Racine County veterans' cemetery expands with $4 million grant

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A veterans’ cemetery in Racine County will soon get bigger, thanks to a $4 million federal grant.

More than 6,500 veterans and family members are buried at the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove.

And organizers say the new Veterans’ Administration grant will accommodate two-thousand more burial plots for caskets and urns, plus 3,500 crypts.

Twenty-two more acres will be developed on a site that totals 105 acres.

The project also includes a new scattering garden. Cemetery director Marian Lewandowski says it will be an environmentally-friendly area where remains will be buried directly without containers.

About 40 percent of those who are buried at Union Grove were cremated, and 60 percent are in traditional caskets. The cemetery has been open since 1996.

Tags: racine county, veterans cemetery, federal grant, wisconsin