UVLC Agenda June 6, 2007
• Call to order by the Chairman, Jerry Kyser
• Invocation- Richard Jenkins, State Commander DAV
• Pledge of Allegiance
• Recognition of visitors and guests and Commander’s of VSO’s. Happy birthday was sung to Sid
Schmuckler. It was Sid’s 90 birthday on the 30th of May. Jerry passed around a card for everyone
to sign in recognition of this very special event.
• Reports from:
1. Chairman, Jerry Kyser ––
Legislative agenda is complete. Let’s press on until the next time. 1st Vice Chairman, Ralph Donais-We need to figure out what we can do to get some news media. Try to help us figure this out.
2. State Agencies
• MN Dept of Veteran Affairs-Mike Pugliese-Special guest: Mr Yang is affiliated with theMn HH Humpfrey Foundation for a year of non-degree study. This study will aid China on how to develop a relationship with their veterans. Mr Yang expressed his gratitude for giving him a chance to attend this meeting. Thank you for the effort during the legislative session. As the result of your efforts we have had over 100% growth in funding. Christine: Mn Dept of Vet Affairs 2007 Legislative Wrap Up handout was distributed at the meeting. 141% growth toward our dept budget. Tax bill was vetoed. Charitable gambling was vetoed. Comment-thank you to Christine for this information
that was sent out to everyone. Pat Turgeon- There will be an increase in the media later in the week for the WWII Dedication Ceremony. Currently there will be 77 buses. June 9th is the date. www.mdva.state.mn.us There are two shuttle parking spots in the twin cities that can be found on the website. One is at the State fairgrounds. Everything is going very well. Fairground is Open to everyone. Bill was passed for matching funds. Over 40,000 in in-kind donations. $180,000+ has been brought in from successful fundraising. The time of the event is 10-4:45. Registration tents and the VA will all be there. Everything is in one area. Salvation Army will be there with donuts and coffee.
All lots have been reserved for that day. Shuttles will be picking up people from each lot. 5,000 chairs will be available. The flyover will be the largest number of WWII Aircraft over St Paul in thirty years. (12) T-6 Texans (3) P-51 Mustangs (3) B-25 Mitchell Bombers. The loud noise will be the “Sound of Freedom.” At 4:30 there will be the missing man formation. The Aircraft will be taking off from Anoka Co Airport.
• MN Military Affairs – Trish Baker-by mid June they will be coming back by the end of July. Transfer of authority. 100% back on station by the end of July. 40-50 different community level events for the troops. 1,000 more soldiers are going out the door at that time. Flying into Fort McCoy. Reintegration will occur at there. The return of the troops will be posted on the website. Arrival at McCoy will be tracked. Military Affairs will notify the armed forces center so that the airport will be ready to receive them.
• MN Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV)- Kara Cornils- Very successful Standdown and Military Expo. The number of providers was excellent. 90 volunteers. 6,000 people came through the gates. MACV got $750,000 for their program budget this year.
• Other Agencies- National American Council of the blind is having their convention. The Hyatt Regency will host the conference. Bob Smith is the contact person. They are in need of volunteers.
3. Federal Agencies
• VA Regional Office-Andrea Waltos began the beginning of March. Last meeting Jeff talked about additional employees. Thirty will be hired by the end of June. The service managers on the pension side will be attending a meeting in Washington.
• VISN 23 – Continue to work 1650 to 900 waiting list. Our goal is that everyone can get access within 30 days. Two hundred more health providers have been hired. Emergent problems are screened the same day. Returning soldiers additional training. 46 members attended training in May about providing health care to the retuning veterans. Brain injury screening has had a very positive response. Working on outreach. 07 budget includes 41million to improve our structure.
• Mpls VA Hospital – It was a very successful groundbreaking ceremony to the spinal cord injury complex. They are gearing up for the demobilization efforts. There a lot of organizations involved. Twenty-two days of receiving our troops coming back. Enrolling veterans in the health care system right away. We want to be actively involved.
• St Cloud VA Hospital-Barry Bahl-30% of American Indians are Veterans. Interesting things have happened. The media impacts staff and veterans. Program managers’ recovery coordinators positions have been filled. Younger talented prospects for staff positions are backing out of prime positions due to the new events that have occurred that are intertwined with half-truths in the media. We all have rights. Sometimes people think that we should go out to get people who are suicidal. They are ok when they first come back. It is after awhile they have issues. We are doing a lot of work with families so that they understand what is available for them for any help that they need. Budgets are all fine right now. Dental project is done now. It has doubled our size. Hospice unit is done.
Optometry area will be tripled. Specialty care project is half done. Six recovery rooms and more surgery rooms. Part time orthopedic surgeon on board. Cardiologist will be hired so patients don’t need to be sent to Minneapolis. CT scanner will be here by this fall. Most of the staff are now on board. Psychiatrist will need to be hired. Native American outreach: working behind the scenes in a very quiet manner going to Pow Wows etc. They are spreading the word. Mike Pegliese added that they are given funding to have service officers for the reservations to give the entitlement that the American Indians deserve and need.
• Ft Snelling Cemetery May 2007 Current FYTD Total to Date
• Total interments 428 2990 174,991
• Caskets 173 1531 143,932
• Cremations 208 1293 30,893
• Columbarium 47 166 166 1,255 female veterans
• Over 4,500 people attended the Memorial Day Service. There were 1,200 people at the
Echo Taps program the weekend before Memorial Day. Over 100,000 visitors were at the
cemetery the week of Memorial Day. Major expansion project: They are ahead of
schedule. On budget. Next June to be complete. Originally they were to be complete in
September.
• Introduction of the 136 Viking branch Fleet Reserve Association represented by Tom
Dooley.
• Col Ken Wofford (Ret)–Armed Forces Center, Red Tail Project Tribute to the 15000 Tuskegee Airmen. A Fund Raiser is being held at the History Museum 6-6-07 at 7:00. The Red Tail Project is the rebuild of a P-51C that crashed 5-30-04 and Killed the Pilot, Don Hinz. WWII Pilots Charles McGee (409 Combat Missions WWII, Korea
and Vietnam) and Col Harold Brown will be speaking about the Education Project.
4. Federal Congressional Representatives and Senators
• Senator Norm Coleman – Greg Gorman-Legislative development. Personal correspondence to the troops would be free of charge. Tricare: 250 facilities for chemical dependencies, but they do not take Tricare. The Senator attended the Coon Rapids Memorial Day Ceremony. On Reintegration front, Warrior to Citizen working group started. Other
outreach Fergus Falls Vets Home visit. 8 CVSO visits. Standown visit. Staffing issues, Christiana is on board. Sgt Kressel is helping in Washington with Reintegration efforts.
• Senator Amy Klobuchar – Zach Rodvold-brief update. The Senator was involved with the following events this past month: Native Americans Red lake Indian reservation outreach. VA medial groundbreaking for spinal cord injury clinic. Memorial Day Ceremony at Ft Snelling, The Senator toured up north, and attended the Purple Heart convention. Top priority is funding for Beyond the Yellow Ribbon program.
• 4th District Representative – Betty McCollum – Josh Straka-Connie Hadland is the primary caseworker on veteran affairs. CVSO’s have been mentioned. One thing that is very important. Many are going to be retiring. We need to be replacing some of the VSO’s. They will be called on in the future years. Betty visited the Spinal cord treatment center, Standdown, North Saint Paul Auxiliary. Veteran spending bill in the Congress 12 billion dollars. Largest spending increase in 77 years.
• 5th District Representative – Keith Ellison – Mike Siebenaler-visited Veterans Homes, dedication ceremony in Richfield. Fort Snelling cemetery Memorial Day, and the VA hospital ceremony for spinal cord injury center. Federal VA said that they would cut out funding if they would find fault with the VA Homes. Congressman wrote a letter to not have this threat to the operation of the Homes. Signed on to the Tricare letter that was mentioned earlier.
• 6th District Representative – Michele Bachman – Sean Nienow-She was happy that funding for troops on the ground was passed without extra limitations. Waverly, MN was visited on Memorial Day. Disabled Vets Camp that is being renovated for veterans in Wash. Co
• 8th District Representative – James Oberstar – Melissa- Rep Oberstar was attending his Uncle’s funeral and did not sign on to the bill on Supplemental Bill . Building relationships with the Nat. Guard returning. Wall of heroes at Fort Snelling,
• 7th District Representative – Collin Peterson – Al Loehr- colleagues six of the very important house bills that are sent for review. Providing for chiropractic care by 2011. Harvard University is to provide professional advice on how to handle 600,000 veteran claims. Hire another 1,000 adjudicators that would lesson the burden. This is unfair for veterans to wait over a year for their claim. Allied veterans organization MAG. The best session that we have had in history of the Legislature. The Governor has been cooperative and complimentary. Veteran home issues will be settles. The work has been great. Our hats off to those for the success. I know that we didn’t get some that we were fighting for. We don’t want to pick a fight. We just want to be consistent with our effort. It is an eleventh hour process that gets exciting in the conference committee. Benefits for merchant marines are one of the issues that we are working on. We represent 450,000 votes. We’ll be back. Compliments to all those who came to the hearings and testified.
• Ralph Donais – 1st Vice Chair -Thanks to Betty McCollum for signing on to Hr 122 promises retirement. Thanks for the Vets who went to the Veterans on the Lake facility to do some maintenance work.
• Benefit Marine Personnel and their families: First gold tournament statewide will be held Saturday Sept 22nd 2007 1300 hrs shotgun. Hayden Hills 18 hole par 62-3,200 yards Executive Golf Course in Dayton MN. 763-421-0060. $65 per player. Mail application and payment to: Marine Corps League –Viking Det. James Hamman P.O. Box 172 1640 Daytonve. Dayton MN 55327-327
• Dean Acheman -Veterans for Veterans Trust Fund – 5.8 million from sale of big island. $40,000 for new vans. Any purchases of vans up to 2,000 grants will be given. $10,000 was given to the VA medial center. $30,000 to Veterans on the Lake. $10,000 to the Veteran Service Center.
5. Meeting in Recess for 10 minutes
6. Old Business – dues and financial report was passed out. Dues were discussed. Corrections need to be made to the list. Jim Hasselgrave is the official Treasurer. Suggestions: At the present time we will continue to do what we have done.
7. New Business: July 11, 9:30 in Saint Cloud in building 96. Lunch will be served.
8. Adjournment/ Next Meeting 9:30 am, Wed, July 11 -St Cloud VA Recreation Center
9. There were 57 people in attendance
Respectfully submitted by Jana Kyser