JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- After years of delays, construction of the Bloomfield State Veterans Cemetery is slated to begin in early May.

The state last week awarded a $5.2 million contract to MJC Constructors of St. Jacob, Ill., to build the cemetery.

Ron Taylor, the Missouri Veterans Commission superintendent of services and cemeteries, said he expects work to start no later than May 15.

"Within the next couple weeks, you will see people on the site and things starting to happen," Taylor said.

The project is scheduled for completion within 14 months, meaning it should be open for burials in the summer of 2003.

The cemetery will be located just south of Bloomfield and adjacent to the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library on a 65-acre site off of Highway 25.

Although a state project, it is being entirely funded with federal money through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Harold Coots of the state Division of Design and Construction, which awarded the bid and will oversee the project, said he will meet with the contractor next week to ensure all state requirements are being met. Assuming no problems result, Coots said MJC will be cleared to begin work as soon as it is ready.

The MJC official in charge of the project was out of the office Thursday and couldn't be reached for comment concerning how quickly the company anticipates assembling the necessary labor, equipment and materials to begin.

Originally, the Bloomfield cemetery and another in Jacksonville in northern Missouri were to be completed in late 1999, along with the state's first two cemeteries. Those facilities, in Springfield and Higginsville, are currently open.

For a variety of reasons, most significantly delays in winning design approval from the VA and securing federal funding, the Bloomfield and Jackson projects were repeatedly postponed.

No other state veterans cemeteries are planned.

Sites for the four facilities were chosen so 90 percent of Missouri's resident veterans would live within 75 miles of a veterans cemetery. Barring a major war, the state system should accommodate veteran burials for the next 80 to 100 years.

To be eligible for internment, a veteran must have been honorably discharged from the service and have lived in Missouri for minimum of six months at any point in his or her life. There is no cost to veteran or their family.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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