Muskegon County Department of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans' Operating Levy

The Muskegon County Department of Veterans Affairs is the county's department of veterans affairs (see the Michigan entry on county departments), whose stated mission quotes Lincoln: "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan". Its Veterans' Service Center is at 1903 Marquette Avenue, Suite A101, Muskegon (231-724-7143, fax 231-724-7147, [email protected]); the county directory also keeps the mailing address at 165 East Apple Avenue, Suite 201. The director is Michael Baauw, a retired Navy chief torpedoman's mate. Three county service officers take appointments at 231-724-7143, and Disabled American Veterans and VFW service officers, a VA vocational rehabilitation counsellor, a VA peer support specialist, housing and employment specialists and a PTSD support group sit in the same suite; the Muskegon VA Outpatient Clinic is at 2734 East Apple Avenue, 231-798-4445. What the department does, by its services page. Service officer help with VA claims by appointment; free notary service for veterans; employment assistance; medical help with the 10-10EZ; neurofeedback sessions; veteran transportation to appointments (231-724-7143 extension 1); a food bank for veterans and their widows on Tuesdays and Thursdays by appointment; Michigan Veterans Trust Fund and Soldiers and Sailors Relief applications (each its own entry); a burial allowance (its own entry); and recruiting, coordinating and training the veteran mentors for the Veterans Treatment Court (its own entry). The levy. County voters approved a 0.0770 mill veterans operating levy at the August 6, 2019 election, expiring December 30, 2028, on the county's L-4029. Headlee holds it under authorization: the 2025 rate was 0.0724 mills ($487,474) and the 2026 request is 0.0714 mills, an estimated $517,808, levied on the December bills. The department's fund 2930 budgeted $607,733 of revenue and $656,429 of spending for 2026 against 2025 actuals of $593,618 and $614,436. State grants. The Board authorized the FY2027 County Veteran Service Fund Grant application on June 18, 2026 (Resolution 2026-183, after the Human Services Committee's HS26/06-19): the county has met the grant's conditions every year since FY2019, and the money continues the employment of the department's Veterans Resource Analyst and the travel and training its accreditations require. Governance. The Human Services standing committee of the Board covers the department; the Board's liaison to the Veterans Advisory Committee is Commissioner Darrell Paige and the Administrator sits on the Veterans' Memorial Park Committee. The Veterans Advisory Committee, four-year citizen terms meeting monthly, "provide[s] advisory recommendations regarding Veterans Affairs matters to the Muskegon County Board of Commissioners, and ... review[s] and approve[s] requests brought to the Committee through the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Committee and other funds where the Director ha[s] concerns"; its chair is Billy Stancroff. The compiled Full Board minutes, image scans read by OCR on 2026-10-13, record its recent appointments: Annette Dennis (Public) reappointed and Guadalupe Alviar, Jr. appointed to terms through December 31, 2028 on January 21, 2025, and Terry Sabo appointed on March 18, 2025 for a term through March 31, 2028; the same minutes record a ten-year memorandum of understanding with Mission Ambition for female veteran outreach in the department's space (HS24/11-72, adopted 7 to 0 on November 19, 2024).