MORGANTOWN — It appears as if Milan Puskar Health Right’s proposal to place sharps containers at various points near downtown Morgantown will happen “soon.”
At the end of an hour-long work session Friday afternoon, Morgantown City Manager Paul Brake said he intends to work with Health Right Executive Director Laura Jones and Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston to iron out details, including where the needle collection boxes should be placed.
The placement will likely come with a public education component as well as a formal city policy or set of procedures.
Jones approached Morgantown City Council on Nov. 30 with a plan to provide the city with three relatively small sharps containers for placement in areas where Health Right personnel, police, public works crews and community volunteers routinely find and gather used syringes.
She said the containers, roughly $350 each, would be maintained and emptied by Health Right, which has operated a clean needle access program for the past four years.
Jones repeated the pitch on Friday, this time with Preston as backup. The chief said his support should not be viewed as condoning illegal behavior or even an effort to protect IV drug users.
“Anything that happens that’s going to reduce the amount of exposure to blood-borne pathogens and sharp contamination is going to be helpful,” Preston said. “It’s not for the people engaging in illegal activities or those trapped in the fate of addiction, but it is to provide additional safety to public in general.”
Preston said the number of syringes collected by the MPD prompted the placement of containers in all the department’s cruisers years ago.
“As it is right now, your police are acting as garbage men,” he said.
Of the members of council, Mayor Bill Kawecki has been the most hesitant to support the measure. As he has previously, Kawecki said he fears the placement of the disposal boxes will actually draw more unwanted behavior to those areas.
Locations along or near the rail trail, like Whitmore Park and beneath the South High Street Bridge, are known hot spots for drug use and temporary encampments.
“The question is do we make these places much more active by placing the sharps containers,” Kawecki asked.
Both Jones and Preston said the boxes are needed in specific locations because the needles are already there. Preston also took exception to the idea that the problems boil down to a lack of enforcement, calling the notion “unfair and absolutely ridiculous.”
Councilor Jenny Selin said questions about the introduction of sharps containers into public spaces are just that, questions — not necessarily opposition.
She said the perspective of Health Right, which fights the epidemic of addiction every day, and city council, which is charged with creating public policy, are simply different.
“It doesn’t seem like we’re being very obstructionist about this. We’re just wanting to know enough information and we would like to know more information as this is developed,” Selin said.
In the end, Jones explained, allowing the placement of the collection units is a proactive step to improve public safety that comes at no cost to the city.
“There are a lot of things that we need, but this is something that we desperately need that we can do relatively quickly, and hopefully make an impact,” she said. “It’s not going to solve the problem, but it perhaps will send a message that city council is concerned about the safety of others.”
