MOSES LAKE - The nearly 6,000 veterans in Grant County have a new place to get help completing benefit paperwork and receiving counseling.

The Grant County Veterans Benefit Office opened Tuesday in the district courthouse on Wheeler Road and had a group counseling session on its first day. The office opened in conjunction with the Vietnam Veterans of America Washington State Council.

The previous location, Grant County Veterans Coalition located on Ivy Street, closed in June when long-time veterans advocates Pete Harris and Bob Hepner retired and until now veterans did not have a place in the county to get the counseling sessions or help filling out benefit paperwork.

The new veterans office does not help vets with food or housing vouchers like the previous office did and is in a smaller office, but nearly everything else is the same, vet advocate Mike Salis said. Moses Lake's American Legion post can help veterans who need vouchers to buy food or housing from 10 a.m. until noon and 1 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Tuesdays.

The new veterans office will keep with same hours as the previous site, from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. with an hour break at noon Tuesday through Thursday.

Their office is considerably smaller than the previous location, which is just fine with Salis. He said the former office had unutilized offices and not enough parking for the up to 10 vets who participated in group counseling sessions.

The new space has a shared conference room, two offices and would be remodeled to include a kitchenette.

Jim Pace, secretary of the Vietnam Veterans of America Washington State Council, criticized county commissioners in July for not communicating the county's desire to move the veteran's office instead of re-opening at the Ivy Street office.

"I don't want to p*** them (Grant County commissioners) off, but it would have been nice if they would have been talking about that (moving) from the beginning," Pace told the Columbia Basin Herald in July.

Salis, who has volunteered with the former Veterans Coalition office, offered a much rosier outlook.

"I want to thank the Grant County commissioners for all that they have done for the county's veterans. None of this would have been possible without their help," he said.

Salis said that when Pace criticized the commissioners, he did not know the full picture.

He thanked county maintenance manager Tom Gaines and his staff for helping with the move and for future work to remodel the new veteran's office.

Salis said the new office would offer weekly group and individual counseling sessions for veterans, similar to what the previous office offered.