Brooke Commission receives new opioid fund request

WELLSBURG -- The Brooke County Commission now has an even dozen organizations seeking a share of the county’s opioid settlement funds.

During Tuesday’s commission meeting, it was announced the county had received an application from CHANGE Inc. for $158,642 in funding.

"We’ll add that to the list," Commission President Tom Diserio said.

Brooke County has been awarded approximately $1.1 million in opioid settlement funds through the West Virginia First Foundation, derived from court settlements involving the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office and various manufacturers and distributors of pharmaceutical opioids.

Updated applications for a share of the funds also include $580,000 from the Brooke County Sheriff’s Department; $159,784 from the Brooke County Health Department; $125,000 from WVU Medicine; $76,127 from county EMA/EMS Deputy Director Mike Loborec; $20,000 from Easter Seals; $374,015 from Empower & Link Inc.; $295,000 from county EMA/EMS Director Greg Moore; $185,000 from Youth Services System Inc.; $116,599 from the Brooke County Firefighters Association; $114,734.28 from the Bethany Police Department; and three requests from the Wellsburg Police Department in the amounts of $43,441, $24,738.37 and $1,745.

All of those requests total $2,274,825.65, or approximately twice the amount of funds currently available from the county.

Diserio explained each application is being reviewed by the Brooke County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office but cautioned those reviews may be slowed down because of upcoming court cases.

Prosecuting Attorney Allison Cowden, though, said her office has been able to complete reviews of some of the applications and expects to begin forwarding them to the commissioners for consideration in the near future.

"We’re on track to at least get a few of them to you," Cowden said.

In response to a question raised recently about how long commissioners would accept applications, Diserio noted there is no deadline.

"I think we agreed, at the beginning, we’re going to leave it open until the funds are exhausted," Diserio said.

To be considered, an application must meet the requirements outlined in a 41-page memorandum of understanding signed by Brooke commissioners and developed through the West Virginia First Foundation. Local governmental entities agreed to the terms of the MOU to receive a share of the settlement funds.

Those uses generally must fall within the MOU’s approved purposes and core strategies, including treatment, recovery, prevention, first responders, training, research and law enforcement.

(Howell can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com)