MERCER COUNTY, W.Va. – The Mercer County Commission passed a resolution to create an opioid settlement fund task force on Tuesday.
The task force is being created as a way to properly distribute funds gathered from opioid lawsuit settlements. Mercer County Commissioner Greg Puckett put together the resolution which he says will provide transparency to the community.
Puckett says the task force will allow the county commission to take recommendations from those more familiar with drug prevention when deciding where funds will go.
“The commission doesn’t have the necessary expertise to move that way forward. Having a task force available that gives you those options and gives you somebody with lived experience saying this is what is needed in the community, that really gives you the opportunity to use this money in the best way possible,” said Puckett.
Puckett says the goal is to have five people on the task force ranging from leaders in law enforcement and public health to community members who have had first hand experience with drug abuse.
Puckett says the county has been awarded $2.8 million but have invested $300,000 into the new sheriff’s office building and around $100,000 into the Mercer County Health Department to attract doctors to work there.
Puckett says more funding is expected to come. He says the plan is to maintain $1.5 million dollars in settlement funds in a savings account as a way to continue to garner interest for future use in the community.
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