Question: Last year commissioners voted to cut the veterans service officer back to 19 hours a week and add two part-time positions. What happened to that plan?

— Whitey Harwood

Answer: Despite voting to reduce Veteran Services Officer Elaine Howle from full time to 19 hours a week and add two part-time positions in October 2013, the county never followed through with that vote and, instead, hired an additional part time officer.

Commissioner Jon Barber, who voted against the original proposal, said that further discussion led the county to having two full-time veteran service officers rather than one. Barber said hiring another full-time employee was a recommendation from a regional authority that oversees Rowan County’s veterans service office. Barber said the change was prompted by an analysis of multiple factors including the workload volume.

Despite the earlier vote, Barber said hiring a second full-time officer was never talked about in public nor voted on. 

When asked, Barber said the change occurred during the later part of the 2014 fiscal year, which ended in June.

“It’s not to say that there hasn’t been any, but I have received no complaints or concerns,” Barber said about the veterans service office.

Howle and the new veterans service officer, Rick Johnson, receive $65,002 per year combined, according to county documents. The veterans service office runs on a budget of about $100,000, according to the county’s 2015 fiscal year budget.