Easton to Withdraw From Crossroads Veterans Services District in June

Easton selectmen voted unanimously Monday to leave the Crossroads Veterans Services District and hire its own full-time veteran's agent.

The decision came after Easton Town Administrator David Colton sent a memo to selectmen recommending the town leave the district, citing "cultural" differences with other towns involved.

Easton is a member of the district with Foxborough, Norton and Mansfield.

"Although, cost-savings was not the reason to create the district, avoiding
the costs associated with this 'mission creep' is a good reason to consider leaving," he wrote in his memo.

The board's unanimous vote (Todd Gornstein was not present) came as welcomed news for Easton's veterans who were in the audience Monday. The decision to join the four-town district a year ago created unhappiness among Easton's Veterans organizations.

Easton Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander Alvin Smart and Easton American Legion Post 7 Commander James McAvoy spoke in front of selectmen Monday to lobby for one full-time agent.

Colton explained that originally the district was meant for the town to share resources. As he said in his memo, needs "should be met by utilizing the existing infrastructure of the towns."

Instead he felt some towns wished to create their own infrastructure.

"We’ve been having this discussion almost since the beginning about who makes these decisions, who hires, who has the authority to promote employees, to set their salary and to do all of these other things I mentioned," Colton told Selectmen Monday. "There are other people in the district who are representative of other towns who have the opposite view than we have. [They think] it should be a bureaucracy of it’s own and it should be run independently from the town and the town should simply pay a bill."

"I don’t think that is an argument that is ever going to be resolved," he added. "I am frankly tired of spending my time fighting this battle."

Easton will leave the district at the end of June. By that time, Colton said, Easton's own veterans agent will be hired. The cost of the agent will be approximately $68,000 - $77,000 per year. The amount will be a slight increase from the approximate $60,000 (including clerical costs) it was paying to be a member of the district, according to his memo.

"The cost would probably go up slightly if we took it back under the town’s wing, but we always said it was not a financial decision," Colton told selectmen.

Selectmen who attended Veterans District meetings agreed with Colton's assessment that not all of the towns were on the same page.

"The culture that you speak of is definitely the biggest issue," selectman Sean Noonan said. "The agendas were the same things constantly and never once has it been ‘how is this actually going to help provide better service?' And, that is the biggest problem it has had."

Colton and selectmen agreed that there are positives that come from being a part of the district. When veterans agent John Hogan retired earlier this year, other agents were available to step in for Easton's veterans, whereas one veteran in one town does not account for a "backup plan" if the agent left on disability or retired.

Selectman Dan Murphy said he still believed in the concept of a district partly for that reason - and he said he would not rule out the concept moving forward.

"I have no regrets about going into a district," added selectmen chair Colleen Corona. "You regionalize when an opportunity arises and I have no regrets about reassessing it after a year."

"It sounds like a pilot that didn’t work in terms of four towns," selectman Ellen Barlow said.

The Crossroads Veterans Service District (CVSD), established in 2011, aims to provide services to veterans and their survivors in its participating towns and has been a concept well-received in Foxborough from the beginning.