Butler County Veterans Services

Butler County Veterans Services is the office every Pennsylvania county must have: a director of veterans affairs appointed by the county (16 Pa.C.S. 15524). See the Pennsylvania entry on county directors. Its page says the mission is to "provide advice and assistance to Butler County's 15,000 veterans and their families". Director and Veteran Service Officer Shawnee Young; Assistant Director and VSO Melissa Kuhns; Veteran Service Officers Heather Cihonski and Nikki Burke on the same staff. Phone 724-284-5352; hours Monday to Friday 8:30 to 4:30. The office moved into the Butler County Aging & Veteran's Resource Center, 215 North Duffy Road, Butler PA 16001 - the commissioners' change orders for the Massaro Corporation's build-out of that building include "$3,462 to cover eyesore in the Veterans Office" (November 19, 2025) - with mail still directed to 124 W. Diamond Street, PO Box 1208, Butler PA 16003. What it does. Service-connected disability and compensation, non-service-connected pension and aid and attendance, and survivor benefits claims; the State real estate tax exemption and Veterans' Temporary Assistance; the county burial benefit and headstone reimbursement and grave flags (see that entry); and the ordering and recording of DD-214s. Around the office: the county's Veteran of the Year award, whose suggested resume outline the office posts, with the award presented at the Veterans Day luncheon (November 4, 2026, at American Legion Post 778 in Lyndora) and the county's Veterans Day parade November 11; the Memorial Day roll call of the county's deceased veterans the office reads each year; and the Butler County Veterans In Need Fund, a private nonprofit the office links as, "in effect, Butler County's own emergency financial assistance and furniture organization for veterans". Discharges. The FAQ recommends that "every veteran bring in their original or a certified copy of their discharge to have it recorded", after which the office supplies copies free of charge - recording the discharge at the office, not the Recorder of Deeds, whose page publishes no discharge information. Under 16 Pa.C.S. 1302 and 1303 a recorded discharge is confidential for 85 years, released only to the veteran, immediate family, an authorised agent, a court, the director or a government agency. Where the pages are thin. No county application form is posted for the State real estate tax exemption or Veterans' Temporary Assistance, and no county veteran ID card exists - the FAQ points to the federal VA's Veteran ID Card and, for retired military ID, the 911th Airlift Wing in Pittsburgh. The office no longer accepts retired flags for disposal; it points to the flag disposal boxes at local American Legion posts.