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June 9, 2020
LDVA VETERANS CEMETERIES TO RESUME COMMITTAL SERVICES, VETERANS PARISH SERVICE OFFICES REOPEN TO PUBLIC
BATON ROUGE, La.—Staff at the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs’ five veterans cemeteries will resume committal services effective today, Tuesday, June 9. For the safety of our veterans’ families and friends, as well as our LDVA employees, we will continue to follow all guidelines from the Louisiana Office of Public Health and the CDC.
In keeping with the guidelines, there will be limited seating in the committal shelter during services. Additionally, we will practice social distancing between individuals not from the same household in both seated and standing areas. All attendees and employees are required to wear face coverings. We encourage frequent use of hand sanitizer and ask that any individuals who are sick stay home. Families wishing to display floral arrangements on stands at the committal service may do so; however, all handling, placement and removal of the arrangements must be done by funeral home personnel or the family. Floral arrangements will not be transported by cemetery personnel to the gravesite at the time of interment. Families wishing to place a floral arrangement(s) (limit two) may do so after 4:30 p.m. on the day of interment or any time thereafter. These changes will be in effect until further notice. As a reminder, cemeteries will not accept floral arrangements for direct interments. If military services are unavailable in a certain area, veterans service organizations may be available to assist. Families may also choose to wait to have military honors at a later date.
Our cemeteries’ offices will also reopen on Tuesday, June 9 daily from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. For the safety of our veterans’ families and each cemetery’s employees, we will only allow one family in an office at a time and will require masks. If the office is occupied upon arrival, we ask that the family members wait outside or in their vehicle until we can assist them. If a family does not feel comfortable visiting our office in person, they can also call or email us for assistance.
In addition to our cemeteries’ offices, our veterans parish service offices are now open to the public. Many offices are open by appointment only, while others are only taking phone calls. Some remain closed due to building closures by local governments. For the safety of our veterans and the veterans assistance counselors, only one person is allowed per appointment, and masks are required. Please visit our website at vetaffairs.la.gov to use our Find Location feature in the upper right corner for specific information about your parish service office.
For more information about LDVA, visit vetaffairs.la.gov, email veteran@la.gov, call 225.219.5000 or follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
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