Each county veterans service committee shall cooperate with and assist the Department of Veterans' Affairs in the performance and discharge of its duties and functions. Each such county veterans service committee shall appoint, subject to confirmation by the county board, a county veterans service officer for its county after the applicant has been certified as eligible according to section 80-410 by the Director of Veterans' Affairs. Service officers appointed prior to March 27, 1969, shall also be certified as eligible. The county veterans service committee, in cooperation with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, shall issue a certificate of appointment, and establish a service center for the assistance of veterans, and is authorized to accept, for the purpose of carrying out its program of assistance to veterans, grants of funds from the county, municipalities, veterans, civic, religious, and fraternal organizations and groups, and private citizens. The county boards of the counties involved, after meeting with the affected veterans service committees, are authorized to join two or more counties in the appointment of a county veterans service officer for a given area with the expenses to be shared by the counties involved. The county board and the county veterans service committee shall be authorized to appoint or place any veterans service officer on a part-time basis if such officer's service shall not require forty hours per week. Members of the county veterans service committee shall be ineligible to serve as county veterans service officers or assistant county veterans service officers.