By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

During the Aug. 6 gathering of the Carbon County Commissioners, the commissioners revisited a topic from their July 2 meeting, a funding request from the Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness program.

Mersades Morgan and Damon Davis from USARA were both present at the meeting to discuss the request with the body. 

This request comes at a time when uncertainty with federal funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which is scheduled to close in September, has USARA looking at a potential loss of $900,000 in funding over the next three years.

“So, we put it on hold for a couple of weeks, maybe it’s been a month, to try to determine really where we were at with this. So across the nation, the opioid problem was addressed by a lawsuit that was filed, that each of the counties here in Utah were part of. It focused on the drugmakers of opioids and pharmacies that distributed it,” explained Commissioner Larry Jensen, referring to the numerous settlements received by Utah from different pharmaceutical companies for their role in the opioid crisis.

“Money has been allocated to our county to try to help with this problem. And we’ve received three different tranches of money.” He continued,” In 2022, $859,000. In 2024, $583,000. And in 2025, it’s gone down now to $463,000. So moneys were committed to Four Corners and the Health Department based on percentages, and we’ve accounted now for where we’re at with the money that’s come in, and currently we have an amount that has been uncommitted of $23,232.”

Jensen stated that, as the commission has looked at what to do with the money, they recognized the importance of what USARA does in the community. 

But as the money drops in 2026 to an estimated $371,000, the original USARA request of $200,000 to sustain and expand the existing recovery community center in Price seems unachievable.

“We’ve had to kind of kick this around in a couple of different ways,” stated Commissioner Tony Martines. “I think there’s an amount we could possibly give this year, but it wouldn’t be the same going forward. We’d probably have to have a request every year, and we’ll have to balance out the sheets, too, of how much we’re taking in. So we’d love to give you the sky and everything you asked for, but we have to be fiscally responsible as well to this fund.”

“We’re grateful for everything that you’re doing. It has everything to do with the fact that we just don’t have all the money that hasn’t already been committed. But we do want to give what we can,” added Commissioner Jared Haddock.

He continued,” The funds that you requested the last time, I think through the Purdue and Sackler settlement, those funds haven’t come in yet, but when they do, they’re very insignificant. We’re talking $45,000 to $65,000, depending on the estimate. Again, we don’t have anything until you have it. So even if we were to commit, that would be unwise. Because until that shows up, if you’re counting on that money to show up, and it doesn’t because there’s a big difference between getting a judgment and executing that judgment, right, to be able to collect on it. And so, we just want to be careful with that.”

Commissioner Jensen made the motion to approve a $75,000 donation to USARA, with the rest of the funds going to Four Corners Community Behavioral Health. All three commissioners voted in favor of the motion.

Morgan asked for clarification whether this is an annual contribution or if USARA would have to come back each year to put in a request. Commissioner Jensen replied,” We’re trying to ensure that those dollars are spent in the most appropriate way, where it’s making a difference. So, yeah, I think plan on coming back.”