After several months of not having one, there is now a new Veterans Service Officer working at the office located at the Ag Center.

And, it is a familiar face.

The Faribault County Board approved the hiring of Jenna Schmidtke as the new VSO for the county, with the new hiring going into effect immediately.

Schmidtke had previously served as the acting assistant Veterans Service officer and started working with the county in September, 2016.

Faribault County central services director Dawn Fellows revealed at the County Board meeting there were 14 applicants for the vacancy with six of those being interviewed. According to Fellows, candidates were graded on their leadership qualities, vision of their role within the department, and their overall experience working with veterans.

“I’ll be working with Jenna on some of her initial plans in the department, and I’ll be keeping the personnel department updated on that,” Fellows said. “It’s good to move forward and it was a good field of applicants.”