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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

N. Idaho veterans cemetery awaits OK

Betsy Z. Russell Staff writer

BOISE – A new veterans cemetery big enough for up to 15,000 burials would be built in the Coeur d’Alene area under the budget Gov. Butch Otter proposed to lawmakers this week.

Idaho is in line for a $10.5 million federal grant to pay for the cemetery, which could open in roughly five years. State lawmakers just have to give their OK to spend that federal money when they consider the state Veterans Services budget.

“The veterans groups up there all support it, and I support it,” said Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, who serves on the Legislature’s joint budget committee.

Idaho has one veterans cemetery, but it’s in Boise. It opened in November 2004, as Idaho became the last state to open a veterans cemetery. The exact location for the North Idaho project hasn’t been selected, but Sara Nye, budget analyst for Otter’s Division of Financial Management, said several publicly owned sites in the “greater Coeur d’Alene area” are being considered.

“It would be 40 to 50 acres of land, depending on where it was,” she said. “The initial request this year is spending authority for $10.5 million in federal funds, and then, at some point, the state would have to pick up some of the annual operating cost. That would be down the road.”

She said once the facility opens, operating costs could be about $200,000 a year.

Idaho’s congressional delegation has strongly supported the state’s bid for the federal funds, Nye said, and Otter was involved in the effort when he was in Congress.

“The key thing right now they’re waiting for is to make sure the (state) appropriation goes through,” Nye said.

Rich Cesler, director of the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery, said veterans have been writing letters for months in support of the project. “We do have a large body of our legislators who are in support of proceeding,” he said.

Idaho’s current veterans cemetery in the Boise area already is the burial place for 905 veterans and their spouses. It also houses memorial plaques or remembrances for another 49 veterans.

Henderson said, “I do know there’s a unanimous desire by the veterans groups in North Idaho to have a cemetery in the north, so that it’s convenient to those family members whose relatives would be buried there.” He added, “We’re excited about the possibility. It’s a way to honor those veterans.”