New York Senator Charles Schumer and leaders of local veterans groups gathered Monday in Pembroke in Genesee County for an update on plans for a new veterans cemetery.
Schumer says they are pushing for that cemetery to be named after a decorated war hero and Buffalo native William Donovan. Donovan served at a Lieutenant Colonel in World War One and eventually went on to found the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA.
Schumer is also pushing to get the Department of Veterans Affairs to purchase an adjacent 60-acre property which would give the new cemetery a chance to expand. He says buying that tract of land would increase the size of the cemetery closer to the 200 acres the VA was originally seeking.
Schumer says the cemetery will save thousands of military families from having to travel upward of 100 miles to visit their loved ones graves at what is now the closest veterans’ cemetery in Bath, in Steuben County.
The senator says there are over 300,000 now living in Western New York that could be served by this cemetery.
