Texas City Council to vote on resolution to put grass back at Fort Bliss National Cemetery

By Aaron Martinez

El Paso Times, Texas (MCT)

Published: November 1, 2014

(MCT)The El Paso City Council on Tuesday will discuss and vote on a resolution urging officials at Fort Bliss National Cemetery to replace the xeriscaping with grass and sod.

The efforts from city officials comes after U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, encouraged them to get involved in bringing grass back to the cemetery, city Rep. Cortney Niland said.

"The Congressman (O'Rourke) has asked if the city would draft a resolution for his initiative to turn the cemetery back to grass, which I feel would be very deserving to these brave veterans who served our county," Niland said. "They deserve a place to rest that is beautiful and when their families come to visit them, they can feel we have given them the respect they deserve."

Since the cemetery was xeriscaped in 2006, many veteran organizations and government officials, including O'Rourke and state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, have asked the National Cemetery Administration, who oversees Fort Bliss National Cemetery, to bring grass back.

"We are one of a very small number of cemeteries that are xeriscaped, in other words, they have sand and gravel instead of grass at our veterans' gravesites," O'Rourke said. "What I have heard most from veterans and widows, widowers and family members of veterans buried at Fort Bliss, is that they would like to once again have grass. They feel it is more befitting of a cemetery."

There are more than 50,000 people buried there.

Ame Callahan, director of the Fort Bliss National Cemetery, said the xeriscaping was installed in to help save water because it took about 62 million gallons of water to maintain the grass a year.

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Texas City Council to vote on resolution to put grass back at Fort Bliss National Cemetery