The Veterans Administration has awarded a $23.3 million contract to a suburban Rochester company for development of the long-delayed veterans cemetery in Pembroke.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer announced that Global Urban Enterprise, located in Victor in Ontario County, and other subcontractors will begin construction of Phase 1A of the Western New York National Veterans Cemetery.
It was 2010 when the VA announced it would establish a new veterans cemetery in Western New York. However, there have been continuing delays in the project. Schumer said he urged the VA to make this project a top priority.
“This contract and the cemetery’s construction soon getting underway helps guarantee Western New York’s military veterans will have a proper burial, at a site close to the homes, families and the very communities they dedicated their lives to defend and serve,” Schumer said.
Schumer said he remains steadfast in securing another $10 million in this year's federal budget to complete the cemetery.
The 132-acre Pembroke site on Indian Falls Road in Genesee County is planned to serve more than 96,000 veterans and family members in the Buffalo and Rochester areas. Currently, the nearest such cemetery is in Bath, NY.
