Brooke County awards first opioid funding allocations to sheriff’s department
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WELLSBURG - Brooke County commissioners awarded the county’s first allotment of opioid settlement funds Wednesday, supporting five requested projects from the Brooke County Sheriff’s Department.
"As everybody in this room, for the most part, has been following, the process of receiving applications and reviewing, as done by the Prosecutor’s Office, to make sure that the requests and their language meets the MOU with the West Virginia First Foundation requirements," noted Commission President Tommy Diserio.
Diserio noted the first requests made to the county, and the first to complete a review, were submitted by the Sheriff’s Department.
The five projects set to receive funds have a total allocation of $345,482.85.
Those projects include the purchase of 18 SafeFleet dash cameras for a cost of $268,675; one Live Scan fingerprint machine at a cost of $1,699; one ThermoFisher narcotics analyzer at $33,608; 300 drug test kits at $1,077.89; and 18 automated external defibrillator systems at a cost of $40,350.96.
Acting Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Kyler Ferguson expressed appreciation to the commission for funding the purchases, noting they are as much about providing safety to the people of Brooke County as the safety of the deputies.
"They’ll be put into good use in the county," Ferguson said. "Saving one life can pay for all of this."
The AED units, for example, include Narcan kits to assist in the event a deputy responds to an overdose, with the narcotics analyzer able to scan and chemically identify suspected drugs without any physical contact.
For the dash cams and other digital equipment, Ferguson said units will include either internal or cloud storage, but the Sheriff’s Department also plans to establish an internal database to maintain records of each time devices are used and the results of their use.
The fingerprint machine will update the department’s current system, which was purchased in 2010.
The Sheriff’s Department had submitted requests totaling $580,000 in allocations, with 13 other agencies also requesting funds.
Other applications to the county include the Brooke County Health Department, $159,784; WVU Medicine $125,000; EMA/EMS Deputy Director Mike Loborec, $76,127; Easter Seals, $20,000; Empower and Link Inc., $273,120.80; EMA/EMS Director Greg Moore, $295,000; Youth Services System Inc., $185,000; Brooke County Firefighters Association, $116,599; Bethany Police Department, $114,734.28; the City of Follansbee, with two requests for $21,850 and $31,306.86; CHANGE Inc., $158,642; Meetopolis Wellness LLC, $75,000; and five requests from the Wellsburg Police Department in the amounts of $43,441, $24,738.37, $1,745, $5,600, and $49,611.
The county had been provided with approximately $1.1 million through its agreement with the West Virginia First Foundation, which divided funding derived from various legal settlements between the state and producers and distributors of pharmaceutical opioids to all 55 counties and numerous municipalities.
(Howell can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com)