Opioid settlement pause affects coroner

Council votes against new van

The Porter County Council is slowing its spending of opioid settlement funds as it waits for a newly formed committee that will oversee applications for the money’s use to set guidelines and develop an application process.

At Tuesday’s council meeting Jake Monhaut, director of Portage Recovery Association, was able to secure a monthly reimbursement grant not to exceed a cumulative total of $10,000 to fund the expansion of hours of operation of a recovery cafe at 5991 McCasland Ave. in Portage. With the money, the cafe will be able to pay more staff and increase its hours from 22 to 50 per week.

The council said it will be the last approval of opioid settlement funds disbursement until a selection process is in place and made the exception for Portage Recovery Assoc. because it has been pursuing the funding since last year and Monhaut told the Council his efforts were at the suggestion of Porter County Commissioner Barb Regnitz, R-Center.

Monhaut said clients have expressed frustration the cafe, which is currently open daily from 5 to 8 p.m., doesn’t offer daytime hours because they don’t drive at night.

County Councilman Andy Bozak, R-At-Large, voted against the funding, clarifying that while he supports the organization’s mission, he isn’t comfortable appropriating funds without a policy in place.

“After this gentleman, we’re taking a pause,” said Council Vice President Red Stone, R-1st. “Nobody is going to be coming before us for more donations until we have a process.”

Porter County Coroner Cyndi Dykes and Deputy Coroner Brian Bowles were hoping to use Opioid Settlement Fund money for a $14,502 one-year lease to replace the department’s 17-year-old van,

one of two used to transport the deceased.

Dykes said she was told by a county garage mechanic during a tire replacement that the undercarriage of the 2007 van is rusting out and could become unsafe to drive.

“We want a respectable vehicle for the citizens of Porter County,” Bowles said. “We are often the last image that any possible member of our county could see driving away with their loved one in a rusty van. It’s just not a good look.”

The case for opioid settlement money was made because the coroner’s office will now begin carrying naloxone, the antidote to opiate drug overdose, because of potential exposure to coroner’s staff, police, other first responders, and those on the scene of drug overdose deaths. Bowles explained that he and a police officer and paramedics were recently exposed to puffs of powder when draping and moving the body of a resident who had died of an overdose.

County Councilman Greg Simms, D-3, had been out to the county parking garage to inspect the vehicle and didn’t see the need to replace it, as it has new tires and brakes, and just over 60,000 miles. “The vans are mechanically sound. They pick up dead people,” he said.

“Excuse me,” Dykes replied.

“As somebody who has put both my mom and my dad in either the 2007 or the 2012 . . .” Stone said of the two vans belonging to the coroner’s office.

“You didn’t let me finish my sentence,” Simms interjected. “These are aesthetically fine, as well on the outside. You’re saying ‘That’s the last thing being seen.’ They’re fine.”

The council ultimately voted 5-to-2 to deny the request for the opioid settlement funds for that purpose, with Stone and Council President Mike Brickner, R-At-Large, casting the only favorable votes.

Opposition from the other members ranged from Simms’s stance, to Bozak’s feeling that any spending of the money should come before the new committee, to that of Councilman

Jeremy Rivas, D-2nd, who said the money should be more directly spent on helping addicts.

“I don’t think we should be buying vehicles with it,” Rivas said. “We could be going out and saving lives with it.”

Rivas told Dykes he would ask that she go to the commissioners to see if they would approve of her using the cumulative capital development fund, which has a $2.2 million balance, for the vehicle. She responded that she would try, but had been told by the commissioners that they would approve the lease if she first secured funding from the council.