U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer is seeking nearly $5 million in federal funding to expand burial capacity and improve safety, accessibility and infrastructure at the New York State Veterans Cemetery – Finger Lakes in Romulus.
The proposal includes $3 million for a new entrance and gateway and more than $2 million through two pending Department of Veterans Affairs grants for 300 additional burial crypts and other improvements.
Schumer is pursuing the $3 million through the fiscal 2027 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The entrance project would add lighting and signage and create a safer, more clearly defined route into the Seneca County cemetery.
Schumer's office said the current entrance is functionally obsolete and does not provide adequately safe, secure or accessible entry. Many visitors are older adults, including surviving spouses and siblings who may have mobility limitations.
The two VA grant applications would fund the new burial spaces, stormwater work, fencing, navigation signs and lighting. The money would also be used to raise, realign, clean and rehabilitate headstones.
The cemetery occupies part of the former Sampson military installation, which opened as a U.S. Naval Training Station in 1942 and later served as Sampson College and an Air Force basic training center. It is open to eligible veterans, spouses and children and includes 33 interred Purple Heart recipients connected to the Sampson installations.
The cemetery became New York's first state veterans cemetery in 2023 after receiving $3.9 million in federal support. That designation made it eligible for future grants through the VA Veterans Cemetery Grants Program.
The new appropriations request and the two VA applications still require federal approval.
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