Focus: Mellgren Is At Your Service

Good morning and welcome to Focus. I’m Terry James and we are joined by Dennis Mellgren and Dennis is with the Veteran Assistance Commission of Mercer County. Hello Dennis.

Hi Terry, how are we doing? Doing pretty good. You were just going through with me some of the many things you have here but first what is the mission statement of the Veterans Assistance Commission? We are here to promote the welfare of all honorably discharged veterans of the military service and their families through maximizing all possible benefits through effective dynamic advocacy and by serving as a central office for all veterans residing in Mercer County. All right, very good.

So it’s a comprehensive mission statement. It covers a lot of things. Let’s dive into what you do.

Veteran Assistance. Well first there’s a VA and VAC. What’s the difference? Well the VA is for federal on the federal level and the VAC is the local point of contact and we file the claims while the Veterans Affairs VA determines who’s eligible for compensation or money or services.

Sounds good. You were telling me about the three different levels of Veteran Assistance. Yeah, well we service about 1,400 veterans in Mercer County and like I said there’s three different domains and we’ve got the federal, state, and the local.

And so the federal, okay, we file claims for disability compensation, review current earned benefits for the veterans which includes health care, education, burial, and re-employment benefits. We submit appeals of wrongly denied claims to the Board of Veterans Appeals. Our office is staffed with an accredited VSO or a veteran service officer.

Rachel is one of those and myself who are available to help all veterans in the courthouse during the courthouse hours. Now on the state side we are supported by the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. Steve Burnett comes up from Galesburg.

He comes to our office on the first and third Thursdays to assist us with license, claims, pensions, and appeals. Now on the county side, that’s us the VAC, our duty is to provide consistent services and assistance to the eligible veterans and their widows and widowers. Our commission is comprised of delegates and alternates from our five local or different veterans organizations.

I like to name those. Of course we have the American Legion. We have a post 121 from Aledo.

We have post 1166 from Reynolds American Legion. We have a post 1971 out in Eliza and post 189 in Lexus. And we have one VFW post in Mercer County.

It’s here in Aledo. It’s post 1571. Now since we’re a governmental unit operated by and for the U.S. veterans and their spouses, the VAC is authorized to act as a central committee for veterans assistance in Mercer County under the Illinois Military Veterans Assistance Act.

And we provide the following emergency monetary assistance. It basically is for food, shelter, and fuel. Helping a lot of veterans, Dennis, if they come to you and they need that type of assistance, you’ll be able to get them some help? We’ll send them to the place they need to go.

We’ll fill out the applications for them. So far this year, we’ve given out over $10,000 of monetary assistance to veterans here in Mercer County. And I’d like to give a big shout out to our local businesses that really support us.

One is Mercer Market. They help us with the food items. And other is Blick and Blick Oil.

They help us with the fuel items and that. So we’ve got arrangements to pay and all that stuff. We help veterans and spouses file claims on their behalf for any exposure events.

And that’s like the old Agent Orange. You know, you hear about Vietnam, that injury sustained while in service. If the VA approves their claims, the vet can receive monthly pensions, reliefs on property taxes, free hunting and fishing license, vehicle registrations.

You see the license plates got veterans on it, burial and plot allowances. We provide for veterans free health care and prescriptions and much, much more. Dennis, that’s really great.

I wanted to ask you, not every county has a Veterans Assistance Commission, right? We’re about halfway through. I think they got about 54, 55 VACs out of 102 counties in the state. So Mercer County is very fortunate that we have it.

We are. And we’re ahead of the ball for a lot of them because we got with Rachel being an accredited VSO, she’s able to delve into the VA system and she’s all qualified. And, you know, so she can tap into that system to see how your claims coming along and she can get to your records and that, you know, but she’s ready to go.

All right. And easy to come see her here. Second floor of the Mercer County Courthouse up here.

And she’s also a notary public. So if you have any notary services, you can do that. But, you know, what we do have, we house all the registered Mercer County DD-214s, which is the proof of service.

And every veteran that gets out, they have a DD-214. And that’s what we, they verify their service. Somebody just can’t walk in and say, hey, I’m a veteran.

I need this or that. They have to have that 214 until we can start anything. We help our veterans and their families apply for VA scholarships through the Illinois and local veterans groups.

They have scholarships, but I do want to touch on one of the most important or most popular functions of our office, the van transportation program. We coordinate the van transportation to a VA hospital in Iowa City. And then we also take people or veterans to the VA clinic in Galesburg and Davenport.

We have a brand new van, which is housed out at the Mercer County Sheriff’s office. And as of 20, excuse me, September 30th, 2024, I’d like to share, these are the facts about the program, the van program. We’ve taken 79 trips.

The drivers have tallied up 512 and a quarter hours, volunteer hours. They traveled over 11,898 miles, and we transported 86 veterans in the course of the last 10 months. We currently have eight dedicated drivers.

And of course, we’re always looking for more. So if anyone out there is interested to drive, just let us know. Come on up to the office and we’ll get you signed up.

So in a nutshell, our office is here to serve our local veterans. So spread the word. That’s what we’re here.

Absolutely. And Dennis, real quick here as we end up, you’ve got a thank you to the community and some upcoming events. Yeah, well, first of all, I’d like to say thank you to the community for supporting all the pork chop fries and the flag retirement ceremonies.

We have fish fries and of course our bingo and just to name a few, some soup suppers and things like that. And also, I’d like to highlight some upcoming events here before Veterans Day. On Saturday, November 2nd, the Veterans Appreciation Dinner is down to VFW here in Aledo.

The social starts at 5, I think dinner’s at 6. And we can get tickets up at our office or talk to Don Greer. I think you’ve talked to him on Focus before. Sunday on November 10th, Reynolds American Legion is having a soup dinner from 11 to 2 over their legion post.

Happy birthday Marine Corps. Yes, that’s right. And then on Monday on 11th, on Veterans Day, the Veterans Day breakfast is being held at Mercer, excuse me, Messiah Lutheran Church here in Aledo at 830.

All veterans and their spouses are invited to attend. And we promise it will be done by the time to get to the parade. OK.

And then, of course, I mentioned the parade, Veterans Day parade goes through downtown Aledo, ends up at the VFW at the program, and then they’re going to serve a light lunch there. And then in the afternoon, if you’re not full enough yet, you can go down to the Eliza American Legion post 1971. They’re having their annual fish fry from 4 to 7 over the Eliza Community Center.

You can either get drive-through or dine-ins available. So if you like catfish dinner, you’re welcome to do that. One last thing I’d like to tell you, though, I’d like to thank all the community for their support, but I’d also like to encourage all the veterans to become affiliated or be involved with one of our local posts.

There is strength in numbers for the advocacy of the veteran. So I just, you know, I know there’s a lot of things going on, a lot of clubs to belong to, but it is an important, you know, when they come up and say, oh, you’re a veteran, and then what we can do for them and that. So we, if they, you know, I think everyone’s willing, you know, all the numbers are dwindling in all clubs, but it’s a very important one, the American Legion.

All right, Dennis Mellgren. Boy, I should get you on the radio. You really can get those words out, can’t you? Yes, I can talk.

We appreciate you, though, and all the stuff that you do here. Dennis, what’s your phone number so people can call if they need to? 582-2714 or option three to get to the office up here. And friendly folks there in the Veterans Assistance Commission office.

It’s at the end of the hallway, second floor. What room number? Room six. All right.

The Treasurer’s office. Right next to the Treasurer’s office. Dennis Mellgren, thank you so much.

Hey, thank you. And this has been Focus.