Granby Selectboard hears veterans’ district proposal
GRANBY – A proposal to create a veterans’ services district with the five communities of Granby, Hadley, South Hadley, Holyoke and Amherst was presented to the Selectboard by South Hadley Veterans’ Services Director Mike Slater and Holyoke Veterans’ Services Director Jesus Pereira.
While the Selectboard didn’t take a vote on the matter, they were asked to provide an answer by later October or early November.
The district would allow for veterans’ services officer or director to be able to get accredited, which isn’t possible for the current officer, Dave Mendoza, because he doesn’t work enough hours. Slater said the district would allow for greater funds from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“Granby is currently pulling in $201,000 a month. When you look at the census data for the veteran population, there’s the ability to look at service connecting and finding another benefit through the VA for 210 more residents that are veterans,” he said. “There’s a potential to bring in another $330,000 a month to Granby.”
Pereira spoke to the Board as well, stating that the structure of the department was suiting the needs of the veterans in the city.
“We had about 75 families in the chapter 115 program, we were putting out roughly $400,000 a year in that program through accreditation from the VA. So, everyone in my office is currently accredited with the VA to have us have access to the VA data,” he said.
By helping these families, Pereira said they were able to reduce the number of families in that program from 75 to 23. Holyoke has three full-time employees in the veterans’ services department, and being part of the district would allow Granby residents to have access to those officials, too.
Slater said using the district model would allow for Granby veterans and surviving spouses to be able to contact an officer five days a week compared to the six hours that the current veterans services officer provides.
Selectboard member Crystal Dufresne asked what would happen to the current VSO under the district model.
“The VSOs would be consolidated under one officer under a host community, which is currently being negotiated, ideally it would be Holyoke or South Hadley that would be administrating all of the HR and IT support,” Slater said.
He said Granby would pay a bill to South Hadley for veterans’ services office access, which would be staffed five days a week. Appointments would still be possible, for those who needed them.
Currently, the town budgets $23,000 a year for its veteran’s services and it would be proposed the town would need to increase that to about $32,300, based on veteran population, according to Slater.
Locally, Northampton has a district of 12 communities and there are several districts throughout the state.
Granby Veterans’ Services Officer Jeff Roule said the town has seen four VSOs in the last four years and the trend will continue because of part-time work.
“I think we owe it to our veterans to have that continuity of a district where even though a piece might leave, the district stays,” he said. “So, our veterans will always be serviced.”
