Discussion about the upcoming Veterans Day Parade, as well area improvement in veterans services, took central focus at the regular monthly Texarkana Area Veterans Council meeting Thursday.
The annual Veterans Day Parade will be held starting at 11 a.m. Nov. 9 commencing at East Broad and Hazel streets.
TAVC President Greg Beck told council members that presently, both Texas High and Liberty-Eylau high school bands have signed on to perform. He added that other area high school bands will likely sign up near the start of next month.
Besides the high school bands, Beck said at least multiple business and civic organizations as well as clubs and churches usually also take part in the parade, year after year.
This year's parade theme will be "American Legion -100 years -" in tribute to the organization's 1919 founding.
As for veterans assistance, Miller County recently hired s new veterans service officer, Thomas Ornberg, who will be starting a new job at the Miller County Courthouse Monday, according to the county judge's office.
Besides there being a new VSO for Miller County, a new office for veterans service is currently being prepared inside Texarkana College's Truman Arnold Student Center - with its opening tentatively set for some time next month.
In other business, Charles Jordan, administrative office manager with the Texarkana Area Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic, on Realtor Road, said that the clinic is now in the planning stages of casting a wider outreach net in order to help serve p0tentially as many as an estimated 12,000 veterans within a 60-mile radius of
Texarkana.
"We want to widen this net to include the 12,000," Jordan said. "Our mission will be to have the clinic serve at least as many as 5,500 additional area veterans by 2020."
Jordan added plans are open a new clinic in Texarkana before the end of the year.
"I feel like we now have one of the most efficient medical staffs we've ever had, working at the clinic and serving this area," Jordan said.
For more information regarding upcoming events and medical services call 870-773-8279.