Gage County Veterans Service Office

The office. The Gage County Veterans Service Office is in its own building at 619 N. 7th Street, Beatrice, NE 68310, phone 402-223-1342, fax 402-228-2056, open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. The Veterans Service Officer is Keil Mick ([email protected]), with assistant Ronda Cary. The Board approved him on March 5, 2025 and he was introduced on April 2, 2025 as a Wymore High School graduate who served six years in the Air Force, with two tours in the Middle East. Besides VA claims and medical centre eligibility, the county's page lists gathering evidence for disability claims and appealing denials, representing veterans at appeal hearings, helping survivors with the month-of-death benefit, burial benefits, DIC and military headstones and markers, and outreach in the county's towns. The Board's year. The officer reports on the Veterans Service Committee at nearly every meeting (topics have included accreditations, the vehicle tax exemption, State training and veteran deaths in the county). On November 12, 2025 the Board approved the Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs' memorandum of understanding putting the county on the VetraSpec database for January 1, 2026 to December 31, 2028. On October 14, 2026 it voted 5-0 for a $10,000 Visitors Improvement Grant to the Beatrice Rotary Foundation for a sculpture for each branch at the Beatrice Veterans Memorial Park. The office also presents the county's Veteran Honors Recognition (see that entry). County aid. Gage County pays county veterans aid under section 80-102 through a "Soldiers & Sailors Account": the claims of October 29, 2025 include $2,000.00 to that account for "Veteran's Aid". No budget is posted to show the year's total; ask the office, which takes applications (see the Nebraska entry on the county fund; since LB1300 there is no wartime test). 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). Discharges. The County Clerk records a veteran's DD214 for safekeeping and releases it only to the veteran with proper identification (see the Nebraska entry on the Discharge Record).