County budgets opioid settlement's first installment

Jul. 12—LENOIR — During the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, July 11, County Manager Donald Duncan presented a budget amendment establishing a special revenue fund for the opioid settlement.

The funds come from the recent national opioid settlement with major pharmaceutical companies, such as McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen, who are being held responsible for creating and fueling the opioid epidemic.

Out of the state's portion of $750 million, the county is projected to receive $8.2 million spread over 18 years to combat the opioid crisis locally.

"This is the first traunch of money," said Duncan in a follow-up interview with the News-Topic. "The main thing is we have to track the expenses of our fund separately, that way every dollar we spend, we know where it's at."

The county is expected to receive at least one more portion of funds during the fiscal year for a potential of $1 million in the first year. Payments in the subsequent 17 years will be about $300,000 per year.

Right now, there are two main areas of focus for these funds. The first is to begin medically-assisted treatment for opioid-addicted patients in custody.

"In North Carolina, the highest mortality rate for opioid-addicted patients happens if you've been incarcerated and released; the chances are 40% higher 10 days after incarceration," Duncan said. "When we have them in custody for whatever reason, we can begin medically-assisted treatments for those folks day one."

The second major goal is to focus on helping and treating pregnant mothers who have an opioid addiction or deal with opioid addiction in some way.

"We have what's called the community paramedics program," Duncan said. "We'd like to expand that program to have one paramedic to focus on it, one paramedic who's job is to go into the jails, do follow-ups, go out to the scene, and also go and talk to mothers about prenatal care. We don't want the tragic thing of a child born with addiction, and we don't want that child after its born to be part of our social services network."

The next step in providing opioid treatment is to establish better coordination between social services and the health department on these issues.

The Caldwell County RESTART program was created two years ago to address the needs of community members with opioid addictions. Funds from the opioid settlement will allow the RESTART program to continue and even expand its outreach.

"There's other money that will come later," Duncan said. "That money will go towards long-range medically-assisted treatment, counseling, and treatment through other pharmaceuticals that help break the addiction cycle ... what the county has already started with RESTART will continue that progress for decades."

RESTART is an acronym for Recognize, Educate, Stabilize, Transform, Accelerate, Rehabilitate, and Trust the citizens of Caldwell County.

Unfortunately, even with the money from the opioid settlement, opioid addiction and opioid-related deaths will continue to plague not only Caldwell County, but also the entire nation.

"What we have to focus on is exposing an option for people while we have the chance," said Duncan. "Success is unfortunately going to be measured in single-digit numbers. We want people to understand [the resources are] there. This amount of money will nowhere near touch the scope of this problem, but we can make a difference where we can and make a clear impact ... we will do our best to have a resource there for people who want help."

However, despite the enormous scale of this issue, county officials are still determined to help those in need.

"There are a lot of sentiments amongst the community that they're drug addicts and they're not worth saving," said Duncan. "But we're here to help everybody and to give them an opportunity to get better treatment and care. They didn't become an addict over night; it took years to get to this problem, it's going to take years to solve this problem."

In other news, Chief Dino DiBernardi, Emergency Services director, proposed to the commissioners a call for a public hearing regarding an ambulance franchise agreement with North State Medical Transport.

"They're initially offering an Advanced Life Support (ALS) crew 24 hours a day and Basic Life Support (BSL) crew 12 hours a day," said DiBernardi. "It is the recommendation of Emergency Services to proceed with the public hearing ... If you are to proceed with the public hearing for the next meeting, we will also provide in your next packet the formal recommendation, the updated system plan, and the semi-application that is acquired for the ordinance that Caldwell County currently has for granting the franchise agreement to North State Medical."

The board of commissioners approved the call for a public hearing to be set for the next meeting on Monday, Aug. 8.

Additionally, EDC Director Deborah Murray presented to the commissioners a call for a public hearing to consider the purchase of a 30-acre site on Helton Road in Sawmills for industrial development.

"The county established a new industrial site development program not too long ago which was designed to encourage further new industrial investment and to continue our economic success in the county," said Murray. "A 30-acre site has been identified in Sawmills, upon Helton Road just off of 321A, and this site is of great value and great potential ... The proceeds will be derived from the closing, which took place last week, of the property that we sold to a company in Granite Falls, the 66 acres located on New Farm Rd."

Murray provided for the board a potential rendering of three buildings that could be located on that property.

"This is a new program," she said. "We're just getting started on this, but we'd like the opportunity to develop this with the potential for several hundred jobs at the county's average wage, which is very, very strong."

The board approved the call for a public hearing to be set for the next meeting on Monday, Aug. 8.