Veterans and Services

Question: Veterans in the City of Gardner have gotten quite an upgrade over the past few years as far as services to the point where other communities are involved as well. Tell us about that.

Answer: So we’ve expanded our Veterans Services Department here in Gardner to have not only the City of Gardner serviced here in our Veterans Service Department, but also the towns of Ashburnham, Westminster, Winchendon, Princeton, and Ashby with another municipality, Hubbardston, also interested in joining. We’re currently in talks with that there too. And really what that does is has increased the staff that we’re able to have in our Veterans Service Department to make sure that we are covering everything we need and everyone has the services that they are looking for at the right time, especially when it comes to navigating things like VA claims or Chapter 115 claims, which is the Veterans Benefits locally for prescriptions, financial benefits, funeral benefits, and everything in between. Those are cumbersome processes, so to be able to have the professional staff here that we’re able to do to offer that not only to the residents here in Gardner, but to the area communities where that had previously only been offered on a part-time, limited-hour basis, now to make that a full-time basis that anyone can call here and get those services, it’s really just, it’s not about, it’s not a moneymaker for the city, it’s something to make sure that the veteran community has the resources that they deserve for the benefits that they’ve already earned as a thank you for their service. So being able to be that main force in the region there when it comes to Veterans Services is something that I’m very proud that we’ve been able to have here in Gardner and make it so that we’ve become the veterans service hub for the north central, north quadrant region to be able to help make it so that anytime a veteran has an issue, there’s someone on the other side of that phone that’s there that they can talk to.