County Board Considers Veterans Issues

SCHOHARIE COUNTY — Matters involving those who served our country got a lot of attention at a recent Schoharie County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The BOS at its March 20 meeting heard about a change in the top county veterans-related job, and considered ideas from Marine Corps veteran and Homeward Bound Deputy Director Jason Redmond on bolstering help and services for local veterans.

County Administrator Bryan Best explained to the board the change from Director of Veterans Affairs to Director of Veterans Services and bringing the new position in under the Office for the Aging Department instead of leaving it as its own Department.

"In short, our talented Veterans Department Director left about a month ago, providing us an opportunity to review and improve the department's services," Best added in an email to this newspaper after the meeting. "Instead of maintaining a department with only one staff member, we determined it would be more efficient to merge it with another department to provide much needed administrative support and better utilize resources. Specifically, we want our Director to focus on providing direct services to our veterans rather than having to handle so much clerical work that the former Director was doing."

Office for the Aging was chosen because it "shares a similar directive; helping clients navigate support systems to access earned benefits," Best continued. "There was clear overlap between the two offices, and this move will help streamline our offerings. From the public's perspective, there should be no noticeable difference. In fact, we hope to expand our services."

Best added the county is now seeking a person for the renamed position. At the initial suggestion of Supervisor Earl VanWormer of Esperance, the BOS agreed to increase the starting salary for the new Director from around $48,000 to $54,072. That should help attract more and better candidates, VanWormer reasoned.

"Previously, the Director position was a non-union Grade 15, starting at $54,943," Best explained in the email. "The former Director was earning $65,530 due to her long tenure with the county; she was at the top of the salary range. The position is now a CSEA Grade 15, starting at $54,072, very comparable to the previous structure."

Redmond and fellow veteran Greg Furlong, founder of the Leatherstocking Honor Flight that flies local veterans to Washington, D.C. every year to view monuments and participate in other things honoring veterans, spoke during Privilege of the Floor at the March 20 county BOS meeting.

Among many other points, they said there is a gap in Schoharie County regarding peer-to-peer counseling and help for veterans, meaning one veteran counseling and helping another.

"Helping other veterans is therapeutic," said Furlong, who is also a Homeward Bound board member. "I can't stress enough the peer-to-peer model of helping veterans."

In a brief telephone conversation after the March 20 meeting, Redmond explained that if the county sends out Requests for Proposals for an outside organization to administer the Joseph P. Dwyer Veterans Peer Support Program for the county, he plans to have Homeward Bound submit a proposal and hopefully be awarded a contract to run the program.

He added the county receives about $104,000 a year in funding for the Dwyer program. If Homeward Bound is chosen to run it, he said the organization would use about $93,600 of that funding to run the program and the county would keep the remaining 10 percent for administrative and other costs.

Redmond said at the March 20 meeting that Homeward Bound could "leverage that money with our in-kind resources, and employ a local peer-to-peer at a salary of $40,000 a year....We would be able to bring to bear all of those resources and leverage our existing resources and relationships with the VA Veterans Medical Center in order to help Schoharie County vets and their families."

Working to prevent suicides among veterans would also be part of it, Redmond continued. The suicide rate is higher for veterans than for non-vets, he said.

"It's about wrapping as much care as possible around them (veterans)," Redmond said at the March 20 meeting. "We'll do outings, retreats, meals, canoe trips. We will work to reintegrate vets as much as possible into the community."

Schoharie County Director of Community Services Sarah Nies told the two veterans "Thank You for the presentation, it was wonderful. We can't promise anything because of the nature of the dollars, but Thank You so much."

Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Federice added his words of appreciation.

"Thank You for your service, but beyond that, Thank You for your service beyond your service," he said.