Group prepares to break ground at VA cemetery on West Plains

The Eastern Washington Veterans Cemetery governance committee met last week to discuss the groundbreaking ceremony and some of the standards to set before the cemetery is open for business.

“We’re well on the way on the design,” said Gratton Sealock, the chair of the committee.

The groundbreaking will be Memorial Day, May 25, at 1 p.m. just north of West Medical Lake at Espanola and Ritchey Roads. The committee recommends attendees come early or car pool, since parking will be limited.

“Our only parking (will be) along both sides of Ritchey Road,” said Rich Cesler, the director of the cemetery.

It will be the first veterans cemetery in Eastern Washington. When opened, any veteran can be buried in the cemetery, and the family won’t have to pay burial fees. The cemetery will provide a concrete liner, a committal shelter for the funeral service and a memorial stone.

Cesler said he expects up to 1,000 people at the groundbreaking and already borrowed a large stage from Fairchild Air Force Base for the occasion.

“We’re excited about it,” said Lourdes Alvarado-Ramos, the deputy director of Veterans Affairs.

“It’s not all that far away,” Sealock said.

The cemetery is expected to open in May 2010.

Along with the groundbreaking activities, the committee also discussed standards for headstones in the section of the cemetery where cremains will be interred.

Cesler said that at military cemeteries, it is expected that all upright headstones should be level and perpendicular to the ground.

“This is what you expect to see,” Cesler said of the headstones, referring to a photograph of another military cemetery. Over time, the ground around the headstones tends to settle, making the headstones look crooked. In order to fix the problem, the headstone must be reset in the ground.

The area of each plot in the in-ground cremains section of the cemetery is 4 feet by 4 feet, an area that is small and hard to mow in the summer months. Cesler said that if upright headstones are chosen, workers will have to hand trim around each individual headstone.

Cesler then showed the committee a picture of the Tahoma National Cemetery, where the headstones lay flat in the ground. The area would be easier to mow and the sprinklers wouldn’t have to be up high to get around the headstones.

The committee was given the task of advising the state as to what stone they would like to see in this area of the cemetery.

Committee member James Johnson said he would prefer to have upright headstones there, a spot that is closest to the road leading to the cemetery.

“When you drive by, there is no doubt in your mind that this is a cemetery,” Johnson said.

Other members argued that the standards at national military cemeteries seem to be going toward the upright stones. Some members mentioned that in the winter it would be difficult to find flat markers under the snow.

“They come to us, we will assist them,” said Cesler, who said each plot will be connected to global positioning system coordinates.

The committee voted seven members to five for upright stones, and Sealock said he will write the state an opposing position since the vote was so close.