Commissioners OK Opioid Grant Application
March 1, 2023 at 12:26 a.m.
Commissioners OK Opioid Grant Application
By David [email protected]
On Tuesday, County Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell presented the final grant application to the Kosciusko County Commissioners for their approval before sending it off to the state.
“The first thing I provided you with is a spreadsheet showing how much money the county expects to get in the long run over the next 17-18 years. We should be receiving a total of a little more than $1.3 million. So, as we got ready to work on this grant, we knew that we haven’t got that money, and therefore we scaled our program way, way back to make sure that we have the money on hand to be able to pay for everything that we’re asking to do,” Mitchell explained.
The second handout she provided to the commissioners included the budget which showed the committee’s plan is to provide $60,000 for jail counseling over a three-year period; $45,000 for juvenile counseling; and $300,000 to Fellowship Missions for a building and more counseling.
At Thursday’s committee meeting, they had discussed providing $45,000 to go toward additional mental health counseling in the jail; $45,000 toward Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI); $240,000 toward CARES (Community Assistance, Resources and Emergency Services) counselors in the county, outside of the city of Warsaw; and $200,000 toward Fellowship Missions’ need for more space.
Mitchell said Tuesday that the information they have to submit for the grant had to be emailed by 4:30 p.m.
“The beauty of the thing is that we met together as a committee. We had more than 20 people who attended the first meeting that was set up rapidly in order to try to meet these criteria, and so we have pulled together sources that I believe our community should be very proud of. We have a lot of people in this community who are trying to work on this opioid issue, and our goal, as a committee - which includes Bob Conley and Kathy Groninger and I - is not to stop here. We’re not done just with a sprint. We have much work yet to do because we’ve got to figure out how to spend the balance of the money,” Mitchell said.
The biggest part of the grant, she said, requires collaboration and sustainability, which were met without dipping into other county funds.
“We’ll also have other grant opportunities we know coming down the pipe,” Mitchell said.
She thanked Live Well Kosciusko President and CEO Lisa Harman for being instrumental in helping her figure out how to do the grant application.
“One of the things that we found in these groups is something that I want to give Mayor Joe (Thallemer) the credit for and his team with Chris Fancil. His CARES program is what we really, really wanted to do, but after we looked at the cost and the impact it would have on the county, the county is not geared up to do that type of service. It would totally be outside of our bailiwick, and in the short frame, in order to qualify for this grant, we could not pull the pieces together to make it happen,” Mitchell said.
The request for funding was only released Jan. 31, with respondents to be notified May 1 if they’ve received any money. The projects are to start July 1 and end June 30, 2025.
Mitchell said the committee is not done because they have work yet to do.
“But the hope would be that we could pull together something so that we can provide that kind of service that Warsaw city is providing under their CARES program to other areas out in our community, to reach out to our whole community and provide that,” she said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger thanked Mitchell, saying he knows she and the other committee members worked really hard on the matching grant application in a short period of time.
“I also appreciate your diligence that you’re not committing the county to things that we can’t afford to sustain long-term. We have these grant dollars in front of us right now, which are great, but it’s something that it does run out, so making sure we’re not committing ourselves with multiple employees and overhead and everything that goes with those employees in the future,” Groninger said.
He made a motion to approve the grant application, commissioner Brad Jackson seconded it and it was approved 3-0.
In other business, the commissioners approved:
• Awarding the Kosciusko County Highway Department’s Community Crossings Matching Grant projects on Old 30 and Pierceton Road to Phend & Brown for $1,469,013.33. That is $636,313.13 lower than the engineer’s estimate, according to Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty.
The bids were opened at the Feb. 14 commissioners meeting and the two other bids included Niblock Excavating’s total bid of $1,568,426.58 and Brooks Construction bid of $1,579,126.52.
The project for Old 30 is from Ind. 13 to CR 450E, and the project for Pierceton Road is from the town limits of Winona Lake to the town limits of Pierceton.
• A right-of-way service agreement between the LPA consultant, which is USI Consulting, and the county, as requested by Moriarty. The agreement will allow the purchasing of right-of-way to begin for the bridge No. 30 project, which is on Beer Road in Milford.
• The purchase of three driers for the jail laundry facility, as requested by County Administrator Marsha McSherry, for $22,582.80 from Super Laundry, Indianapolis.
• Prosecutor Brad Voelz’s request for the commissioners to approve a cooperative agreement renewal for the senior prosecutor hub grant between the county and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council (IPAC).
The county terminated its contract with IPAC at the end of 2022 so Kosciusko County will no longer be the hub county in the future. The leftover 2022 grant funds will continue paying the county staff through 2023 until IPAC can find a new county to take on the role of the hub county.
• A contract between the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and Quality Correctional Care, as presented by Sheriff Jim Smith.
The biggest change in the contract over the past and the one he’s most excited about, Smith said, is “the ability we’re going to have to increase our mental health portion of it. We’re going to go from 16 hours a month to 96 hours minimum a month of mental health for the general population of the inmates of Kosciusko County Jail.”
He said it’s been proven statistically that it will decrease the jail’s medical bills, damage, fights, etc.
• A cybersecurity personnel policy as presented by Systems Administrator Bob Momeyer.
• Two rezoning requests presented by Area Plan Director Matt Sandy. Both rezonings were recommended by the Area Plan Commission to be approved.
The first one was for 4 acres to be rezoned from Agriculture to Agriculture-2. The property, owned by Tom Hardy, is down at CR 700E in the southeast corner of the county. Hardy said he wants to add a couple homes.
The second was to rezone 3.38 acres from Agriculture to Agriculture-2. The property, owned by James Craig, is off to the west of Pierceton on CR 600E, south of Pierceton Road. Attorney Steve Snyder, representing Craig, said a grandson will construct a residence on the property.
On Tuesday, County Councilwoman Sue Ann Mitchell presented the final grant application to the Kosciusko County Commissioners for their approval before sending it off to the state.
“The first thing I provided you with is a spreadsheet showing how much money the county expects to get in the long run over the next 17-18 years. We should be receiving a total of a little more than $1.3 million. So, as we got ready to work on this grant, we knew that we haven’t got that money, and therefore we scaled our program way, way back to make sure that we have the money on hand to be able to pay for everything that we’re asking to do,” Mitchell explained.
The second handout she provided to the commissioners included the budget which showed the committee’s plan is to provide $60,000 for jail counseling over a three-year period; $45,000 for juvenile counseling; and $300,000 to Fellowship Missions for a building and more counseling.
At Thursday’s committee meeting, they had discussed providing $45,000 to go toward additional mental health counseling in the jail; $45,000 toward Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI); $240,000 toward CARES (Community Assistance, Resources and Emergency Services) counselors in the county, outside of the city of Warsaw; and $200,000 toward Fellowship Missions’ need for more space.
Mitchell said Tuesday that the information they have to submit for the grant had to be emailed by 4:30 p.m.
“The beauty of the thing is that we met together as a committee. We had more than 20 people who attended the first meeting that was set up rapidly in order to try to meet these criteria, and so we have pulled together sources that I believe our community should be very proud of. We have a lot of people in this community who are trying to work on this opioid issue, and our goal, as a committee - which includes Bob Conley and Kathy Groninger and I - is not to stop here. We’re not done just with a sprint. We have much work yet to do because we’ve got to figure out how to spend the balance of the money,” Mitchell said.
The biggest part of the grant, she said, requires collaboration and sustainability, which were met without dipping into other county funds.
“We’ll also have other grant opportunities we know coming down the pipe,” Mitchell said.
She thanked Live Well Kosciusko President and CEO Lisa Harman for being instrumental in helping her figure out how to do the grant application.
“One of the things that we found in these groups is something that I want to give Mayor Joe (Thallemer) the credit for and his team with Chris Fancil. His CARES program is what we really, really wanted to do, but after we looked at the cost and the impact it would have on the county, the county is not geared up to do that type of service. It would totally be outside of our bailiwick, and in the short frame, in order to qualify for this grant, we could not pull the pieces together to make it happen,” Mitchell said.
The request for funding was only released Jan. 31, with respondents to be notified May 1 if they’ve received any money. The projects are to start July 1 and end June 30, 2025.
Mitchell said the committee is not done because they have work yet to do.
“But the hope would be that we could pull together something so that we can provide that kind of service that Warsaw city is providing under their CARES program to other areas out in our community, to reach out to our whole community and provide that,” she said.
Commissioner Cary Groninger thanked Mitchell, saying he knows she and the other committee members worked really hard on the matching grant application in a short period of time.
“I also appreciate your diligence that you’re not committing the county to things that we can’t afford to sustain long-term. We have these grant dollars in front of us right now, which are great, but it’s something that it does run out, so making sure we’re not committing ourselves with multiple employees and overhead and everything that goes with those employees in the future,” Groninger said.
He made a motion to approve the grant application, commissioner Brad Jackson seconded it and it was approved 3-0.
In other business, the commissioners approved:
• Awarding the Kosciusko County Highway Department’s Community Crossings Matching Grant projects on Old 30 and Pierceton Road to Phend & Brown for $1,469,013.33. That is $636,313.13 lower than the engineer’s estimate, according to Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty.
The bids were opened at the Feb. 14 commissioners meeting and the two other bids included Niblock Excavating’s total bid of $1,568,426.58 and Brooks Construction bid of $1,579,126.52.
The project for Old 30 is from Ind. 13 to CR 450E, and the project for Pierceton Road is from the town limits of Winona Lake to the town limits of Pierceton.
• A right-of-way service agreement between the LPA consultant, which is USI Consulting, and the county, as requested by Moriarty. The agreement will allow the purchasing of right-of-way to begin for the bridge No. 30 project, which is on Beer Road in Milford.
• The purchase of three driers for the jail laundry facility, as requested by County Administrator Marsha McSherry, for $22,582.80 from Super Laundry, Indianapolis.
• Prosecutor Brad Voelz’s request for the commissioners to approve a cooperative agreement renewal for the senior prosecutor hub grant between the county and the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council (IPAC).
The county terminated its contract with IPAC at the end of 2022 so Kosciusko County will no longer be the hub county in the future. The leftover 2022 grant funds will continue paying the county staff through 2023 until IPAC can find a new county to take on the role of the hub county.
• A contract between the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and Quality Correctional Care, as presented by Sheriff Jim Smith.
The biggest change in the contract over the past and the one he’s most excited about, Smith said, is “the ability we’re going to have to increase our mental health portion of it. We’re going to go from 16 hours a month to 96 hours minimum a month of mental health for the general population of the inmates of Kosciusko County Jail.”
He said it’s been proven statistically that it will decrease the jail’s medical bills, damage, fights, etc.
• A cybersecurity personnel policy as presented by Systems Administrator Bob Momeyer.
• Two rezoning requests presented by Area Plan Director Matt Sandy. Both rezonings were recommended by the Area Plan Commission to be approved.
The first one was for 4 acres to be rezoned from Agriculture to Agriculture-2. The property, owned by Tom Hardy, is down at CR 700E in the southeast corner of the county. Hardy said he wants to add a couple homes.
The second was to rezone 3.38 acres from Agriculture to Agriculture-2. The property, owned by James Craig, is off to the west of Pierceton on CR 600E, south of Pierceton Road. Attorney Steve Snyder, representing Craig, said a grandson will construct a residence on the property.
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