Hall County Veterans Service Office (also serving Howard, Nance and Sherman Counties)

The office. Hall County's Veterans Service Office is at 131 S. Locust Street, Grand Island, NE 68801, phone (308) 385-5065, toll-free (877) 558-0799, fax (308) 385-5066, open Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The county veterans service officer is Donald L. Shuda ([email protected]), with service aides Dori Wilkinson, Jill Lothrop, Jennifer Hansen and Rhonda Byerly and administrative assistant Margy Goerl, per the Nebraska Department of Veterans Affairs' directory (updated October 26, 2026). The county's own page describes the office as "a county agency that assists veterans with federal, state, and county benefits once he/she has been discharged from active duty military service", under the direction of the service officer the County Veterans Service Committee appoints and the County Board confirms, with an administrative assistant and veterans aides beside him. Its pages cover health care enrollment, CHAMPVA, burial, compensation, vocational rehabilitation, home loans, education, military records, the Nebraska Veterans Homes and both aid funds. Four counties, one office. The State's directory lists the same officer, address and phone for Howard, Nance and Sherman Counties, and the Hall County Board's minutes of July 14, 2026 record why: the extra dollars "come from the interlocal agreements with the 3 counties", agreements Mr. Shuda reviews every year and that date from 1996, and asked how many veterans he serves in the other counties he answered "all of them. So, the veterans all come to his office." The Howard side. Howard County's own Veterans Services page names Mr. Shuda as its Veterans Service Officer at the Grand Island office (with his old [email protected] address), and its County Benefits page lists the same county benefits as the Hall County pages: county veterans aid, a bronze grave flag holder, DD-214 registration, homestead help, grave registration with a Presidential Memorial Certificate, and benefits counselling. Howard County budgets the office as a contract: its filed 2025-2026 budget (0100-803 Veterans Service) carries a single Contractual Services line of $39,910.00 in every column from 2023-2024 on, and the claims pay "Hall County Veteran Service" $9,977.50 a quarter. Mr. Shuda and the Howard County Veterans Service Committee asked the Howard Board to hold that amount for 2025-2026 (approved May 27, 2025, when the Board also re-appointed Fritz Lee to the committee), telling it the county had 387 veterans, and on April 28, 2026 asked for a 3% increase, to $41,107.00, for 2026-2027 after two years without one, which the Board approved 3-0 with the re-appointment of committee member Dale Rasmussen to a five-year term. The contract questions reached Howard County too: on August 6, 2026 the Howard and Sherman County Boards met jointly with Mr. Shuda in St. Paul, two Hall County Board members, a Nance County commissioner and several area veterans attending, and the minutes record that the main question was what happens to the excess funds at the end of the contract year, that both counties had already approved their 2026-2027 requests, that the original contract signed in 1996 has never been changed, and that any changes should be put forward before the April and May funding requests. On September 22, 2026 the Howard Board acknowledged a letter from the Howard County American Legion posts of Boelus, Dannebrog and St. Paul about the officer's services to Howard County veterans and took no action. Howard County is outside the Central Nebraska Veterans Treatment Court, which serves Hall, Buffalo and Adams Counties only. The Nance side. Nance County's Veterans Services page names Donald Shuda as its Veterans Services Officer with the toll-free (877) 558-0799 and gives the office as 121 S Pine St, Grand Island, open 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays (the State's directory has 131 S. Locust St., 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.). The Nance Board of Supervisors appoints Mr. Shuda as its Veterans Service Officer each January (January 14, 2025; January 13, 2026), and its filed 2025-2026 budget lists the agreement as "VSO provided by Hall County" from January 2004 "until cancelled"; Mr. Shuda told the Board on May 12, 2026 that the contract started January 2, 2004. The budget carries it as the whole of the Veteran's Service Office line (0100-803), $20,945.00 a year in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026, and the claims pay "Hall County Veteran's Service" $5,236.25 a quarter (March 24, 2026, among others). On May 13, 2025 Mr. Shuda and Ms. Goerl reported $1,648,000 through the VA for Nance County veterans and $8,843.31 from the Nebraska Veterans' Aid fund, and the contract was held at $20,945.00; on May 12, 2026 he reported $1,650,381.00 of VA benefits brought into the county in 2024, and the Board accepted a 3% increase, from $20,945 to $21,575, for 2026-2027; the September 22, 2026 claims pay $5,393.50 for the quarter. The Board appointed Stanley Tarnick again and Ken King, replacing Henry Bigge, to the Nance County Veteran's Service Committee on May 27, 2025; on May 12, 2026 it made no appointments while the committee found a replacement. A Nance County commissioner attended the August 6, 2026 joint meeting. The Sherman side. Sherman County's Veterans Services Office page names Donald L. Shuda at 131 S Locust, Grand Island, (308) 385-5065 and toll-free (877) 558-0799. Its filed 2025-2026 budget lists the agreement with the Hall County Veterans Service Committee, from July 1, 2000 and renewing yearly, that "Permits Hall County Veterans Service Officer to also serve as Sherman County Veterans Service Officer", and pays it as a $24,026.00 "Veteran's Service Contract" line in the miscellaneous general budget (0100-970), the same in every column from 2023-2024; the Veterans' Service Officer budget (0100-803) is empty. On April 22, 2025 Mr. Shuda, Ms. Goerl and four members of the Sherman County Veterans Service Committee reported $1,462,000.00 of compensation, pension and disability payments to Sherman County veterans, and the Board renewed the contract at $24,026.00 with no increase and re-appointed Commissioner Ronald Siegel to the committee for five years (he abstained). On April 27, 2026 it approved the renewal with a 3% increase. The questions followed: on July 8, 2026 the Board reviewed the terms of the contract and tabled them; on July 28, 2026 it raised with Mr. Shuda "concerns regarding use of Sherman County funds being used for the compensation towards the Veterans Cemetery in Hall County", five committee members present commended his work for Sherman County's veterans, and the Board set the joint hearing with Howard County for August 6; on August 12, 2026 it discussed how that meeting went and said it would review the contract further. The Board appointed Chuck Radtke to the committee on July 8, 2026, amending a June 10 appointment made in error. A September 12, 2023 Board motion put the unused contract dollars "in a line item to be used to further the mission of the veteran' s service office", managed by the veterans service committee - about $75,000 of excess funds by July 2026. A motion to rescind it and return control to the Board failed 2-5 that day (Hurst and Quandt for; Bredthauer, Lancaster, Peterson, Richardson and Sorensen against), and "The control of the veterans' costs will remain with the veterans committee." The same funds had paid Mr. Shuda extra to oversee the $750,000 local match the committee raised for the State's veterans cemetery project; a June 16, 2026 motion to stop that pay tied 3-3 with no action, and from August 11, 2026 the Board has approved the committee's claim for his additional pay in separate votes, each carried 4-2 or 5-2 with Bredthauer and Quandt against. The committee and the Board's year. The Board re-appointed Michael Ponte, the committee's chair, to the Veterans Service Committee for a five-year term beginning July 1, 2026 (March 24, 2026, 7-0). On January 27, 2026 it voted 7-0 to send the Governor and the Legislature a letter, on behalf of the whole board, opposing the proposal (LB 1072) to take $5 million from the Nebraska Veterans' Aid fund to balance the state budget, after Mr. Shuda briefed it. On May 19, 2026 it approved planting an 11-foot red maple at the Hall County Veterans Memorial Park as a living tribute to Steve Lancaster. Commissioner Ron Peterson is the Board's contact for Veterans Service and Commissioner Pamela Lancaster sits on NACo's Veterans & Military Services Committee; the county pays dues to the Nebraska County Veterans Service Officers Association ($300) and the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers ($200). The office posted the State Department of Veterans Affairs' flyer on the disabled veteran motor vehicle tax and fee exemption on the county's front page on December 9, 2025 with its own number to call; the exemption is the State's (see the Nebraska entry).