The Monroe County commissioners are hiring a recovery specialist who will handle opioid overdoses.

“What we’re doing is we have an alcohol recovery support specialist who will only be dealing with opioid overdoses,” said Commissioner John Christy, the chairman of the commissioners. “He has been doing that before, but now he will become an employee of Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol (Commission). He was working for a corporation but it was not a billable service, so we felt the best and prudent thing to do was to hire him so he can continue.”

The man’s name was not released, but Christy said he has been working with police for about a year responding to overdose cases and getting people into recovery.

“He’s been very successful,” Christy said after the meeting.

The alcohol recovery support specialist position will pay $63,428, and is funded by money from the opioid settlement case. The National Opioid Settlement awarded $50 billion to states and areas with opioid-related lawsuits.

Christy also explained some of the expenditures approved by the commissioners.

One of the budget adjustments was for $624,504 on Jan. 2.

“There’s a lot in this,” he said.

Of that total, $510,507 is from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which included $198,507 for services in the first quarter of this year, and $312,000 for administrative fees.

“When we originally budgeted for this, we thought the program was ending, so that’s why we have this adjustment,” Christy said.

Of the remaining amount, $75,000 went to Family Promise for housing stability.

Budget matters

The commissioners also approved a budget adjustment from Jan. 11 of $1,424,065. Christy said $1,376,000 is for Children and Youth Services to cover their future expenditures.

Under capital outlay purchases, the commissioners approved $15,550 for 10 pool pads, and $4,020.39 on Jan. 11 for a judge’s robe, bullet proof vest for the sheriff, and three large, platform wagon with side panels for voter registration.

Christy explained, “We changed Middle Smithfield from two voting districts to four voting districts, and the other one is Tunkhannock (Township), we split it in half, so that is why we need those three additional platform trucks.”

Under computer capital purchases, they approved expenditures of $42,528.62 on Jan. 11, of which $41,000 is for 38 new cameras in the commissioners building, Christy said, and $684 for laser jet printers in the district attorney’s office.

“We’re getting rid of the analog cameras and going to digital,” he said.