Sam Haut, Delaware Live, veteran cemetery

Veterans cemeteries want permission to move benches at will

Sam HautGovernment, Headlines

Sam Haut, Delaware Live

These donated benches are arranged in an arc beneath a shady tree at the New Castle County Veterans cemetery. Photo by Sam Haut.

Donated benches at the Veterans cemeteries in New Castle and Sussex Counties can’t be moved without permission from the General Assembly.

That’s become an issue at the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in New Castle County, which has grown since benches were put there and now are not evenly distributed through the cemetery.

Miranda Mal, communications officer with the Delaware Office of Veterans Services,  said many people visiting the cemetery have mobility issues and would benefit from not having to walk long distances.

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Eugene Bradley, a commission member, who mostly deals with the Sussex cemetery, said he doesn’t believe they have had any issues with benches there. They are mostly installed along the roadway and spaced about 50 feet apart.

Bradley said that the commission is not sure which benches New Castle County cemetery may want to move.

Sam Haut, Delaware Live

This bench is one of the donated ones at the Delaware Veterans Memorial Cemetery in New Castle County. Photo by Sam Haut.

Benches are often donated by families and located near a loved one’s gravesite, he said. 

“That was one of the issues,” he said.

Delaware code says that “no plaque or memorial will be removed or relocated for any purpose without the approval of the co-chairs of the Joint Legislative Committee on the Capital Improvement Program.”

Now the Commission of Veterans Affairs is considering adding to its legislative agenda a proposed law that would give the cemeteries autonomy over where benches are placed.

Veteran memorials

Mal said there are only three reasons items such as benches, trees, markers, flags, quilts or artwork, are moved.

Those include providing better access, health and safety reasons or making them more aesthetically pleasing.

The cemetery is no longer accepting donations of benches, but will still take donations of either brass leaf plates or paving stones.

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