Overton VSO Going Full-Time In New Fiscal Year

Overton County’s Veterans Service Officer will be going full-time once the county finalizes its annual budget.

Veterans Service Officer Roxanne Sidwell said the number of veterans needing her services doubled in the past year. Sidwell said the extra hours will allow her to properly support their growing veteran population and handle the large increase in work that entails.

“There’s a lot more to it than just seeing them face-to-face,” Sidwell said. “There’s some research that needs to be done with their records, their medical records been looked through, their service treatment records of when they were in, and research some things and stuff like that that I – I can’t do a lot of times though, right now as part-time.”

Sidwell said she believes the increase in veterans’ needs is due to a combination of new veterans moving into the area and old veterans discovering the different benefits they can receive through the office. She said she will be able to stay informed and tell the veterans she is working with when any new benefits or changes to the system come about thanks to the additional hours.

“Of course, I would love to have all the veterans in Overton County come see me and help them with their benefits as well,” Sidwell said.

Sidwell said she asked County Executive Steven Barlow for the change to full-time because of how much she was working.

“Working past the time, you know, I was supposed to leave most days just to try and get things done and not feeling like I could ever get caught up, like I said, on the research part,” Sidwell said.

Sidwell said the change has been approved by the county commission, but she cannot start working full-time until they approve the latest annual budget.