Opioid Committee Considers Addressing Treatment Court Transportation Issues
The committee also discussed an anti-drug advertising campaign.
Hillsdale County—At its meeting on 9 April, the Hillsdale County Opioid Committee, which has been assigned the task of distributing opioid settlement funds, discussed two options for allocating some of its funds.
The committee spent the bulk of the meeting considering ways to alleviate problems with transportation for those on probation through Treatment Court, particularly those without cars who must get drug tested two to three times per week.
According to Melissa Miles, a member of the Opioid Committee, the county has a “significant” pot of money, some of which the board may allocate to “transportation and housing.”
One proposal from Miles is to use the funds for Dial-a-Ride vouchers to transport people to testing sites, at the County Courthouse on weekdays, and at the county jail on weekends.
The committee was receptive to Miles’ proposal, but some members wanted to be provided with hard data as to the number of total rides and vouchers that would be required.
Miles’ proposal, however, would provide only limited transportation to those within Dial-a-Ride’s range of service—the City of Hillsdale and a few nearby areas.
As for the rest of the county, Miles and others hoped that a private entrepreneur would consider bringing Uber drivers to Hillsdale County, who could then perhaps be paid in part or sum for providing rides.
The committee—which includes Juvenile Court administrator Tim Dixon, Commissioners Brent Leininger and Mark Wiley, LifeWays’ Chris Firestone, Hillsdale County Finance Administrator Derek Ringman, Hillsdale County Drug Court official Mara Maynard, and Miles herself—tabled the proposal until further research could be conducted.
The committee also anticipated the reception of a proposal next month at its 9 May meeting from the Coalition for Youth Drug Abuse Prevention, specifically their Hard Stop advertising campaign.
On a whole, they expressed interest in Hard Stop, but some questions remained ahead of next month’s presentation.
Opioid Committee Chair Mark Wiley told the board that the city of Hillsdale might consider requesting money “straight from the state,” in order to gain access to funding not available to the Opioid Committee.
Wiley also said it would be helpful to the committee if Hard Stop includes “documented evidence” in its proposal for the successful record of its programs, but nonetheless said that he was “looking forward” to hearing more about the campaign next month.
Jacob Bruns