Jun 2, 2026 By Mike Jones 4 min read

The newly formed committee designed to review which organizations in Washington County should receive money from Pennsylvania’s opioid settlement trust fund recommended six projects while delaying a decision on two others until the next round of funding.

The five-person committee met Monday morning for a continuation of their discussion last week in order to be able to make the recommendations to the Washington County commissioners, who have final say on how to allocate the grant money.

The members gathered to discuss which of the eight applications should receive the remaining $829,000 available from last year, with a June 15 deadline to distribute the money.

The committee recommended six grants, which are $10,000 for the county’s Department of Human Services’ Road to Recovery program; $291,941 for programs and treatment at Greenbriar Treatment’s Gateway Rehabilitation Center; $20,000 to Residential and Commercial Investments LLC for recovery houses; $17,541 to TurningPoint Washington for emergency kitchen repairs; and $41,000 to Shekinah Ranch Camp for scholarships. The remaining $448,518 will likely be awarded to the Department of Human Services for its integrated software program.

A $251,000 request from UPMC Washington Hospital’s opioid abuse mitigation program and a $275,000 request from Serenity Farms for recovery programs were tabled by a 5-0 vote in order to give the committee more time to review the applications during the next round of funding.

The committee made its recommendations following a nearly hour-long executive session to discuss the applications. John Tamiggi, who is the human services director and chairs the committee, abstained from voting on the two recommendations involving his department. All other approvals were unanimous.

Tamiggi and Teresa Cypher, who is a certified advanced alcohol and drug counselor and operator at Washington-based Turning Point II, attended the meeting in person, while Charleroi Area Superintendent Ed Zelich, Washington Teen Outreach Community Coordinator Amy Podgurski-Gough and Washington County Community Foundation President and CEO Aliesha Walz attended through video conferencing. Court Administrator Daniel Buzard and Peters Township police Chief Joe Glover are no longer on the committee, but their vacancies will be replaced, Tamiggi said.

The commissioners are holding a special meeting at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the public meeting room in Crossroads to approve the recipients. However, two of the applicants that are considered new programs – Residential and Commercial Investments LLC and TurningPoint Washington – must first undergo a preliminary review by the state’s opioid trust committee first before the commissioners can vote on them. That review process usually takes two to four weeks, although county officials hope that process can be expedited to make the June 15 deadline for 2025 funding.

“I think it went very well,” Tamiggi said of the committee’s first recommendations since the group was formed in February. “We were able to set the table, bring a collective group of individuals to help us go through the applications and get a better understanding and external look at the applicants and what they’re attempting to do, and kind of diversify that lens of understanding to best serve our residents of Washington County.”

Tamiggi said the two applicants that were tabled will be reviewed again in the 2026 round of funding.

“We want to do a little further explorative work on those applications,” Tamiggi said. “The dollar figures are significant and we want to make sure the impact is there.”

An appeal will be heard later this week for four grants from Washington County that were previously deemed non-compliant by the Pennsylvania Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement Trust’s dispute resolution committee during its March meeting. The appeal hearing will be held from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, giving county officials the chance to persuade the statewide committee to reconsider its rejection of those four grants. The rejected grants were $350,000 for the Shawn Patrick Recovery House; $80,000 to WHS Teen Outreach’s Common Ground Teen Center; $75,000 for The Childcare Group Solutions Center by Direct Consulting Solutions; and $25,000 for training and continuing education for the county’s Department of Human Services.

Wednesday’s meeting will be streamed on the internet and the link can be found on the trust fund’s website at www.paopioidtrust.org.