Ribbon cutting for new veterans affairs office held during annual program

Residents of The Shoals gathered at the Colbert County Courthouse on Nov. 11 for the annual American Legion Post 31 program honoring Veterans Day.

This year, the guest speaker was Brigadier General Jeffery Newton (retired), the commissioner of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs in Montgomery.

His primary mission is assisting the 400,000 Alabama veterans, their families and survivors to receive all benefits they are entitled to from the state and federal governments.

As part of his speech, Newton highlighted the new Veterans Service Office that will be opened soon on the second floor of the courthouse in Tuscumbia.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new office was held as part of the Veterans Day program.

“The new veterans service office here in Colbert County exemplifies the power of partnership,” Newton said. “It exists today because of collaboration between county leaders, local organizations and the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs all working together to serve veterans of northwest Alabama and give them access to resources, benefits and guidance they need.”

According to the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs, the new office represents ADVA’s ongoing mission to ensure that Alabama’s 400,000 veterans receive the benefits available to them.

ADVA’s 63 Veterans Service Offices serve as a vital link between veterans, their families and the benefits they’ve earned through service. Each office is staffed by dually accredited Veterans Service Officers who provide personal, one-on-one assistance at no cost.

“Our office advocates for the veterans of our state and their families,” Newton said. “Everything we do is guided by that mission. Everything we do is designed to support veterans in meaningful, lifechanging ways. Here in Alabama, we take that commitment seriously.”

The new Veterans Service Office is one of multiple efforts to improve services available to veterans in Colbert County over the past few years.

A new clinic for veterans was opened in Sheffield earlier this year, and before that a program called Veterans Court was enacted at the courthouse.

“When we started the veterans treatment court almost two years ago, a lot of our participants were having to go to Lauderdale County to get services from the VSO there,” said District Judge Chad Smith, who helped get the veterans court program brought to the county. “We reached out to Rep. Bubba Underwood, who reached out to the governor’s office, and they sent him to the state department of veterans affairs. They got the ball rolling.”

Smith said a lot of the participants in veterans court have received care at the new clinic.

“They can provide a lot of stuff in house so veterans don’t have to drive to Birmingham or Huntsville. It’s been great for the veterans court participants,” he said.