Governor: Not ‘quite done yet’ on Angel Fire vets’ cemetery
Sangre De Cristo Chronicle
By: Gabriel Weinstein
July 2, 2014
http://www.sangrechronicle.com/articles/2014/07/03/news/doc53b43a8b78669215727718.txt
ANGEL FIRE—Governor Susana Martinez quickly understood why veterans from around the country have asked about being buried at the proposed veterans cemetery in Angel Fire when she saw the mountains and sweeping vistas that surround the property. The combination of Angel Fire’s scenic beauty and history of supporting veterans make it an ideal location for a cemetery she said.
“It is the perfect place for this cemetery,” Martinez told the crowd at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial State Park, Monday (June 30) underneath a sunny sky.
But before any shovels break ground she emphasized many things must happen. The state has submitted its applications for four proposed veterans cemeteries in Angel Fire, Carlsbad, Fort Stanton and Gallup to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Now it is up to the VA to decide whether it will provide the funding to construct the cemeteries during the next fiscal year.
“We aren’t quite done yet,” she said. “There is still a long way to go. We need each and every one of you. Even the little ones. We need your help,”
Martinez said that the VA has received hundreds of applications from cemetery sites around the country similar to the one proposed in Angel Fire. The VA will review the applications over the next few months and decide whether to provide funding that would enable the state to go ahead with construction later next year.
Timothy Hale, Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services, said he expects the VA to announce which cemeteries it will provide funding for in October or November. If funding for the Angel Fire cemetery is approved, Hale said construction could start in early 2015.
“If our preliminary data is right we could move pretty quickly on this process,” Hale said.
Both Hale and Martinez told the crowd it is essential that they write to legislators expressing the importance of having a veterans cemetery in Angel Fire.
“We want every single person that you know to write a letter to your local newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal, to any newspaper in the state,” Martinez said. “But more importantly to write to our federal representatives. Let them know how important this is. Let them know this land has been donated and can expand right here in Angel Fire. Let them know this is a perfect, perfect resting place for our heroes.”
Now that the application for Angel Fire’s cemetery has been submitted, village officials are working closely with the state on preparing the planning and design of the cemetery Martinez said.
Martinez first introduced her veterans cemetery initative in July 2013. The goal of the initiative was to reduce the distance the state’s veterans and veterans’ family members had to drive to visit a veterans cemetery. The cemetery in Angel Fire will serve 21,000 residents that live in Taos, Raton, Angel Fire and other communities in the northeastern quadrant of the state Hale said.
Area real estate developers Stan Samuels and Harry Patterson donated 10 acres just south of the memorial for the cemetery to the village of Angel Fire, which then donated the land to the state.
The New Mexico Legislature approved $600,000, 10 percent of the cemeteries’ cost, in seed money as a down payment to the VA for the cemeteries. The state can recover that money through the grants. The VA will pay for the four cemeteries, which are each estimated to cost $1.5 million.
The state plans on having up to two full time employees working at the cemetery and will pay the maintenance and upkeep costs of the cemeteries as well.