TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded funding of up to $642,322 for the expansion of Kansas Veterans’ Cemetery at Fort Dodge. The funding, provided through the Veterans Cemetery Grants Program (VCGP), will go toward the construction of columbarium niches that will enable this interment option to be provided for a projected ten additional years. The funding will also go toward landscaping and irrigation for the expansion site.

“The Kansas Veterans’ Cemetery at Fort Dodge provides a final resting place for soldiers and their families who have bravely served our nation and defended our freedoms,” Governor Kelly said. “This funding will ensure that all who are interred there are appropriately honored and have a place where their legacies can live on.”

The Kansas Veterans’ Cemetery at Fort Dodge was established in 2002. It expanded the Kansas Soldiers Home Cemetery, which was part of the Kansas Soldier’s Home at Fort Dodge, erected in 1890. Fort Dodge was an Army post in 1864.

“This funding is vital to ensuring veterans’ wishes are met, and we are able to honor them and their service with a final resting place at Fort Dodge,” said Heidi Goff, cemetery director, Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs Office.

The cemetery currently serves more than 6,000 Veterans and their eligible family members.

Since its inception in 1978, the VCGP has provided more than $1 billion to establish, expand, improve, and maintain 122 state, territorial, and tribal Veterans cemeteries.