Plans are moving ahead for the “Iowa Veterans Cemetery” that’ll be located just of Interstate-80 near Van Meter in central Iowa. The executive director of the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, Patrick Palmersheim, says they hope to have an architectural and engineering firm on board by January. Palmersheim says they raised some 85 to 90-thousand dollars for the project by selling veteran’s medallions.He says hopefully they have enough money. Palmersheim says the legislature let them borrow 500-thousand dollars in “up front” money and the federal government will pay the remaining seven million dollars. Palmersheim says construction could be started around this time next year. He says they hope to break ground late next fall, but he says a lot depends on getting the federal paperwork and approval completed.Palmersheim says they expect to get a lot of interest from veterans and their families. He says the Veterans Administration stats anticipate two burials a day. He says in a 75-mile radius of Des Moines they have 92-thousand veterans. Palmersheim says the first burial should happen in the fall of 2007.
