Fannin County Veteran Services (Paul Chandler, Veterans County Service Officer)

The office. The county's Veteran Services page: "Paul Chandler, VCSO. Phone: (903) 912-0036. Email: [email protected]. *Services by appointment only." The office "assists Fannin County Veterans, their dependents, and survivors pursue benefits and entitlements that may be available to them through the United States Department of Veteran Affairs and the State of Texas." It "is not a part of the Department of Veteran Affairs and it is not a nonprofit veteran organization, but rather it is a budgeted department of Fannin County, Texas government" working under 38 CFR and Government Code chapter 434, and its officer is accredited through the Texas Veterans Commission. The page is plain that the role is administrative: it "is not resourced, trained, or equipped to address emergent personal crises" and points veterans in crisis to the Veterans Crisis Line, 9-1-1 or an emergency room, and homeless or at-risk veterans to the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans. The county's phone directory lists Veteran Services at 903-583-2111. The page posts no street address; the Court's minutes of May 20, 2025 record a discussion of office space for the officer at the VA hospital in Bonham, which ended with him staying where he was, a speaker telling the Court that veterans found him easier to meet at the courthouse or the new Justice Center than at the hospital. What the office reported. Chandler's 2025 End-of-Year Summary, presented to the Commissioners Court on January 6, 2026: 1,506 professional contacts; two active collaborations under memoranda of understanding, the North Texas Regional Veterans Treatment Court (see that entry) and Texoma Community Center's Military Veterans Peer Network; Texas Veterans Commission focus groups, training and an onsite visit through the year. Its highlight: a claim for a terminal illness linked to ionizing radiation, filed September 16, 2022 and denied three times, won at the Board of Veterans' Appeals on March 4, 2025; the claimant "now receives about $4300.00/month in service-connected disability payments and special monthly compensation, and received a backpay award of $119,829.42." The summary cites VA expenditure data putting compensation, pension and DIC paid to Fannin County veterans and survivors at $32,364,435.71 for FY2024, up from about $30 million in FY2023. Chandler told the Court that from October to December 2025 the county lost 28 veterans and that fewer than half of his clients now come from Fannin County. How the county funds it. The office is General Fund department 405, "Veterans' Service Officer". The 2026-2027 adopted budget sets it at $79,791.91, up from $76,632.78 for 2025-2026 (activity $72,484.12), with one full-time officer at grade G6 paid $53,507.93 and $1,250 for travel and training.