Blandford Select Board Questions Use of $10,000 Veterans Budget After Years of Inaction

BLANDFORD — February 10, 2026 — Blandford Select Board meets with veterans agent for the first time in years, finds significant gaps. The board convened a working session with part-time Veterans Service Agent Joe Coury, who has served the town since 2012 on a stipend of under $2,000 annually, after members acknowledged they had no clear picture of how a $10,000 veterans budget line was being used or what state obligations the town must fulfill. Coury, joining by Zoom, walked the board through his role as a Chapter 115 advisor and liaison for VA benefits, burial assistance, and tax exemption guidance, while acknowledging he has filed no regular reports to the board and was unaware a town email address had been established for him. A set of five compliance questions submitted to Coury by the Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services — asking whether Blandford has designated veterans parking spaces, adopted cost-of-living adjustments to tax exemptions, and established an emergency veterans assistance fund — left board members unable to answer any of them. Coury agreed to forward the survey questions and Valor Act materials to the board and suggested reducing the $10,000 budget allocation to $5,000 given no Chapter 115 recipients are currently enrolled.