The Washington State Veterans Cemetery at Medical Lake was dedicated at 10:30 a.m. Monday as part of a Memorial Day ceremony.

Governor Chris Gregoire and First Mike were in attendance, as well as U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Director of State Cemetery Grants Frank Salvas and WDVA director John E. Lee.

Richard Cesler, veterans cemetery director for the new facility, and Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs hosted the event, and Washington veterans and their families attended the dedication.

"The dedication of the Washington State Veterans Cemetery at Medical Lake has been a much-anticipated event for more than 140,000 veterans and their families in eastern Washington," Lee said in a release. "It is truly fitting to be able to have this event on Memorial Day, a day of remembrance for our fallen heroes."

The ceremony featured a presentation of wreaths, and a speech by guest speaker Col. Robert Thomas, 92nd Air Refueling Wing commander at Fairchild Air Force Base.

The ceremony closed with a flyover from an aircraft out of Fairchild AFB.

First interments at the cemetery are expected to take place beginning June 7 with the initial capacity for 10,700 and ultimate capacity of 70,000.

The 120-acre cemetery features a covered, open-air structure for committal services, a visitor's center, a computer system for locating specific graves or interments and an assembly area for special occasions, such as Memorial Day observances. The State Veterans Cemetery provides for in-ground casket burial sites and cremation interments, columbarium niches and a scattering garden for cremation interments.

The 2007 State Legislature approved the Eastern Washington State Veterans Cemetery budget and House Bill 1292, authorizing WDVA to establish the cemetery.

The Federal VA State Cemetery Grant Program provides 100 percent of the funding needed to build and fully equip veterans' cemeteries in areas of the country where veteran populations fall below the threshold for constructing National Veterans Cemeteries. When construction is complete, the state assumes responsibility for the Cemetery's ongoing operation and maintenance.