Jefferson County (Tennessee) Veterans Services

Tennessee counties employ veterans service officers under Tennessee Code 58-3-109 to 58-3-111; see the Tennessee entries. Jefferson County's page lists what the office does: disability and pension claims, enrolling in VA health care, education benefits, homelessness referrals, vocational rehabilitation, burial benefits, updating dependants, "Insurance and Property Tax questions", records requests, veteran and national cemetery requests, help for dependants and widows, Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, survivor benefits, CHAMPVA, and "Goldstar and Bluestar family assistance". Who and where. "Rebecca Easton currently serves as the Veterans Service Officer" ([email protected]); the Commission hired her 17 to 0 on September 21, 2026, at the service officer's pay retroactive to July 1, 2026, after the previous officer resigned. 760 Justice Center Drive, Dandridge, TN 37725; 865-397-7824, fax 865-397-9832; Monday to Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. A second post. After residents asked the Commission for another service officer in November 2025, the Budget Committee, which had voted the post down 2 to 6 in October, approved up to $53,095 from fund balance for a full-time Veterans Service Officer Assistant on December 15, 2025, and the 2026-27 budget carries Veterans' Services at $107,023, up from $58,185. The county advertises the assistant's post for honorably discharged veterans, with preference for disabled veterans, and its Personnel Committee was to review applicants on October 28, 2026. Who runs the office. In September 2026 a commissioner moved for the County Attorney's written opinion on who supervises the office; the motion was put off to October, and Resolution 2026-56, on the October 19, 2026 agenda, would make the County Mayor its executive authority and bar individual commissioners from directing its staff. In June 2026 the then service officer proposed a $15,000,000 Military and Veteran Resource Center on 2.7 county acres in Dandridge; the Commission sent the grant request to its Facilities Committee.