JENNINGS, La. (AP) - A $7.2 million federal grant is set to create a new veterans' cemetery in southwest Louisiana.

State Sen. Dan Morrish says the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs will provide another $1 million. Jennings Mayor Henry Guinn tells the American Press that people are eager to begin construction. The cemetery will be on a 12.6-acre (5-hectare) site near the Southwest Louisiana Veterans Home in Jennings.

The home's administrator, Matt Duhon, says it will serve all of Southwest Louisiana from the Texas border to the Atchafalaya basin up to Leesville, 80 miles (129 kilometers) from Jennings. U.S Sen. Bill Cassidy is a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. He says the area's only veterans' cemetery now is in Leesville.

Others are farther off in Keithville, Rayville, and Slidell.