Senate passes Marr’s veterans cemetery proposal for Spokane

OLYMPIA – Answering long-standing requests from veterans in Eastern Washington, the Senate today approved legislation by Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane, to create a veterans cemetery in the Spokane area.

Senate Bill 5058 passed the Senate on a 48-to-0 vote, with one member excused, and now moves to the House of Representatives for consideration. If it passes the House, Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign it into law.

“This fills a fundamental commitment to our friends and neighbors who have sacrificed so much for all of us,” Marr said. “Our veterans on this side of the Cascades will have a resting place of proper recognition and respect, in a location more accessible by their survivors and other loved ones.”

SB 5058 would create a state veterans cemetery in the Spokane area comparable to Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, to serve the nearly 140,000 veterans and their families living in Eastern Washington, including 53,000 in Spokane County. Although Kent’s is a national cemetery, and the veteran population in the Spokane area is too small to meet requirements for a federal cemetery of its own, Marr’s proposal would use primarily federal funds to build the state veterans cemetery.

Except for $450,000 to purchase land, all construction funds for the cemetery would be reimbursed by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs. VA provides grants to build veterans cemeteries within 100 miles of major metropolitan areas. The cemetery would be maintained through a combination of state, federal and local funds, including proceeds from the sale of armed forces license plates.

The governor has included $7.8 million in her 2007-09 capital budget plus $926,000 in her operating budget to fund such a cemetery.

The Washington Department of Veterans Affairs is considering two sites: McFarland Road near Fairchild Air Force Base and Salnave Road off Interstate 90 near Medical Lake.

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