KINGWOOD — Preston Commissioners agreed to apply for a second year of a grant that the community corrections director said is providing help for those addicted to drugs.
“I love this,” Krista McDonald, director of the Preston County Community Corrections program, told commissioners Monday.
The federal Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program (COAP) grant includes mental health services, medicated assisted treatment, training and recovery resources. It is to help rural communities receive mental health and substance abuse treatment that aren’t readily available locally.
Through the use of telehealth, people are able to get psychological help and medications to help treat addictions within a week, rather than a month, McDonald said.
“It’s amazing the turnover of how fast we can get people in,” she said.
But right now she does all the on-site work, so in the new grant application McDonald is asking for money to hire a project coordinator and a substance abuse nurse. McDonald said she could also use more space for the program, because having only one room now limits the number of people who can be served. County Administrator Shannon Wolfe said she may be able to help with that.
McDonald said Preston County’s problem drug is more often methamphetamine than opioids.
“But this is what’s happening: Recently they’re mixing their methamphetamine with fentanyl,” McDonald told Commissioners Dave Price, Don Smith and Samantha Stone.
All recent positive tests for meth in their clients have returned positive for fentanyl too, McDonald said.
Also Monday, commissioners:
— were told by Wolfe she hopes to have a proposal next week from the landlord of property the county is negotiating to use as an election center. The location has not been made public.
— agreed to sell a 2012 Ram truck no longer being used by the sheriff’s department to Tucker County for $10,500. A Yukon not used by the animal shelter will be sold on govdeals.com, two former cruisers are being sold through Enterprise, and a Ford Explorer with an estimated value of $4,000 may be leased to the Tunnelton Volunteer Fire Department.
— learned the sheriff’s department received a $45,000 Homeland Security grant to replace some of its computers.
— agreed to proclaim this Association of Retired School Employees Week in Preston County. Over the past year, retired school employees volunteered for more than 3,500 hours, Guy Cox told the commission.
