by Olivia P. Tucker
Times Reporter
The Scott County Board of Commissioners gave their approval last week to fund three local organizations that sought a share of the state opiod settlement. The commissioners held a special meeting on Thursday, Feb. 9.
The Coalition to Eliminate the Abuse of Substances of Scott County (CEASe), Thrive and Scott County Partnership went to the commissioners seeking funding for a matching grants provided by the state to combat the opioid crisis that Indiana is facing
Scott County was heavily impacted by the use of Opioids and sued Purdue Pharma four years ago, said Commissioner President Mike Jones. Since then, the state of Indiana stepped in and has obtained a settlement that is being paid out to all 92 counties. The funding for the settlement must be spent in specified ways pertaining to opioids.
Scott County’s total amount from the settlement is $4.6 million over 15 years.
In the year 2023, Scott County received $459,000 from that settlement and has already allotted funds to the Scott County Health Department and Scott County EMS to add to their staff and training of both departments.
However, for these matching grants, there is a time limit to get the matching funds, said Jones.
“All of us understand that there is a need, you have a need. We all live here, we all understand the struggles of our county and we are still not over that, “said Commissioner Greg Prince.
Commissioner Randy Julian asked where the nearest location for someone to receive help was. He was told the nearest locations are in Wellstone and LifeSpring in Clark and Harrison Counties for someone receive onsite treatment.
Both locations are 20 minutes from Scott County and Julian expressed concern that there wasn’t a residency drug program in Scott County.
Carissa Miller CEASe coordinator explained that for Scott County to have a facility and a staff a residency drug program it would cost millions of dollars to maintain.
“We are trying to help people now,” said Phil Stucky the representative for Thrive.
Julian compared not having treatment available in Scott County to a game of poker where he said he would cut the deck.
“At the end of the day, it’s for Scott County,” Stucky said. “[Thrive] is a nonprofit, we don’t bring home profit. This is money (you are allotting) for Scott County not for Thrive. I appreciate the analogy, I don’t want to play with people’s lives.”
Thrive requested $189,000 and was approved for $50,000, Julian abstained from the vote for Thrive. Scott County Partnership requested and was approved for $20,000, and CEASe requested $81,800 and was approved.
The Commissioners requested that CEASe focus on education, requesting that $12,000 of their funding go to prevention.
Jones said that CEASe touches more lives in Scott County than any other organization. He also said that education was the way to combat drug usage.
All three organizations will now have to go before the Scott County Council, who holds the county’s purse strings, to gain final approval for the opiod funding.