The annual Veterans Day ceremony at Calverton National Cemetery has been canceled due to the federal government shutdown, the cemetery announced Wednesday.
The lapse in federal funding has made the cancellation unavoidable, the cemetery said in a statement posted on social media.
“At this juncture, even if the lapse in appropriations ended imminently the cemetery would no longer have the time necessary to prepare the grounds and procure the assets necessary to conduct a proper ceremony,” the cemetery said.
The cemetery remains open to visitors during daylight hours.
Committal services and interments continue at all national ceremonies during the shutdown, as do necessary administrative tasks, including determining eligibility for burial, scheduling burials and processing applications for headstones and markers.
Other activities and services are suspended during the shutdown, including grounds maintenance (mowing, trimming, mulching, or other landscape management) by National Cemetery Administration employees, installation of permanent headstones and markers, and other services. For more information visit the national Cemetery Administration page on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website.
In Riverhead, the annual Veterans Day ceremony will take place Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the World War I Memorial on the corner of West Main and Court streets. The ceremony takes place outside the Suffolk County Historical Society Museum.
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