Effective March 1, the hours of operation at the Douglas Veterans Field Service Office are changing.
The office, located at 70 Lockwood Drive, will begin opening to the public at 9 a.m. on weekdays. Closing time (4:30 p.m.) is not changing. The office is closed on weekends.
The new schedule is part of a policy change affecting Georgia Department of Veterans Service offices statewide. The later opening is designed to give the department’s service officers more time to focus on administrative duties.
George Canavaggio, GDVS Assistant Commissioner for Field Operations & Appeals, proposed the change to the Veterans Service Board during its January meeting.
Canavaggio explained, “The primary responsibility of our service officers is to assist veterans. While this mostly includes face-to-face interaction, there is also a great deal of paperwork involved in the filing of any claim for benefits. This has increased with new VA procedures requiring time-consuming scanning and faxing of certain documents. Additionally, maintaining VA certification requires uninterrupted time be spent completing necessary training. For too long, our personnel have been sacrificing personal time to meet these objectives. In order to better serve all veterans and their families, we need to allow our service officers appropriate time during the work day to complete these time-sensitive tasks.”
The VSB approved the change. Effective Tuesday, March 1, the new hours at most GDVS offices will be 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. However, office hours vary at some facilities, specifically those co-located within VA buildings. Individual office hours are posted at the offices and listed at veterans.ga.gov/field-offices.
For more information on the Douglas Veterans Field Service Office, contact Del Parisella at 912-389-4898 or aparisella @ vs.state.ga.us. For other questions, please contact the GDVS Public Information Division at 404-656-5933 or gavetsvc @ vs.state.ga.us.
– Submitted