Blaine Allinder – 10/22/09

This page was last updated on October 22, 2009.

Commissioners put politics over vets; Blaine Allinder; Beaver County Times; October 22, 2009.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“The Beaver County Commissioners have been messing around with the Beaver County Veterans Affairs office.

“One year ago, Bill Muns retired, and it took almost nine months to fill the position. Then, one of the women in the office took early retirement.

“That means the office is down from four to two employees. The commissioners promised to fill the opening with a full-timer.

“Last month, these two employees handled more than 1,100 claims in office or over the phone. That’s a lot for two people to handle.

“If the commissioners would cut the row offices by 50 percent, eliminate one of the three commissioners’ posts and halve their secretarial staff — none have been touched — the budget problem would be solved.

“But we know that won’t happen because too many political jobs might be hurt, and that isn’t going to be a good move.

“There are about 19,000 veterans in Beaver County. It is time for all veterans to stand up and let the bosses of Beaver County know we are not going to take it anymore. Come election time, that’s 19,000 votes times two.

“E-mail or call their office and let them know how we stand.”

[RWC] I know nothing about how the VA is supposed to work, so keep that in mind for the following. I took a quick look at the Beaver County Veterans Affairs website and it seems this office does what I would expect the VA to do. If this is correct, why do we have county veterans affairs offices at all?