Pvt Charles J Shutt Detachment VAVS

To expand burial capacity at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has picked a Massachusetts firm a design contract to develop additional space for the cemetery. (The VA office announced|Quote from the VA office}; "The expansion of Massachusetts National Cemetery will ensure the Veterans of this community continue to be honored for their military service," Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Steve Muro said. "A grateful nation provides this beautiful cemetery as a lasting tribute to their sacrifice and memory." The proposed work for $1.4 million was awarded to Cubellis, Inc. The design documents will be completed in late 2010 or early 2011. The 25-acre development is the third for the cemetery, which opened in 1980, and will provide another 10 years of burial spaces. It will have approximately 8,500 pre-placed crypts for casket burials, one thousand in-ground cremation final resting sites and 3,800 columbaria niches, also for cremation final resting. The completeproject also will include a new administration office area; a public information center with an electronic gravesite finder and public restrooms; a new maintenance facility; improvements of existing maintenance properties; systems for landscaping, signage, roads,irragation systems, and water distribution. In the middle of the biggest cemetery expansion since the Civil War, VA operates 128 national cemeteries in thirty-nine States and Puerto Rico and thirty-three soldiers' lots and monument sites. More than three million Americans, including US Armed forces'Veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA's national cemeteries. Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the Internet at www.cem.va.gov