By David Slone
Times Union
WARSAW — Drug overdose deaths have increased this year in Kosciusko County and that was reflected in the county coroner’s proposed 2023 budget.
During Thursday’s presentation of the county coroner’s proposed budget to the county council for 2023, coroner Tony Ciriello said he had cut the other equipment item by about $2,000 but increased supplies emergency at $9,000 compared to the budget adopted in 2022 of $4,102.
“Quite frankly, we go through body bags like crazy and they’re not cheap. They cost between $35 and $38 each, and we use about 150 a year. That’s a lot,” he said. declared.
Councilwoman Kimberly Cates said emergency supplies in 2021 are around $3,000; $5,000 in 2020; and $2,300 in 2019. “Is there a reason you wanted to go all the way to $9,000?” she asked.
Ciriello replied, “Because we have to completely restock. We’ve run out of everything. We ordered some this year, but not the way we need it. We’re down to bare shelves. We are restocking and preparing for another year.
He said he traditionally hasn’t increased the coroner’s budget “in any way except for autopsies.” It has to be done every year and he said the department had no more money in that account. He will ask the Board for an additional $20,000 appropriation at their September meeting to allow the department to get through the rest of the year.
“And that’s money you’ve already spent?” Invoices already incurred? asked board chair Sue Ann Mitchell.
Ciriello said there were a few bills “sitting there,” but they totaled less than $1,000.
“Since I made this extra credit, we have taken three more people for an autopsy. You just don’t know and this year we had a lot of youngsters. And our drug overdoses are on the rise. Until the end of June, we had 17 drug overdoses. We’ve had at least six or seven since. A normal year for us is 15 years or less,” Ciriello said.
Talking to Ind. Sen. Stacey Donato (R-Logansport) Last Saturday, Ciriello said she was curious about Kosciusko County’s overdose rate because her county coroner told her they were “up” on theirs. They had 10 this year.
“It’s like double what they normally have,” he said. “And we had a lot more than that.”
Whitley County Coroner Scott Smith doesn’t keep a running total of drug overdose deaths, but he said he’s had several this year.
In St. Joseph County, the coroner’s office said there were 51 drug overdose deaths Friday, roughly matching the 53 deaths at the end of August 2021. As of the end of 2021, the county had 97 drug overdoses. deaths.
Later during the Council’s seven-hour budget review session, Mitchell told County Health Administrator Bob Weaver that the state was getting a huge amount of money from a settlement on opioids with pharmaceutical companies.
“But that’s up to the local government, and the commissioners were kind enough to sign that agreement. Once we sign up, that means we’re going to get $1.3 million over 17 years, I believe that’s it is, but the state is trying hard to try to get this boatload of money to us early so we can actually do something meaningful with it,” Mitchell said, noting that the $1.3 million only represent the county’s share.
Some of the smaller towns, she said, only got $35 because they didn’t have the population and all that factored into the formula.
“If we can get the county to come together, and if we all get some money, to put it to use to try to change where we are with opioids, like we just heard the coroner explain how many deaths we’ve had overdoses, so maybe we can turn things around. That would be the hope,” Mitchell said.
Weaver said, “There’s a lot of drugs out there.”
KCCRVC
Another thing in Kosciusko County is the money the Kosciusko County Convention and Recreation Visitors Commission gets from the innkeeper tax.
KCCRVC board members John Hall and Ron Robinson presented the proposed 2023 budget of $785,000 to the Board. The adopted budget for 2022 was $598,070.
County Auditor Michelle Auditor, who serves as the board’s comptroller, said for 2023 they are asking for $350,000 for grants, an increase of $112,070 from the budget passed in 2022; $420,000 for promotional programs, an increase of $71,860; and $15,000 in administration costs for the CVB, an increase of $3,000 over the budget passed in 2022.
“As you know, the dollars we raise to support the Commission come from the innkeeper tax. We cut budgets in previous years due to Covid, and it hit us pretty hard immediately. We thought it was going to stretch and hit us negatively for – three to five years was our initial projection. We actually bounced back in a year and now we’re collecting more than we ever had,” Puckett said.
Two months ago, she reminded the Board, the Board approved an additional appropriation of $150,000 so that KCCRVC could distribute more grants in 2022, “but they also increased those amounts in 23 so that they can use the dollars they spend, that they have, for the purpose for which they are intended.
Hall said, “What’s interesting about this bed tax collection, in 2021 we collected a total of $782,000, and house shares, what the state collects, was $249,000, so it is very important what the state gets from these AirBNBs.
He said they didn’t know how to hunt them or how to get them back.
“So it was a blessing for us,” he said. “And the collection of beds through June 2022 is ‘over $349,000,’ so we’re up about $70,000 this year through June.”
He said the Commission increased its grants to the City County Athletic Complex (CCAC) “because they’re struggling there.” He said they gave $40,000 to the CCAC last year and this year and bought them a piece of equipment.
“We just hope they can survive. Time will tell,” Hall said.
He said that people who participate in CCAC activities stay in local hotels.
“They’re our biggest customers, so we need them,” Hall said.
New Plan Director
At the District Plan Commission’s budget hearing, outgoing director Dan Richard announced that deputy director Matt Sandy would be the new director.
The Council congratulated Sandy.
“I have to tell you,” Council Chairwoman Sue Ann Mitchell said, “I was worried when they wanted nominations and stuff.”
Richard said Sandy had been “groomed” for several years for the job. Sandy has been in service for 23 years.
Presenting the budget for 2023, Sandy told the Council that Ordinance Administrator Amy Irwin had resigned, so her position and the position of deputy director will both need to be filled.
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