemetery in the state
was a federal cemetery in Bourne on Cape Cod. © 2001 UNION-NEWS. Used w
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