VETERANS AFFAIRS

      Building on success with a view toward the future describes the accomplishments of the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs in providing the highest quality service to New Jersey’s estimated 698,000 veterans and their families. Entitlement programs continued to expand, improve, and evolve, while the excellent services expected and deserved by New Jersey veterans were maintained.

     These achievements were in keeping with the mission of ensuring that the state’s veterans and their families receive the assistance, care, and recognition they have earned.  Other goals included: providing state government leadership to represent veterans’ concerns and needs, actively informing veterans about entitlements, and managing programs to maximize benefit to all veterans.

     The most visible improvements were structural.  The new Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park had the finishing touches completed by year’s end in preparation for the staff and resident transfer in January 1999.  When all current residents are settled, new residents will be admitted to fill the additional 100 beds the new building will provide.  At the Vineland Veterans’ Home, improvements made to the courtyard included lighting for the flagpole, a sidewalk, and a monument.  The “cottage,” which had served in various capacities including guest accommodation, cooking classroom, and veterans service office, opened as a full-time U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic in December.

      New Jersey’s Veterans’ Memorial Homes in Vineland, Paramus and Menlo Park continued to provide excellent service while operating at peak efficiency.  The homes’ average daily occupancy rate was 97 percent of capacity.  Admission processing time for those on the waiting list remained at two days.

      All three homes are Medicare Part B certified, thereby enabling the facilities’ physicians to bill Medicare for services saving the state approximately $391,000.  Additionally, the Paramus home, under Medicare Part A, collected $436,000 in federal funds and another Memorial Service at the cemetery; but the governor’s commitment to promoting the remembrance of the $210,000 for Occupational and Physical Therapy services.

      During the summer, renovations were completed at Veterans Haven, the Transitional Housing Program for Homeless Veterans, expanding to 53 the number of veterans who may receive assistance.  In December, a gazebo, donated by the Elks, was erected.  A new committal shelter was dedicated at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Arneytown.  The $56,000 structure, funded by the American Legion, New Jersey Department of Veterans Affairs, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, permitted the number of funerals to be increased and served as the new focal point for the annual Memorial Day service.  Governor Christine Todd Whitman delivered the keynote address at the Twelfth Annual Memorial Service at the cemetery.

      Interments at the Doyle Cemetery for a single year exceeded 2,000 for the first time in the facility’s history.  This was due, in part, to a radio campaign which provided prerecorded and written public service announcements to every station in the state.

     The DCVA continued to oversee needed improvements at the Brigadier General William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Arneytown, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Holmdel.  Maintenance assistance was also provided to smaller veterans cemeteries owned by the Department on the grounds of the Veterans Memorial Home, Vineland; Fairmount Cemetery, Newark; and Arlington Cemetery, Kearny.  Cemetery personnel assisted with the restoration and replacement of damaged VA-issued tombstones at the Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown.

     The Vietnam Era Educational Center was dedicated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel.  Where the stories, memories, photos, and reflections of the Vietnam war are on display in the nation’s first education center devoted to the history of that war.

     In Atlantic City, the winning design of the New Jersey Korean War Veterans Memorial was announced.  The memorial was designed by J. Tom Carrillo, of Sculpture: Mountains and Plains Ltd., of Denver, Colorado, in collaboration with sculptor Jay Warren of Sugar Grove, North Carolina.  The memorial will be built in Brighton Park at the corner of Boardwalk and Park Place.  The memorial will be dedicated during the summer of 2000.

     The Division of Veterans Programs maintains oversight authority over the statewide network of Veterans Service Offices; Veterans Haven; the State Approving Agencies for college and non-college programs; the Blind and Catastrophic Entitlement Programs; and the toll-free information line.  The division also provides administrative support to the Agent Orange Commission; coordinates the Department’s involvement in Stand-Downs; and acts as a liaison to other state and federal agencies administering veterans’ entitlements.

     The State Approving Agency is responsible for approving and supervising programs of education and training programs under the GI Bill.  The agency approved and updated 3,086 education/training programs for veterans in 1998.  Those approvals and an additional 1,104 other approval activities made it possible for 5,000 eligible veterans or dependents to attend colleges and universities, technical and vocational schools, apprenticeships as well as other job training programs and flight schools.  To fur her assist veterans, the agency published a free booklet on educational services entitled Veterans Guide to the Future.

     Veterans Haven admitted 65 new veterans during the year and maintained an average of 30 veterans in the program.  By the end of the year, the program was operating at near full capacity with 49 enrollees.  Twenty-two veterans secured employment, 16 entered educational programs with four graduating, 25 veterans graduated from the program with 22 employed full-time.

     The division coordinated the department’s efforts to provide support, assistance, personnel, and equipment for Operation Stand Down ’98.  Two one-day operations were conducted.  The Burlington County Stand Down, held at Fort Dix provided respite from the streets for 98 homeless veterans and 15 family members, while a Stand Down in Newark at Essex County College offered information, assistance, and services to 98 homeless veterans and 15 family members.  The veterans and their families received volunteer assistance with VA entitlements claims, welfare, unemployment, Social Security, legal and medical problems, and clothing.  Through the division’s Office of Veterans Housing Services and Homeless Intervention, another seven veterans received assistance in avoiding or addressing homelessness.

     Claims and entitlements submitted through Veterans Service Offices resulted in awards totaling $39 million in federal money.  Four hundred veterans or surviving spouses received assistance through the Blind & Catastrophic Entitlement Program.  Veterans also received 19,357 trips underwritten by the department’s Transportation Program.

     Additionally, 89 Vietnam-era veterans received educational assistance under the Veterans Tuition Credit Program.  Four children of veterans received tuition assistance under the POW-MIA Tuition Benefit Program, while four others received assistance under the War Orphans Tuition Assistance Program.  More than 4,660 counseling sessions were given to veterans and family members dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

     In a cooperative effort with the VA Regional Office, Newark, and the state Department of Treasury’s Division of Taxation, procedures were implemented to improve the Veterans Property Tax Exemption Program.  Under the statute, 100 percent totally and permanently disabled war period veterans are exempt from paying taxes on real estate property which they own and occupy in the state.

     In 1998, an outreach program was initiated to serve those veterans rated as 100 percent disabled by VA was initiated.  All eligible veterans were mailed a notice of a State Property Tax Rebate program to partially reimburse those veterans or eligible spouses for property taxes they had paid in error.  The initial appropriation was $80,000.  The packet included: instructions, a form to have processed by the local tax assessor, information on the state’s Catastrophic Entitlement Program for certain 100 percent disabled veterans, a list of state Veterans Service Offices, a mail-in offer to receive a Veterans Guide, and a free subscription to the quarterly newsletter Veterans Journal.

      500 veterans applied for the rebate and almost 400 were approved. Some 2,000 veterans requested the offered publications; and 20 individuals were eligible for the yearly Catastrophic Entitlement stipend of $750, the largest yearly increase in eligible veterans for that program.  In response to the large number of veterans eligible for the rebate, Governor Whitman appropriated $5.5 million dollars to repay qualified veterans in full.  Checks were sent out in September.

      In an effort to definitively establish a link between exposure to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange and birth defects in the children of Vietnam veterans, the contract with the Association of Birth Defect Children, Inc., (ABDC) Orlando, Florida, was extended to continue its National Birth Defect Registry.  With the $48,000 appropriation in 1997 and outreach assistance from the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission and the department, 4,000 birth defect registry questionnaires were distributed.  The ABDC goal of adding 2,000 more families into the registry was nearly reached as total registrations increased to 3,681.  That number could reach 8,000 if everyone who received the questionnaire returns it.

      With Senator Robert Torricelli’s assistance, the department presented 300 New Jersey World War II veterans with the Philippine Liberation Medal.  700 people attended the ceremony, held at Timmermann Theater, Fort Dix.

     The department provided support to the Blue Star Memorial Council in publicizing its existence and in educating the public about the Blue Star Memorial Highway System.  In 1998, the Council celebrated its 50th Anniversary and selected the new Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home as the site of a Blue Star marker to commemorate that milestone.

     In cooperation with the Meadowlands Racetrack, East Rutherford, the Department participated in a special race night program for veterans and their families for Memorial Day.  600 veterans attended the event, which featured a barbecue, live entertainment and horse racing.

    Through such outreach efforts as the Transition Outreach Program for Servicemembers, the Transition Assistance Program, Veterans Group Commanders Calls, increased participation in community events and the Veteran’s Guide and Veterans Journal, awareness of entitlements, distribution of information and visibility in the community continued to increase.

    Through expanded participation at veterans group conventions; state, county and job fairs; senior citizen-oriented fairs; health fairs; VA medical care registrations and newspaper advertising awareness and demand for information and services increased.  The quarterly newsletter, the Veteran Journal, increased distribution to 20,000 veterans.  The publication received excellence awards from the Public Relations Society of America, New Jersey Chapter, and the New Jersey Working Press Association.  The number of Veteran’s Guides distributed increased to 50,000 copies. This publication also is being used as a model for similar booklets in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.  An improved and expanded site on the Internet, with links to other sites, provided more information to web-browsers worldwide.

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