Blandford Select Board Questions Use of $10,000 Veterans Budget After Years of Inaction

BLANDFORD -- February 10, 2026, Blandford Select Board meets with veterans agent for the first time in years, finds significant gaps. The board convened a working session with part-time Veterans Service Agent Joe Coury, who has served the town since 2012 on a stipend of under $2,000 annually, after members acknowledged they had no clear picture of how a $10,000 veterans budget line was being used or what state obligations the town must fulfill. Coury, joining by Zoom, walked the board through his role as a Chapter 115 advisor and liaison for VA benefits, burial assistance, and tax exemption guidance, while acknowledging he has filed no regular reports to the board and was unaware a town email address had been established for him. A set of five compliance questions submitted to Coury by the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services, asking whether Blandford has designated veterans parking spaces, adopted cost-of-living adjustments to tax exemptions, and established an emergency veterans assistance fund, left board members unable to answer any of them. Coury agreed to forward the survey questions and Valor Act materials to the board and suggested reducing the $10,000 budget allocation to $5,000 given no Chapter 115 recipients are currently enrolled.