The Gasconade County Commission will be asking for an update on the plans being developed for using funds received by the county through a lawsuit settlement between state and local governments and manufacturers and distributors of opioid drugs.

So far, Gasconade County has received about $62,000 in its first year of a payout program that is expected to last about 17 years.

Headed by Prosecuting Attorney Mary E. Weston, the Opioid Settlement Team is crafting a plan to make use of the money, from education and awareness efforts to possible treatment programs. At a meeting of the team earlier this year, Weston said she wanted an inventory of the anti-addiction programs being offered in the county and use the funding to build on those programs.

The team includes representatives of various organizations — school districts, law enforcement agencies, healthcare providers, social service agencies and other groups.

Presiding Commissioner Tim Schulte, R-Hermann, said during Thursday morning’s session in Owensville City Hall that has been trying to learn the status of the Opioid Settlement Team’s efforts.

“I’ve been trying to pin her down,” he told Robert Fregalette, owner of Freedom Recovery Center in Union. Fregalette and Andy Bowman, a former client and now staffer at the center, outlined the treatment program offered by the Freedom Recovery Center and to inquire about applying for a share of the county’s opioid settlement money.

As for any specific plans for using the funds, Schulte added, “I don’t know where she (Weston) wants to take this. We’re going to have her come in” and talk with the Commission about the project.

Fregalette said obtaining funding for treatment programs for Gasconade County clients is more difficult than for clients from the more-populous Franklin County.

“Getting funding from the (Missouri) Department of Mental Health for this county is hard,” he said, explaining that state mental health agency officials consider Gasconade County too small to receive treatment-program money.

But cash is key to the success of the program, he said. “Today, the most important thing is money” to fund treatment programs, he told the Commission.

In other matters taken up at last week’s session, the Commission confirmed the appointment of Beverly Klausner to a vacant seat on the county’s Senate Bill 40 Board, a local agency that collects and distributes a small property tax to providers of mental health services.

County government’s budget process for 2024 already is taking place but it will officially begin Thursday, Dec. 28, with a public hearing during that week’s Commission session. County administrators tentatively are scheduled to spend the week of Jan. 8-12 marking up the budget proposal as prepared by the County Clerk’s Office. Several meetings are expected to be held by the Commission as it puts the finishing touches on the 2024 spending plan.

Although the new budget year begins Jan. 1, 3rd-Class counties have until the end of January to put in place a new budget. If a new budget is not adopted by the end of January, state law calls for counties to continue operating under the parameters of the previous year’s budget.