TOPSHAM — The burgeoning Mid Coast Veterans Council will meet Saturday at 2 p.m. All area veterans are welcome.

The meeting will be held at American Legion Post 202, located at 79 Foreside Road in Topsham.

Before attendees get down to organizational matters, they will welcome Secretary of State Charles Summers.

Summers, who wasn’t able to attend the council’s first meeting due to a conflicting schedule, will sit down with veterans Saturday to offer advice on the effort to find space for a veterans center on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station property.

Summers also plans to answer questions about services the Secretary of State’s Office offers to veterans.

In addition to serving as secretary of state, Summers is a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, assigned to the public affairs staff of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey. Summers has served in the Navy Reserve since 1996.

He was activated following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to serve on the staff of then-Secretary of the Navy Gordon England. In 2007, he was recalled to active duty and deployed to Iraq.

From October 2009 to October 2010, he served on active duty on the staff of former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. During that time, he completed a temporary assignment as a member of the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command in Afghanistan.

His biography lists several military decorations. He is an appointed member of the Advisory Council for Hope For The Warriors, “ whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for U.S. service members and their families nationwide who have been adversely affected by injuries or death in the line of duty,” the biography states.

Summers, who filed papers to run for the U. S. Senate, served as state director for U. S. Sen. Olympia Snowe from 1995 to 2004. After that, he served as the New England regional administrator for the U. S. Small Business Administration.

According to Roger Dumont — who with Jorge Maderal has served as a moderator for the council since its first meeting in January — the meeting Saturday will solidify the veterans council. Those who attend will finalize the bylaws that have been written, he said.

The meeting also will include the nominations and elections of officers. Elected will be the council chairman, vice chairman, treasurer, secretary and sergeant at arms.

Possible discussion items include legislation affecting military benefits, retiree benefits, veteran benefits and the status of the council’s effort to acquire land at the former Navy base for a veterans center and meeting area for local veterans groups.

The Mid Coast Veterans Council hopes to secure space at the chapel at the former Navy base — now called Brunswick Landing. The chapel has been slated for use as a museum by the Brunswick Naval Museum and Memorial Gardens group.

Dumont also serves on the board of that organization and said the veterans council is coordinating with museum organizers for shared use of the chapel. Representatives of the two groups recently toured the chapel.

The veterans council hopes to establish a retirement affairs office, which can provide information about veterans benefits that otherwise would require Mid-coast region veterans to travel to Togus.

Dumont said the veterans council would consider other locations, but the chapel is the most viable space. Moreover, the veterans center is expected to complement the museum well “and we think it’s a great move for the community.

For more information, call Chick Ciciotte at 725-8543 or Roger Dumont at 833-6110.

dmoore@timesrecord.com