New York’s first state veterans cemetery will be located at the site of the former Sampson Naval Training Station and Sampson Air Force Base in Romulus, Seneca County.
The location of Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery was announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Memorial Day. The site was selected by a nine-member state-appointed committee, according to a release.
The committee met on May 17 and again on May 24 and selected Sampson by an 8-0 vote, with one member absent for the vote.
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"We are forever indebted to the brave New Yorkers who served our nation in uniform and made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can continue to live freely and safely, and we will never forget their contributions to society," Cuomo said..
New York is one of only a few states nationwide that does not have a state veterans cemetery. Until recently, state law mandated an administrative process that involved setting aside 15 years' worth of perpetual care costs prior to moving forward with the site selection process. Earlier this year, Cuomo reached an agreement with the legislature and signed a law streamlining the process and reducing unnecessary barriers to the establishment of a state veterans cemetery.
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Sampson Veterans Memorial Cemetery is situated on 162 acres along the eastern shore of Seneca Lake in New York's Finger Lakes region. The cemetery is located on what was formerly the Sampson Naval Training Station and Sampson Air Force Base, where hundreds of thousands of servicemembers were trained during World War II and the Korean War.
The site also served thousands more as a temporary college and as a separation center for service member discharges before the base's official closure in 2000. The cemetery is also located a short distance from Waterloo, recognized across the country as the birthplace of the Memorial Day holiday.
Sampson is already a functioning veterans cemetery that operates in accordance with federal veterans cemetery standards. An initial 15 acres of the site have already been developed, providing for 6,000 planned grave sites and columbarium niches.
The full site provides the capacity to ultimately accommodate more than 80,000 grave sites.
“Having a state veterans cemetery will provide a dignified, state-owned final resting place that honors our veterans for their service to our state and nation,” said New York State Division of Veterans' Services Executive Deputy Director Joel Evans.
Cuomo announced his commitment to establish New York's first state veterans cemetery on Veterans Day 2019 and included the goal in his 2020 State of the State agenda.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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