Sep 20, 2024 By Mike Jones 4 min read

Nearly $1 million is being disbursed to more than a dozen entities in the first round of payments coming from the nationwide opioid settlement.

The Washington County commissioners during their Thursday voting meeting unanimously approved the 13 different groups and programs that will receive $888,806 sent to the county last year from the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust.

The county asked for applications earlier this year and selected the program following a review by the Human Services department. This first round was supposed to be allocated last year, but it was pushed back as the county underwent staffing changes in the department. Washington County will be able to allocate more than $800,000 annually for 18 years as part of the settlement, with the money being sent to individual states and then filtered to the counties to determine how it should be used.

This year’s allocations are $250,000 to Serenity Farms for a sober living house; $125,000 to the Washington County Correctional Facility for its medical assistance treatment program; $121,950 to Harmony Life Center for programming; $62,000 to SPHS for its Peer Recovery Support Services in Washington; $62,000 to SPHS for its Peer Recovery Support Services in Mon Valley; $62,000 to the county’s probation office for case management and peer recovery support; $50,000 to the district attorney’s office for training and prevention; $50,000 for a facility compliance consultant; $36,556 to MedMark; $35,000 for DARE school district programming; $16,800 to DHS Housing for a Street Outreach coordinator; $15,000 for a county media campaign; and $2,500 to Case Management for ID services.

Matt Uram, who is executive director of Serenity Farms that received the largest allocation of $250,000, said the money will be used to help open a licensed three-quarter sober living house. That house is one facet of a larger project Uram is taking on through Serenity Farms and the Landmark Building he owns on East Maiden Street in Washington that is becoming a “one-stop shop” for recovering addicts to find resources.

“It’s about making recovery palatable. It’s about making treatment attainable,” Uram said in a phone interview after the county commissioners meeting. “Treatment (itself) should be difficult, but when you get to the recovery phase, it should be the light at the end of the tunnel. The more people’s lives we can help out and become productive citizens, the better all our lives are.”

The Landmark Building is becoming a hub for a variety of organizations and resources for people with addiction issues, which he hopes will help people find medical, legal and recovery assistance.

“There are so many layers to the opioid epidemic,” Uram said. “It’s done so much damage,”

One of those organizations now located in Landmark is Harmony Life Center, which received nearly $122,000 from the opioid settlement money. Karen Bennett, who is board president of Harmony Life Center, said the funds will act as “seed money” to help them hire a center manager since it’s currently an all-volunteer force. She added the center runs 52 meetings per month and has 800 visitors come through during that space, so a full-time staff member is needed “to work with people who come through the door for services” and keep up with demand for the programs.

“It’s for sustainability for the organization,” Bennett said in an interview after the meeting. “We have no staff. We’re volunteers running the center … so someone needs to be there to coordinate those meetings.”

A second application for proposals from eligible entities requesting money from the 2024 allotment of funds will be sent out soon, giving organizations that weren’t selected in the initial round another opportunity.

Also during Thursday’s meeting, the commissioners nominated Deputy Controller Heather Sheatler to serve in an interim role leading the office after elected Controller April Sloane said she would resign at the end of the month as part of her guilty plea to felony animal cruelty charges on Sept. 5. The commissioners are also asking Gov. Josh Shapiro to formally appoint Sheatler to the role for the remainder of Sloane’s term, which expires in January 2026.

Later in the meeting, the commissioners voted 2-1 on a professional services agreement that will pay Mission Critical Partners $1.95 million over the next three years to help implement the new public safety radio system. Commissioners Nick Sherman and Electra Janis voted in favor, while Commissioner Larry Maggi voted against the motion.

Sherman also announced that there will be a special meeting at 9 a.m. Monday to discuss the public safety radio contract with Motorola, which is pending approval by the commissioners. It was not immediately known if the commissioners planned to take action on the contract at the meeting or just discuss the situation.