Curry County commissioners last week proceeded with a proposed partnership with Gold Beach to create a school resource and community resource officer (SRO/CRO) position using opioid settlement dollars.

But state procurement laws and the lack of a proposed contract is keeping the Board from moving forward on a request from jail commander Lt. Jeremy Krohn to provide addiction treatment services to inmates using those same settlement dollars.

The county would have to send out a request for proposals to service providers before it moves forward with telehealth opioid abuse disorder treatment at the jail, Finance Director Keina Wolf told commissioners at a special meeting Friday.

“More than likely there is more than one place that can provide us with telehealth capabilities and we need to give equal opportunity for people to apply for those contracts,” she said. “I know [Krohn] did say he reached out and had spoken with different individuals, but there’s not a contract attached so we don’t know what the not-to-exceed number would be and we don’t know what services exactly are going to be provided.”

At the Board’s Oct. 17 meeting, Krohn had proposed using about $36,000 in opioid settlement dollars to provide telehealth services to inmates at the jail struggling with addiction.

On Friday, Wolf said she also couldn’t guarantee that the contract would comply with requirements tied with using opioid settlement dollars.

But commissioners Brad Alcorn and Jay Trost approved an intergovernmental agreement between Curry County and Gold Beach to create the SRO/CRO position after Wolf said the procurement requirements for the agreement were different.

“This would fall into a different category in regards to procurement because it’s a specific resource that we need,” she said. “Therefore we could reach out to our current partners in order to sole source those resources.”

Commissioner John Herzog was absent.

Under the agreement with Gold Beach, Curry County would provide a patrol vehicle to Gold Beach and would pay $149,100 in opioid settlement dollars for the first year. This would cover the officer’s salary and benefits, outfitting for the officer, vehicle accessories and insurance, as well as software.

In the second and following years, Curry County will pay Gold Beach the cost of the officer’s salary and benefits, which is expected to increase by 5 percent each year due to cost of living increases, along with the “actual cost of vehicle insurance” and “actual cost of software used for the program.”

Curry County has about $382,476 in opioid settlement funds currently, Wolf told commissioners. She anticipates another $75,000 coming to the county for the 2024-25 fiscal year. Wolf said she anticipates more coming due to the result of two additional settlements Curry County is a part of.

On Friday, Wolf said Curry County has enough opioid settlement funding to sustain the school resource/community resource officer position for at least three years.

“If it’s a successful program we could absolutely reach out to other partner agencies and look for additional grants to move this forward,” she said.

On Oct. 17, the Board of Commissioners reached out to the Gold Beach Police Department to see if there was interest in partnering to create an SRO/CRO position.

On Friday, Alcorn said that Gold Beach Police Sgt. David Vershall did some research and found other agencies are using opioid dollars for similar programs and “structured a program around that.”

“We all agree there’s a strong need for a school resource officer in central and north county and [Gold Beach police] is agreeing to provide that service,” Alcorn said.

The school resource officer is expected to participate in class discussions and connect with students to teach about opioid and substance abuse prevention, suicide awareness, school violence and other topics. The officer would also help develop emergency procedures and plans to minimize dangerous situations related to unauthorized intruders, bomb threats and active shooter situations.

The school resource officer would also provide support and information to students on topics that include suicide prevention, bullying, opioid and substance abuse, as well as school violence and mental health programs.

When school isn’t in session the officer would become a community resource officer, whose duties will include helping residents connect with housing, mental health, substance abuse prevention and recovery service providers, according to the agreement.

On Friday, Trost said he wanted the SRO/CRO position with Gold Beach be treated as a pilot program. Curry County would provide some of the funding to get it started, he said, and then school districts would help pay for it in the long term.

“I think we need to have that as a follow up game plan to work that arrangement out with the school districts,” he said.

It’s now up to the Gold Beach City Council to finally approve the intergovernmental agreement, according to Alcorn.