Cumberland Times-News

Local News

January 22, 2013

Cemetery at Rocky Gap to get funds

O’Malley’s budget includes money for new Allegany High

Matthew Bieniek Cumberland Times-News

CUMBERLAND — Funding for several building projects is on the way from the state if Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposed budget is approved by lawmakers.

Among the funding highlights are money for a new Allegany High School and additions to the veteran’s cemetery at Rocky Gap.

Being removed from the long-term capital budget is a plan to add a minimum security facility at Western Correctional Institution.

The funding for the veterans cemetery is set for 2015-17, “to provide additional burial capacity,” according to budget remarks.

In 2015, $400,000 of state funds will be designated for the expansion. In 2016, an additional $2.35 million in federal funds will be added for the project.

The plan is to develop more gravesites by adding pre-placed crypts, in-ground cremain sites and above-ground columbaria units, according to the language of the budget.

A cremain site provides a burial spot for cremated remains and a columbaria provides a space to place an urn containing cremated remains.

The change will help veterans’ families to have space for their loved ones’ remains. The exact number of new burial spaces available was not announced.

The cemetery is 27 acres within Rocky Gap State Park, according to state officials. More than 2,800 veterans and their dependents are interred at the cemetery.

The cemetery has approximately 13,700 burial sites available, according to the cemetery website.

Every year for the last five years, more than 3,000 veterans and their beneficiaries were buried in state cemeteries in Maryland — the most of any state in the nation, according to the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs.

The budget also includes money for various school projects, including $750,000 for a new Allegany High School for fiscal year 2014. Additional requests of more than $27 million in the future are noted in the budget.

Removed from the 2015-17 budget was a planned 280-bed minimum security facility at the Western Correctional Institution.

The project was removed for re-evaluation because of the reorganization of the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com. Capital News Service contributed to this report.                                                                                                                                                                  

Text Only
Local News
  • Taking the fifth Taking the fifth

    The Internal Revenue Service official at the center of the storm over the agency’s targeting of conservative groups told Congress on Wednesday that she had done nothing wrong in the episode, and then invoked her constitutional right to refuse to answer lawmakers’ questions.

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Rocky Gap casino opens

    The newly christened Rocky Gap Casino Resort has opened its doors to the public.

    May 22, 2013

  • Frostburg officials OK 2014 budget

    The Frostburg mayor and city council have voted to adopt a $9.7 million budget for fiscal year 2014 and to keep open an alley that many citizens feared would be closed.

    May 22, 2013

  • Driveway artist Driveway artist

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Okla. tornado may have caused more than $2B in damage

    The tornado that struck an Oklahoma City suburb this week may have created $2 billion or more in damage as it tore through as many as 13,000 homes, multiple schools and a hospital, officials said Wednesday as they gave the first detailed account of the devastation.

    May 22, 2013

  • Somerset-to-Meyersdale U.S. Route 219 sends its last permit

    The final permit is on the way for a Somerset-to-Meyersdale U.S. Route 219 improvement project to begin.

    May 22, 2013

  • JOHN DELANEY Delaney introduces an initiative for a national infrastructure bank

    Freshman U.S. Rep. John Delaney on Wednesday rolled out his signature legislative initiative for his first term — a plan for a national infrastructure bank that requires no federal appropriations.

    May 22, 2013 1 Photo

  • Fireball spotted over Maryland

    A bright light seen traveling across the sky over the weekend by dozens of witnesses across Maryland and the region is what astronomers are calling a fragmenting meteoric fireball.

    May 22, 2013

  • 6th annual DelFest has arrived, bigger than ever 6th annual DelFest has arrived, bigger than ever

    Thirty national recording artists are preparing to step into the Cumberland spotlight this weekend at the Allegany County Fairgrounds as DelFest rolls into town for its sixth annual musical festival.

    May 22, 2013 2 Photos

  • Keyser woman organizing opposition to proposed housing complex

    Barbara Hartman, who lives near Pine Swamp Road, said she doesn’t want Bayridge Green built near her and is trying to do something about it.

    May 22, 2013