Gracewood site ’perfect’ for state veteran cemetery in Augusta

Approximately 200 acres on the Gracewood Hospital campus is the target site for Georgia's latest state veterans ceremony.

The project would cost the city nothing and has long been a dream of former Augusta Mayor Bob Young, who spoke this week with Forces United Deputy Director Don Clark to Augusta commissioners about the status of the project.

Young said the effort now has support from several veterans groups, the General Assembly and members of Congress. Last week, Mike Roby, the commissioner of Georgia Veteran Services, visited the site, he said.

After the visit, Roby "promised Augusta's request would be at the top of their agenda," Young said, with approval likely in "weeks, rather than months."

Veterans office staff said Gracewood's unused acreage is "a perfect site" for the cemetery, he said.

With its ease of access, "interments would be done at a faster rate than at Glennville and Milledgeville," Young said.

Augusta would be Georgia's third state veteran cemetery, joining sites in Glennville and Milledgeville. Canton and Marietta, Ga., are home to national veteran cemeteries.

Augusta's only contribution is organizing resources for the project, including choosing a site, Young said, but the state must provide up to $1 million in seed money for the cemetery to be reimbursed with federal grants.

State approval does not guarantee state funding, and the budget approved last month by Gov. Brian Kemp cut $2.2 billion in spending to address state revenue drops due to COVID-19.

Clark said it is important to remember Augusta won't be responsible for funding or maintaining the cemetery.

"Again, so that no one misinterprets this effort, this will be a state cemetery. This wouldn't be a cemetery that the city would run or anything like that," he said.

Most city-owned cemeteries are in disrepair, including the historic Cedar Grove and Magnolia cemeteries.

Moving forward, maintaining support for the project is critical, and needs support from Kemp.

"The main thing going forward is that they understand the support is overwhelming from the region as a whole," Clark said.

The population at Gracewood, a hospital and intermediate care center for people with developmental disabilities, is shrinking as the state de-institutionalizes residents and returns them to the general population. The facility sits on 420 acres off Tobacco Road near Peach Orchard Road.