LINCOLN — Since 2016, the Alcona County Department of Veterans Affairs has been forced to utilize four different locations to provide the needed services to area veterans.

The fifth location, which will be celebrated with a ribbon cutting on Saturday, should be the department’s new home for many years into the future.

Thanks to a series of grants, a new veterans office was built in Lincoln. The local veterans office also received enough grant funding for a vehicle to assist veterans with.

Tony Atkinson, director and veterans counselor for the Alcona County Department of Veterans Affairs, said building the new office in Lincoln made sense because it is centrally located in Alcona County. He said there are about 1,500 veterans in the county that can utilize the office and veterans from outside the county can also take advantage of it if they need help navigating the logistics of state or federal veteran programs.

“If it is a county program or benefit, then a veteran would have to go to the veterans office in the county that they live in,” Atkinson said.

The new office is located in Lincoln at 222 Second Ave., and the ribbon cutting is slated for noon on Saturday. Atkinson said people will be able to see the new facility and enjoy hamburgers, hotdogs, snacks, and drinks from Couzins Grill from Hubbard Lake, which is catering the event.

Atkinson said moving from place to place for nearly a decade has been stressful and inconvenient for veterans. He said the veterans office’s last home was in the basement of the Michigan State Extension Office.

“We have been trying to do this for a long time and now it has finally become a reality,” he said. “The grant money made this possible, not only for the building but for the vehicle and all of the furnishings in the office.”

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.