WESTMINSTER Dube settles into position aiding veterans
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Edward Dube, of Westminster, has settled into his office in the new Town Hall. Dube is the first agent to serve only Westminster, previously Westminster had shared an agent with either Winchendon or Gardner. JOURNAL PHOTO/CAITLYN KELLEHER

Edward Dube is entering his seventh month as the veterans' agent for the town and is enjoying his position as a liaison between the state and the local veterans.

Dube said he can help veterans with financial need, acquiring or completing paperwork or by reserving a plot in one of the state cemeteries.

"I like helping the veterans," he said.

A long-time resident of Westminster, Dube, 78, retired from the United States Army in 1972 as a first sergeant after serving for 22 years including tours of duty in the Korean War and Vietnam Conflict.

"I'm retired now and it gives me something to do," he said.

Dube said he is able to work with veterans and their families to get the support services they need and for which they qualify. The state states the financial guidelines for those veterans who receive financial help.

"We have to evaluate everyone on an individual basis," he said.

In order to receive help veterans need to have been honorably discharged, Dube said. Veterans, or their family members, are required to have a Report of Separation from the military, or the veteran or family will have to write to the National Archives' National Personnel Record Center in St. Louis.

Westminster has gone through a variety of veteran's agents in the last few years because the town was not been able to house a Veterans' Office until the new town hall was completed.

Over the course of the last few months, Dube has become more comfortable in his job and has learned more and more of the details.

"I have a computer that I still have a lot to learn on," he laughs. Dube said if he doesn't know the answer to a question or how to solve a problem, he can first ask for advice from either the Gardner or Fitchburg veterans' agents, both of whom have held their positions for decades. Dube can contact the state Department of Veterans' Services in Boston.

"If a veteran has gotten into financial trouble, we can provide some assistance," Dube said of one of his roles.

He adds he can help veterans of the War on Terrorism fill out the forms for their state financial bonuses and can help answer any other questions of recent or long-time veterans.

In 2004 Dube was appointed in a temporary move to serve as the assistant agent while in Gardner's full-time veterans agent Philip Buso was temporarily appointed Westminster's Veterans' Agent.

"It was appointment as a temporary agent until the new town hall as constructed," Dube said. "Then after Town Hall was constructed, we finally had an office."

The Veterans' Office holds a variety of personnel information on those needing or applying for help. Dube said some of the files include financial, medical and marital information so it has to be secured and kept private.

"The public should not have access," he said. And now the information sits locked in a file cabinet in Dube's office. The lack of space in the town hall on Bacon Street required Westminster's officials to pair up with a veteran's agent in another town. Prior to his death in 2003, Charles E. Grout the Winchendon veterans' agent served Westminster's veterans and kept the files.

The Veteran's Office is open on Mondays from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., or can be reached by calling (978) 874-7461.

"I have voicemail," said Dube. "I call in everyday and I can check to see if I have messages."

Dube added he knows all of the town's veterans can't necessarily come into Town Hall because of illness, injuries or a lack of transportation. He said he could travel to that veteran.