Newly constructed Veterans Service Commission offices open in Warren

SEE ALSO: Ohio House approves veterans benefits bill

Staff report

WARREN

About 700 Trumbull County residents have given their life in service to their country, and 20,000 military veterans live in the county.

In memory of those veterans who died and to serve those who remain, the newly constructed Samuel E. Lanza Veterans Resource Center officially opened Tuesday. It’s the home of the county’s Veterans Service Commission.

The $2.1 million, 7,000- square-foot facility at 2533 E. Market St., provides offices, a two-vehicle garage and a large central meeting space that overflowed Tuesday with veterans and others.

The day was a tribute to Lanza, a World War II veteran of the Marine Corps who was wounded on Okinawa, and Paul E. Heltzel, a former Trumbull County commissioner who pushed for construction of the facility’s large meeting room. Heltzel died in 2014.

Lanza, who attended, was an 18-year Veterans Service commissioner until 2013, said Herman K. Breuer, director of the commission. The meeting space is named the Paul E. Heltzel Community Room.

The commission operated out of offices at the Trumbull County Job and Family Services offices on North Park Avenue in recent years, but the second-floor location and lack of parking was not conducive to the needs of veterans, some of them disabled.

“The function of our offices is to provide the help that those who served desperately deserve,” Breuer said. The office processes benefits claims and provides financial assistance.

The group also provides the flags on veterans’ graves on Memorial Day and provides daily transportation to the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland.