Project to create national veterans cemetery moving at a snail’s pace

Over the past few months I have been involved in a project going back to 2007. That project was the establishment of a national veterans cemetery.

It started with the donation of 20 acres of county land to the south of town. A federal designation for a national cemetery was offered to the state and under Gov. Martinez was gifted to Colfax County when it was originally intended to be for Taos County. In an effort to rectify that situation, Francis Cordova sought and successfully obtained state funding to cover the expense of design and development of the cemetery to National standards in 2021. Just this year I assisted lobbying for the additional $3.5 million, which was delivered to Taos County this September to complete the cemetery. Now we are told that completion is scheduled in Spring 2024 due to what some call a “concrete shortage” but conversations with local concrete suppliers say this is not a viable excuse.

Our efforts have led us to contact our federal officials, and since the county has not transferred the final 19-plus acres for the minimum 40 acres for federal designation, they can’t sponsor legislation for that to happen. Our commissioners need to see that this occurs as soon as possible, especially in light of the recent Taos News article celebrating the 104th birthday of

Mr. DeHerrera of Costilla, a veteran survivor of Bataan.

We have been told that this is priority one, but it seems that concrete isn’t being ordered, work is proceeding at a tortoise pace and Mr. DeHerrera may not be able to wait that long. My concern is that designation of Federal Veteran Cemetery status takes approximately two fiscal years at a minimum. During that period, the county will have to provide the maintenance and operation costs, so it would be to their benefit to complete the project as soon as possible.

At the site, there is a fair amount of previously poured concrete that has been removed for failing to meet standards and has now been designated as a hazardous waste. Two questions that this raises are: Did the contractor repay the county for that expense, and who will be responsible for the final disposition of that concrete?

Are we the only ones that are questioning the slowness of this project? Why wasn’t there a required date of completion or communication to us as to a more specific explanation of the delays. We are veterans who have years of experience overcoming obstacles in our way. I realize those working on this project have many irons in the fire, so maybe those people should utilize the people working for them to make progress.

Thank you for hearing me out.