Plans advance for Tri-Cities Veterans Cemetery. Learn more at town hall
Tri-Citians can learn more about plans to transform a farm circle in Richland into Washington’s third veterans cemetery at an upcoming town hall meeting.
The Washington Department of Veterans Affairs identified a 140-acre site at Horn Rapids and Snively Road in far northwestern Richland as one of its top picks in 2024.
The city of Richland, which owns the property, signed off on a no-cost transfer last summer.
The town hall will give an update on the next steps to establish a Tri-Cities Veterans Cemetery and begins at 2 p.m., March 25, at the Richland Readiness Center, 2555 First St., in the Horn Rapids area.
The state began working to site a new cemetery nearly a decade ago amid rising need for a final resting place for those who served.
The Tri-Cities emerged as a top priority because it is home to an estimated 46,000 veterans and their families and is hours away from the two existing military cemeteries in Washington.
Tahoma National Cemetery is in Kent, near Seattle. The Washington State Veterans Cemetery opened in 2010 in Medical Lake, near Fairchild Air Force Base. It has expanded several times and accommodate nearly 1,000 services in 2023.
Veterans cemeteries are a low-cost option for veterans and their families. Generally, all who served in uniform and were discharged “under conditions other than dishonorable,” are eligible, along with their spouses and dependent children.
The state department of veterans affairs will apply for a federal grant to fund 90% of the cost.
The proposed location is sandwiched between Highway 240 and the Yakima River. It would support about 400 internments a year and would serve as a focal point for memorial and other veteran-related activities.
The effort to site a cemetery in the Tri-Cities was led by former West Richland City Councilwoman May Hays and Shirley Schmunk, a Gold Star mother.
Schmunk’s son, Army Spc. Jeremiah W. Schmunk, died July 8, 2004, when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Trii-Cities Veterans Cemetery and other state operated facilities would complement the 135 national cemeteries across the U.S.