State buys ‘an absolutely perfect place’ in Salcha as possible site of Interior Alaska State Veterans Cemetery
A long-running effort to develop a National Veterans Cemetery near Fairbanks may finally come to fruition. Two previous attempts to site a vets cemetery near Fox and Ester failed, due to permafrost and contamination issues. But a new proposal to locate one in Salcha appears to be on track. If funding is secured, construction could begin next year.
Former state lawmaker David Guttenberg says he began working on legislation to develop a new National Veterans Cemetery in 2005, soon after he learned that his longtime friend and Marine Corps veteran Rick Roethle had died.
“His widow, who was also a retired member of the service, came to me and said ‘Rick wanted to be buried here. And he couldn’t be buried here because there’s no vets cemetery here,’ ” Guttenberg said in an interview Monday.
That’s a common concern among the senior cohort of Alaska’s veterans who live in the Interior, says Hank Bartos, an Air Force veteran and senior who heads up a Fairbanks-based group called Veterans For Justice.
“People in this area that are like me, high mileage, don’t have to worry about where you’re going to be planted,” he said, “because we’ve got one of the best spots in the nation.”
'It's a great spot'
That 257-acre spot is located on a hilltop off Johnson Road, about 30 miles south of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway. Bartos recently told members of the North Pole City Council that Veterans for Justice located the site after checking out dozens of other parcels around Fairbanks.
It is an absolutely perfect place,” he said. “This overlooks the entire valley, the river -- y’know, it’s a great spot.”
Bartos said the state paid about $800,000 for the property in December, after the project had cleared the first hurdle toward qualifying for a $16 million federal grant to develop the cemetery.
“All we need is funding,” he added.
Bartos asked the North Pole Council last week to support the project, and in response it unanimously passed a resolution similar to one approved last month by the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly. State Office of Veterans Affairs Director Verdie Bowen says those expressions of public support are essential to qualifying for federal vet cemetery grants.
“The people up north are really supporting this project,” he said in a Monday phone interview.
Bowen says the federal Veterans Cemetery Grant Program may reimburse the state for the land, and it’ll pay for development of would be called the Interior Alaska State Veterans Cemetery. It would be the state’s fourth cemetery for vets -- the others are national cemeteries at Sitka and Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson, and a tribal cemetery in Metlakatla. He says if the Salcha cemetery gets a grant, the state would pay its estimated 1-million-dollar annual operating costs.
“It’ll be the first state-operated cemetery,” he said, “and it’s also going to be the one that is farthest north.”
Bowen says if all goes well and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs awards the grant, work could begin as early as next year. But he cautions that the grant program is strapped for cash due growing operational costs for existing veterans cemeteries around the country. So he’s been working with Alaska’s congressional delegation to support legislation to add some $200 million to the federal grant program.
“If they add more funds this year, then we have an opportunity,” he said. “If they don’t add more funds, then it most likely will be the following year.”
19,000 vets over age 65
The need is great, Bowen says. Alaska has about 69,000 veterans, by far the highest number per capita than any other state. He says about 19,000 of those vets are older than 65.
“That’s why it’s important to get this cemetery in place, before we really get hit with a large need,” he said.
Bowen thinks the prospects of state and federal funding for the Salcha cemetery project look more promising than any previous proposal. Guttenberg, the ex state representative who introduced three vet-cemetery measures that failed, hopes Bowen is right.
“These guys deserve more than we’ve given them,” he said. “It’s a moral obligation that we have, and we have not followed through.”
Guttenberg says he’ll be tracking the progress of this most recent effort to provide a final resting place for veterans who live in the Interior.
Editor's note: This story was revised to include the Metlakatla Veterans Cemetery to the list of vet cemeteries in Alaska.
