Columbia County Veterans Relief Fund and the Veterans Service Commission

The commission. Columbia County's Veterans' Service Commission sits under Wisconsin's chapter 45 county-veterans machinery; its citizen members are Jan Bauman of Portage (term to December 2027), Keith Miller of Fall River (to December 2026) and Norm Bednarek of Portage (reappointed November 12, 2025 for a three-year term to December 2028, and commission chair from January 1, 2026), with the County Veterans Service Officer as executive secretary; citizen member Kay Hallanger joined by July 2026. It meets monthly at 9 a.m.; the approved minutes of its October 2025 through August 2026 meetings are posted. The fund. The commission's Local Aid page announces the "Columbia County Veterans Service Commission Financial Assistance Program" - the Columbia County Veterans Relief Fund - with a downloadable application. The application (2023, still posted) returns to the Veterans Service Office, 112 E Edgewater St, Portage, fax 608-742-9634, [email protected], and asks: proof of Columbia County residency (a Wisconsin licence or ID) and residency "for at least two (2) months prior to application"; the applicant's service (branch, entrance and exit dates, character of discharge); every household member; all money from any source, listed gross per month; the unforeseen situation and what will prevent a recurrence; the creditor, amount requested and due date; and 3 months of bank statements, the last 3 pay stubs and a mortgage statement. The commission reviews applications in closed session and grants or denies them with stipulations: it denied a $1,700 security-deposit request on November 21, 2025 as ineligible on income, and approved a relief grant with stipulations on April 17, 2026. Donations to the fund in December 2025 alone were $200 from a surviving spouse, $1,000 from a veteran and $2,065 from the Portage Bowling Association. The county's voice in Madison. Resolution No. 48-25, adopted November 12, 2025, urges the Wisconsin Legislature and Governor to enact the bill that would let a veteran, a veteran's spouse and an unremarried surviving spouse claim the veterans' and surviving spouses' property tax credit (Wisconsin Statutes 71.07(6e)) at a 70 percent service-connected rating instead of 100 percent, noting the current threshold "excludes a number of veterans who suffer lifelong, significant service-connected disabilities"; the Clerk was directed to forward it to Columbia County's legislators, the Governor, the Department of Veterans Affairs secretary and the Wisconsin Counties Association. The commission's April 17, 2026 minutes record that the threshold bill and the increased funding for the UW Missing-in-Action Recovery and Identification Project "did not pass" in the session, while the bills that did pass let National Guard and Reserve members get the veteran identifier on their driver's licence and cut the WI GI Bill residency requirement from five years to three.