Staff moves to permanent building
By Melissa Murphy
Posted: 09/09/2009
Sacramento Valley National Cemetery Director Dean Moline stands in front of the recently opened administration and visitor's center at the cemetery (Rick Roach / The Reporter)
The quiet serenity at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery will soon return now that construction on a new administration building is complete at the site.
For three years cemetery staff have been working out of temporary buildings and using a temporary shelter to hold services at the cemetery that sits off of Midway Road between Dixon and Vacaville.
Last week, however, the staffers were able to move into a new permanent administration building on the site. The temporary buildings will be taken down and landscape will fill their place.
Opening the cemetery before the permanent building was in place has given families a much needed option, according to cemetery Director Dean Moline.
"If we waited, we wouldn't have a burial option in the area," he said and added that the cemetery has now served 5,000 families at the site.
Gravel entry roads are now paved, the entry gate is complete and there is paved parking as well.
A permanent committal service shelter is also finished.
Gravel roads that led to the temporary buildings will eventually disappear under new grass, Moline said.
He added that all construction should be finished by December.
The cemetery is the seventh national cemetery built in California and the 124th in the national cemetery system. Its 561 acres will serve veterans' needs for the next 50 years, officials said.
