The Park County Commissioners are taking their time to decide just how to use money from a national opioid settlement to fund programs in the county to reduce the use of illegal drugs and help those already addicted.

At a meeting last week, commissioners met with a group of local leaders, including Cody Mayor Matt Hall and Healthy Park County Community Prevention Specialist Wendy Morris, who have been working on a strategy for how best to use the funds. The funds are from the massive settlement with Purdue Pharmaceuticals regarding the company’s production and marketing of opioids, which the federal government alleged in its suit led to many cases of addiction across the country. Park County Attorney Bryan Skoric requested the meeting to determine what progress had been made by the group and to caution them on how the money could be used.

Commission Chair Dossie Overfield said not only has it had an impact in Park County, she wanted to make sure any programs funded by the settlement money locally have staying power, as the crisis may only get worse in the short term.

She said a meeting last week of Healthy Park County opened her eyes even more to the problems with fentanyl in the area.

“I wish every high school, middle school student could see the presentation,” Overfield said.

So far the county has received roughly $460,000 and can expect to receive $76,000 each year for the next few years, with a few years bumping to roughly $90,000 a year before returning to $76,000. The money, Skoric said, is all from the first of two pots of settlement funds being received by the state. He said he hadn’t heard anything about funds from the second group.

With so much still up in the air, Morris said it hasn’t stopped other counties from already spending funds they have on programs.

“We are doing this very thoughtfully in Park County, which is not necessarily the norm across the state,” she said. “Community-side conversations especially are not happening as thoughtfully around the state.”

Here, though, the group has talked with area organizations involved in addiction and the fallout from it, and have come up with potential ways of better funding prevention, law enforcement and recovery efforts. For instance, they’ve looked at ways to ensure addicted people who go to jail are still able to receive their medications while in the detention center, something Sheriff Darrell Steward said they’d have to see how that could work. Both police departments, Morris said, have also requested fentanyl testing supplies. 

Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt said recently that one of the most helpful things for officers on the street who deal with those suffering from addiction is to have strong organizations to refer them to for help.

Before funds are dispersed or even allocated, all present agreed on the need to hire a coordinator to assist in dispersement of the funds and ensure everything is being done properly. Hall, suggested Jackie Fales, who has a history both of addiction and then helping those with it, would be well positioned to take on the role.