The county board is considering drastic changes to the Veterans Service Office. They could place this office under control of the community services division. All this will accomplish is to create another level of supervision, there by requiring a lot of the new veteran service officers time be spent in bureaucratic meetings and will not be directly meeting the needs of veterans.
The veterans service office was created by direction of the state of Minnesota under the state constitution. All that is required of the county is to fund this office and not attempt to control the services to provide veterans the benefits they have earned.
Keep your hands off. Keep this office as it is under the direct control of the county board.
Please do not try to fix something that is not broken. They provide great service to many thousands of veterans. This office brings many millions of dollars into the economy of this county.
Do not hire a new service officer to be a politician to serve the board but to be a veteran himself to serve the veterans of crow wing county.
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I urge all veterans in the county to contact their board representatives and remind them that they were elected to serve the residents and not control them: Steve Barrows at 218-820-8199, Paul Koering at 218-851-9954, Bill Brekken at 218-232-0257, Rosemary Franzen at 218-829-8021 and Doug Houge at 218-330-0734.
Daryl Bahma
Brainerd
