Fort Ord veterans cemetery seeks bids

The effort to find the company who will build the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery has begun.

In Monday's edition of The Herald, the state Department of Veterans Affairs advertised for bids for the cemetery, which it estimates will cost $6.3 million and take 525 work days to complete.

Prospective bidders must attend the mandatory pre-bid meeting and site inspection tour July 9 at the Fort Ord Reuse Authority office in Marina.

The advertisement said the work involves labor, demolition, excavation, earthwork, storm water pollution prevention planning, monitoring for unexploded munitions, building fences, concrete, asphalt paving, electrical wiring and transformers, interior and exterior lighting, landscaping, installation of PG&E infrastructure and AT&T substructure, improvements to Parker Flats Road and more.

The bid opening will take place July 30 in Sacramento.

Organizers are on a tight Aug. 24 deadline for a $6.7 million grant to be approved, which has been complicated by some environmentalists protesting the environmental review process through comments to the state Department of General Services.

They said the state should complete a much longer environmental impact report, or EIR, as opposed to the environmental assessment the state produced. Although, they have stopped short of saying they will pursue legal action.

Fort Ord veterans cemetery comment period pushed back

Source: CA Department of Veterans Affairs

Those interested in the state Department of Veterans Affairs' environmental assessment for the Fort Ord veterans cemetery will now have six more days to comment.

The last day to comment on the Central Coast Veterans Cemetery assessment is now July 18.

The change was the result of the assessment accidentally being shipped to the San Francisco City and County Clerk instead of the Monterey County Clerk-Recorder, according to State Sen. Bill Monning's office.

You can view it online here.

I read the whole 629 pages because I am insane. Trust me on this one: You are probably better served reading a copy at the Seaside Library at 550 Harcourt Ave. or the Marina library at 190 Seaside Circle.

Reading it on an iPad isn't bad, but I found printing it out (I only did that for about 100 pages) was the best.

Some environmentalists plan to ask the state to complete a much-longer environmental impact report. More on that story as it develops.

To comment:

Email: environmental@dgs.ca.gov

Or by mail: 

Valerie Namba, Senior environmental planner
Californian Department of General Services
RESD-Environmental Services
P.O. Box 989052 (MS 502)
West Sacramento, CA 95798-9052