Dakota County (Nebraska) Veterans Service Office (also serving Dixon County)

The office. The Dakota County Veterans Service Office is in the courthouse, 1601 Broadway Street, Dakota City, NE 68731 (mailing address PO Box 336), phone (402) 987-2120 or (402) 494-9220. The county's page gives hours of 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, closed 30 minutes for lunch at varying times, and "Closed 1st & 3rd Thursday Monthly (In Dixon County)"; the State's directory (updated October 26, 2026) gives the lunch closing as 12 to 12:30. The Veterans Service Officer is Nicholas (Nick) Nieman, re-appointed by the Board on January 5, 2026. The office helps with VA benefit applications and supporting documents and with VA medical centre eligibility. What the county lists. The County Benefits page names county veterans aid (see that entry); a bronze grave flag holder reflecting the veteran's wartime era, which the office inventories each year and replaces when damaged; registration of DD-214s, after which the veteran "may call us from any where in the world and we will provide them with a 'certified copy'"; homestead help, the office obtaining each year "a letter from the VA Regional Office" establishing eligible veterans and widows and giving it to the Assessor; and grave registration, with a card sent to the State and a Presidential Memorial Certificate ordered "for the family of all deceased County veterans". The Clerk's pages say a discharge is recorded and a certified copy issued to the veteran at no fee, kept confidential under section 23-1309 (see the Nebraska entry on the Discharge Record). Two counties. The Board approved a Dakota-Dixon interlocal agreement to share the officer for July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 (June 9, 2025) and renewed it for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 (June 22, 2026). The State's directory lists Mr. Nieman at the Dixon County courthouse in Ponca, (402) 755-5625, on the first and third Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dixon's payments, booked as "Veterans Srvc Contract Shared", were $23,461.79 in 2024-2025 and $28,752.99 in 2025-2026, with $25,402.66 budgeted for 2026-2027. The Dixon side. Dixon County's own Veterans Services page names Mr. Nieman, with both phones ((402) 755-5625 in Ponca, (402) 987-2120 in Dakota City) and both addresses ([email protected], [email protected]), and gives the Ponca office at 302 West 3rd Street as open the first and third Thursdays of the month, 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., by appointment only; the county's calendar books those Thursdays 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Dixon Board of Supervisors renewed the interlocal agreement on June 9, 2026. Dixon County's filed 2025-2026 budget (0100-803 Veterans Service) books the contract at $22,775.00 in 2023-2024 and $23,461.79 in 2024-2025 and budgets $24,252.99 for 2025-2026, with $3,000.00 for grave markers and flags ($2,963.37 spent in 2024-2025), $27,252.99 in all; the State Auditor's audit of Dixon County's 2025-2026 year puts the year's spending at $25,265. Dixon County keeps its own Veterans Service Committee, whose quarterly and half-year reports the Board approves (August 12, 2025; February 10, 2026; August 11, 2026); the Board seated Bernard Rohan for another term on the Newcastle American Legion post's recommendation (July 8, 2025) and Scott Morgan for the Emerson post (August 11, 2026), and put the State department's claims-software memorandum of understanding on its November 13, 2025 agenda. An American Legion veterans memorial is going up on county ground under an easement the Board approved on June 9, 2026, its lighting to run off a meter beside the annex's (October 13, 2026). Dixon County's own aid fund is its own entry. Oversight. A VSO Oversight Committee, on whose meetings Commissioner Martin Hohenstein reports to the Board, oversees the office; the Board appointed Jesse Wiseman for January 2026 to January 2030 on December 22, 2025, keeping Richard McNear as an alternate, and Larry Armbright to the rest of Dale Davis's term to December 2028 on May 11, 2026. Mr. Hohenstein told the Board on August 4, 2025 that the committee raises funds and twice a year visits the veterans in Dakota County nursing homes, giving each $50 for their accounts. The Board approves the officer's quarterly report on its consent agenda and approved the Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs' memorandum of understanding for the claims software on November 10, 2025. The money. The office (0100-803) spent $97,858.78 in 2024-2025 and $100,502.95 in 2025-2026, and the 2026-2027 budget adopts $105,655.86, including $4,000 for grave markers and flags ($3,181.85 spent in 2025-2026). Homestead certification. The Assessor's homestead FAQ, under "How do I qualify as a Disabled Veteran or their Widow?", lists the exemptions for a veteran totally disabled by a non-service-connected illness or accident, each "(annual certification required)", and sends the veteran to the Veterans Service Office first for a physician's form and the office's certification. The application under section 77-3508 is annual, but 77-3508(1)(c) says the medical certification need not be repeated when the condition has not changed, though the assessor may ask for it again (see the Nebraska entries).