Letter to the Editor: Floyd County made mistake letting VA director leave

By David Payne, Charles City

What are the county commissioners thinking, when a very valuable employee is leaving the Veterans Affairs office in the Floyd County office to take on the same position in Cerro Gordo County?

Floyd County hired Maria Deike to be a voice for all of the veterans here and she is good in her ability to help all of the Vets. She took care of scheduling the DAV van to take patients to appointments, answer questions, help in filling out forms that most did not understand.

Maria always had an upbeat welcome to walk-in clients without complaining or making the Vet in front of her feel as they were a burden. It is my understanding that a neighboring county did not want to spend the money to have their own Vet rep, they just dumped the load on her, and you let them.

She asked for help in the office with secretarial work. She had to close the office to do her in-home visits and there was no one there to fill in and keep a smooth flow.

Floyd County finally started billing the neighboring county for the van rides of their vets. Did that money go into the county budget or was it put in the vet representative’s budget so that the county could cut back on the funding they had to supply to her office?

Why are the three commissioners so willing to let another county just dump extra work on our vet rep? Now you have to find some one to take that position and train them. Do you really think that the new hire will be able to step in with all the knowledge and not feel overwhelmed and be able to be fully functional on day one.

Our loss is Cerro Gordo County’s gain. I, for one, will miss the help that I have received from Maria. Was hiring a helper for that office such a financial burden that you feel that office is expendable? Maybe the commissioners should ask the ones that are now going to be short-changed what their thoughts are.