Grand Island will be home to state veterans cemetery by Spring 2025

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) - Veteran cemeteries in Nebraska are on opposite ends of the state, but that will change in the next few years. The Soldiers and Sailors Cemetery in Grand Island will become a veterans cemetery in the Spring of 2025.

The state is putting forth the eight million dollars needed to fund the effort. As of now, burials aren’t held at the cemetery. But in the past, it was only for those who lived in Grand Island’s Veteran Home. Now, it will be all veterans.

“We gotta have the expansion of the existing cemetery by 20 acres,” Don Shuda, Veterans Service Officer of Hall County, said. “So the trees will have to be removed that are there now. Take some of the farm ground from the farmer that’s using it. So we have to wait until after his crops are harvested. And then approximately 20 to 40 crypts will be buried in the ground.”

Shuda said money for the project came from the Nebraska Veterans Aid Program. They also intend allocate $750,000 of their own funds to incorporate a soft flowing waterfall at the intersection of Capital Avenue and Webb Road, along with a monument of a soldier presenting a flag to a fallen soldier’s love one.

“Grand Island is perfectly situated in the center of along Interstate 80, between Omaha and Fort McPherson,” Shuda said. “So when you travel to see your loved one, your veteran, your veteran who served our country, you don’t have to travel three hours one way to do that, to visit the loved one that served.”

Shuda said this is important for the veterans’ families. adding, a ground breaking will be held on Veteran’s Day, November 11. For some locals the veteran cemetery is all about honor.

“Honor his last wishes,” said Marilyn Lucas, Widow of Vietnam War veteran, Virgil Lucas. “He really wanted to be back in Nebraska to be buried in Nebraska and he was a veteran. He worked for the VA his entire life. Very veteran orientated so that’s where he belongs is in a veteran cemetery.”

Lucas said because she worked for government agencies in the past, that leaves her a little leery about the cemetery until the ground breaking. Her husband passed away six years ago and she is holding his ashes until the expansion of the cemetery is complete. Officials say the key to the project was getting the additional land back from the city of Grand Island.

“Well you gotta project out for at least 40 to 50 years of burial before the VA (veterans affair) will become involved in funding some of the cemetery construction cost,” said Shuda. “So we thought with 20 acres that met that requirement and so I think it’s appropriate size for the cemetery.”

Shuda said getting those 20 acres back allowed them to seek state and federal funds for the project. Once the project is complete, the additional land will triple the size of the cemetery taking it from 10 acres to 30 acres.