Governor "Butch" Otter and other statewide elected officeholders who comprise the Idaho Land Board have approved a land transfer necessary to begin construction on an Idaho veterans cemetery in Blackfoot.
The Board unanimously agreed transferring forty acres from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to the Idaho Division of Veterans Services on Tuesday.
State and federal officials have spent several years considering various sites throughout eastern Idaho, trying to find a location for a second state veterans cemetery.
However, the Division of Veterans Services announced in December it had found a location in Blackfoot adjacent to a state mental hospital, known as State Hospital South. The vacant lot was being leased by the Department of Health and Welfare for agricultural production.
The cemetery project is expected to cost $8.3 million.
(by Associated Press)
