HERMANN – A request by the Gerald-Rosebud Fire Protection District for funds to purchase high-tech devices used in responding to breathing emergencies has been approved in part by a Gasconade County advisory panel.

The county’s Opioid Settlement Committee agreed Thursday morning to recommend approval for half of the $15,000 requested by the fire protection agency to purchase adult ventilation equipment to place in its trucks in the Gerald and Rosebud fire stations.

The committee’s approval of about half the request will allow the agency to put the equipment on its fire truck in Rosebud. The advisory panel took that action because a condition of receiving money from the settlement fund is that the service be used for Gasconade County residents.

Committee Vice Chairman Jennifer Schneider asked Trevor Griffith of the fire protection district if the agency had requested opioid settlement funds from Franklin County, considering the agency serves portions of both Franklin and Gasconade counties. Trevor said they had not formally requested opioid funds because Franklin County distributes funding differently than Gasconade County.

In Gasconade County, a request is filed with the Opioid Settlement Committee. It is referred to Meramec Regional Planning Commission, which, as program administrator, verifies the legitimacy of the request. The advisory committee then hears from the applicant and makes a recommendation to the Gasconade County Commission, which has final say over the distribution of settlement funds.

The device can be used during responses to opioid overdoses, traditional fire calls, and in cases of breathing emergencies, Griffith acknowledged. He explained that fire district personnel respond to emergency medical calls to assist ambulance personnel, as well as responding to fire calls that might involve victims with breathing emergencies.

The equipment also will help in CPR training. “We train a lot of CPR classes,” Griffith said, noting that training classes are held for businesses in Rosebud. The equipment would be used at least once a month, sometimes several times a month.

“Anything we can do to train is beneficial to the county,” said Gasconade County Sheriff’s Det. Adam Garner, a member of the committee.

Citing the program’s protocols, Schneider said she would be supportive of using settlement funds for the Rosebud portion of the fire protection district, reluctant to allocate funds that would be used in Franklin County, which has considerably more settlement funds to distribute than does Gasconade County.

“I definitely see what Jenny’s saying,” noted Committee Chairman Kenna Fricke, the administrator of the Gasconade County Health Department. Fricke, Schneider, Garner and Gasconade County R-1 representative Krystal Witthaus were the advisory committee members attending the session.

The panel agreed to recommend allocating $7,500 to the fire protection with Griffith to monitor the use of the equipment and return to the committee with a report for possible consideration of awarding additional funds.

The opioid settlement fund is fueled by payments made by producers and distributors of opioid-based medicine who were sued several years ago by the state and many counties, including Gasconade County, in response to dealing with opioid addiction among the general public. The funds are sent to the counties from the state government. The court-approved settlement program calls for payments to be made over a 16-year period. More-populous counties receive a larger share of the settlement funds than do more-rural counties such as Gasconade County.

Before last week’s action by the Opioid Settlement Committee, Gasconade County had $103,949 in its settlement fund account.