Cooperating Ministry Director Calls on Logan County to Boost Veteran Funding

The director of the Cooperating Ministry of Logan County stood before county commissioners last Tuesday and delivered what she called no ordinary request: make the county's veterans service officer a line item in the Logan County budget.

Shelly Greenwood addressed commissioners during a March 17 work session, arguing that Christopher Kelley, the Logan County Service Officer, lacks the financial backing to coordinate with other agencies on behalf of local veterans. Without dedicated county funding, Greenwood said, the collaborative network of services that veterans depend on remains fractured.

"Cooperating Ministry is a vital agency to Logan County and I as the director can't do anything without financial support," Greenwood told commissioners. "The veterans service office is a much needed link in a chain of vital resources in this community and like Cooperating Ministry it can't do much without financial support. Please consider adding your local service officer as a line item in your Logan County budget, please consider giving our veterans service officer tangible and meaningful support to help make a difference in supporting our veterans, especially our Logan County veterans."

Greenwood framed her appeal as broader than her own agency's interests, explicitly speaking on behalf of veterans she has served and those she has not yet reached.

"Today, on behalf of the veterans that I have provided services for, on behalf of those veterans that I have not and on behalf of the Logan County Service Officer, Mr. (Christopher) Kelley, this is not an ordinary request coming from me or my agency but rather a request for needed funding for collaborative efforts between my agency, other agencies, our veterans and the Logan County veterans officer," she said.

The request arrived as county officials were in the middle of budget reviews. Greenwood offered no specific dollar figure in the excerpts from the work session, but the structural ask was clear: elevate Kelley's office to a formal, funded position in the county budget rather than leaving it dependent on patchwork support.

No response from the commissioners was recorded in the available account of the session, and Kelley did not offer public comment at the meeting. Whether the board will take up the request in a formal budget vote remains an open question as the county's budget process continues.