A new veterans cemetery may be built in northwest Rio Rancho, on a just under 340-acre site just to the south of U.S. Route 550 and east of Northwest Loop Road. The site is currently undeveloped and vacant.
The project has been long discussed, with New Mexico Department of Veterans Affairs officials worried that the two existing National Cemetery Administration cemeteries in the state are going to run out of space in the next decade.
Those two existing cemeteries are located 200 Camino De Paz in Fort Bayard and 501 North Guadalupe Street in Santa Fe. The Fort Bayard cemetery was established in 1930, while the Santa Fe cemetery dates to the years after the Civil War.
The proposed Rio Rancho site is currently owned by the New Mexico State Land Office. To acquire that site, the Veterans Affairs Department will have to bid on it in a public auction conducted by the Land Office.
If the State Land Office agrees to proceed with the sale, a notice of public auction would be published at least 10 weeks before the actual auction is held. According to reports, the bidding for the property would start at $2.3 million.
There are currently 155 national veterans’ cemeteries in 42 states and Puerto Rico. Two of those cemeteries are in Arizona, 3 in Colorado, and 6 in Texas.
By Garry Boulard
