by Bradley Parsons
Staff writer
After scouting several locations for a new National Veterans’ Cemetery, the City is now focusing on a 1,000–acre parcel north of the airport, Councilwoman Faye Rustin said Friday.
Rustin said the airport site is emerging as a strong candidate from several possibilities including Cecil Field. The area, wedged between the airport and federal preserved lands bordering Timucuan Preserve, is desirable because of its close proximity to interstates 95 and 10 and because it could serve South Georgia as well as Northeast Florida. The City is looking for 1,000 to 1,500 developable acres.
“There are not that many parcels around with that much area available,” said Rustin. “The North Florida [airport] location offers several advantages, the main one being location. This is going to be a regional cemetery.”
Jacksonville received one of five new cemeteries to be built in the next four years. The federal government will pay the estimated $10 million construction cost and will fund maintenance after its opening.
Federal law gives veterans the right to be buried in a national or State cemetery within 75 miles of their home. That gives about 300,000 veterans the right to a military burial in Duval County.
Jacksonville became eligible for a cemetery after the 2000 census showed 189,000 veterans living in the City, up from 159,000 10 years earlier. The cemeteries are usually built in areas with more than 170,000 veterans.
Rustin said the City’s strong military ties made the area a natural for a veterans’ cemetery.
“It is of the utmost importance to recognize the need for this in our community,” said Rustin. “Those men and women who have served our country should know, and their family and friends should know, that without question there will be a final resting place befitting their service close to home and their sacrifice.”
The other areas granted cemeteries under the 2003 National Cemetery Expansion Act are: Southeastern Pennsylvania, serving Philadelphia and neighboring counties; Birmingham; Bakersfield, Calif.; and Greenville, S.C., which also serves Columbia and Charlotte.
Rustin said City planners still hold hope that a land donor will come forward. All the sites currently under consideration would require a procurement process that could slow the City’s progress. Atlanta’s cemetery received a large push forward recently when a land donor emerged.
Rustin said the Veterans Administration would come in January to Jacksonville to evaluate the project’s progress. She said the package presented to them would feature the airport site. The bill authorizing the cemeteries has passed the House of Representatives and the Senate and now awaits funding from a Senate appropriations bill.