MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Monongalia County Commission has awarded more than $626,000 in opioid settlement funds to 13 organizations.
The funding decisions, announced Wednesday, will come out of the just more than $1 million the commission has so far received in settlement funds from two sources.
The commission reviewed a total of 18 total requests totaling $1,988,045.24 during the approval process.
Commissioner Tom Bloom said the application review process took more than 30 hours and the focus was on existing programs with a track record of success.
“There are no public forums; that is not what is needed,” Bloom said. “What is needed are specific programs that we can move forward on that the community has to offer.”
Those awarded funds were:
Mon EMS: $36,000
Aspire Services Center: $24,400
Lauren’s Wish Triage Center $37,500
Monongalia County Health Department $51,000
Morgantown Sober Living $84,000
Monongalia County Public Defender’s Office: $10,000
Monongalia County Child Advocacy Center: $45,000
CASA for Kids: $18,000
Iberia Inc., $35,000
Milan Puskar Health Right $51,000
Wise Path Recovery Center: $125,000
West Virginia University Research Center $50,000
Morgantown Area Youth Center $60,000
Commission President Sean Sikora said they focused on new approaches and established programs that were ready to expand but did not approve applications for services that appeared to be a duplication of effort.
“We’re rewarding areas where organizations are successful in what they’re doing and needed more bandwidth to continue their mission,” Sikora said.
Commissioner Jeff Arnett was pleased with the approval process used and looks forward to the next round of grant opportunities.
“I feel we’ve come up with some pretty good decisions that should help a lot of people and we have a pool of money there going forward, and we’ll announce at a later time how we’ll make those funds available for more grant requests,” Arnett said.
Sikora said in the initial award process they wanted to be cautious, and in addition to future annual payments, he wants to reserve funds for the next award cycle.
“At this point, we’re only giving away 60 percent of the dollars that we have and we’ll be getting yearly allotments, so we’re just being very judicious with these dollars.”