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Lewis County Veterans Hoping For Expansion of Relief Fund Capabilities

The Chronicle - 8/28/2018

Aug. 28--The Lewis County Veterans Relief Fund finished the 2017 fiscal year with about an $80,000 surplus, or close to 45 percent of its annual budget.

On the surface, that may appear to be a shining example of fiscal responsibility, but for a fund that's used to provide emergency rental assistance, food, gas and burial expenses for local veterans, it spells out a problem.

A seven-person Lewis County Veterans Advisory Board is hosting a summit for Lewis County veterans and their families, as well as community members, from 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 21 at the Lewis County Veterans Museum in Chehalis.

"Lewis County uses property tax dollars and money from timber sales for the fund," said George Dodd, who works for Lewis County Veterans Services run out of the county Department of Health. "It's a fund paid for by Lewis County residents, so the funds have to stay in the county and be used for veterans."

But in 2016, legislators overwhelmingly passed a bill that, for the purposes of qualifying for veterans' assistance funding, changed the definition of "veteran." It includes active service members who have served in an armed conflict and members of the Armed Forces Reserves or National Guard who received honorable or medical discharges after fulfilling their military service obligations.

Counties can also provide funds to veterans who received a general discharge under honorable conditions or a medical discharge. Those who left the military for other reasons are not eligible unless they have a service-related disability recognized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

"Those individuals could be the ones we need to target to use the funds," Dodd said. "We're talking and thinking about expanding it, but they're trying to determine things like if someone who was in the military for six months and got an other than honorable discharge, if that person should be eligible for assistance."

Counties can choose to extend eligibility to more veterans, such as those who were discharged for misconduct. The Lewis County Board of County Commissioners has the power to take up the issue and is expected to do so in the near future.

Commissioner Edna Fund said the Veterans Relief Fund will come up for discussion as part of county budget talks that are set to begin next month. Members of the veterans advisory board will weigh in and make recommendations to the BOCC.

"We do have that reserve in there, which is good to have," Fund said. "I know on a national level, there's been a lot of concern about veterans who are homeless and what we can do about that."

The BOCC took a proactive step on Monday when it approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs that will allow Dodd to receive the training required to become a Veterans Services Officer accredited by the state.

Doing so will let Dodd gain access to the federal Deptartment of Veterans Affairs online interface to file claims on behalf of veterans seeking benefits or disability funds. Those claims will be processed more quickly and accurately than the paper ones he currently sends in.

Helping Dodd become a VSO will allow the state to track the claims he submits and monitor their progress as well as how they're resolved.

"We'll be able to track everything and report back to the county about the outcomes of his work," said Steve Gill, an Administrator for Veterans Services at the Washington Department of Veterans Affairs. "We want to be able to capture if George helps 100 veterans file disability claims and the majority are approved, the payments being made to assist veterans and their family members in Lewis County. This gives us an ability to collaborate in ways we didn't have before."

Representatives from federal, state and local agencies will be on hand at the Sept. 21 meeting to present on various topics and take part in discussions about what improvements can be made to local veterans' services.

The hope is that getting all of the stakeholders in the same room will not only help decide where to target VRF funds in the short term, but also help find ways to better reach veterans using county resources.

"We'll be there to hear where we're lacking and to see if we can provide those services," Dodd said. "That's why we're having this summit, to see if we need to expand in order to use the funds as much and as best we can."

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