A layout for a long-planned veterans cemetery in Carlsbad has been revealed in a public meeting sponsored by the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services.
Local officials have been talking about the project for upwards of two decades, with the City of Carlsbad donating 4.5 acres in the northeast corner of the already existing cemetery, Sunset Gardens Memorial Park, located at 1406 E. Wood Avenue.
Upon completion, the Carlsbad project will be the final of four new veterans’ cemeteries in the state. The other three are in Angel Fire, Fort Stanton, and Gallup.
According to the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services, the cemeteries are in areas with “large, underserved veteran populations who live too far from the two national veterans’ cemeteries in the state.”
Those national cemeteries are the Santa Fe National Cemetery and the Fort Bayard National Cemetery.
Construction of the new cemeteries was earlier bolstered by $600,000 in state funds approved by the New Mexico State Legislature. Additional funding has also been secured through the VA Veterans Cemetery Grants Program.
Work on the Carlsbad cemetery is expected to begin sometime in 2023.
By Garry Boulard
