June 7, 2021
Join ZOOM meeting https://zoom.us/j/93099426064
1. Call to Order
2. Welcome and Introductions
3. Approval of March minutes. (please check the attendance list for corrections)
4. Committee Reports
a. Prevention
b. Law Enforcement
c. Treatment
4. Director’s Report
5. Old Business/Projects
A. 2021 Grants: Funding Agreements are Due last Friday
B. 2021 Comprehensive Community Plan Update
C. Fall Festival Committee. Next meeting June 28, Noon: https://zoom.us/j/97565797265
D. Race for Recovery in August
6. New Business:
a. Events Committee: National Night Out booth, August 3, 6:30-8:00 pm.
b. 12-month reports.
7. Presentations:
a. Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office
b. Vanderburgh County Sheriff Office
c. Girl Scouts
d. Reports for July meeting: Deaconess Cross Pointe, Vanderburgh Misdemeanor Court
8. Agency Announcements: In addition to agency announcements being made here, please email flyers to Dan that can be forwarded early tomorrow.
9. Adjournment
NEXT MEETING: The next meeting of the Substance Abuse Council will be held on Monday, July 12, at 1:30pm.
The SAC Executive Committee will meet June 21, at noon, by Zoom meeting.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE COUNCIL OF VANDERBURGH COUNTY
MINUTES OF THE MEMBERSHIP MEETING
3 May 2021
Members present: Kevin Groves, Kathryn Kornblum-Zelle, Crystal Sisson, Julie Robinson, Stacey Kuder, Sheila Rollins, Lauren Wathen, Mike Gray, Jill Hoskins, Ginny France, Heather Woods, Susie Schenk, Daren Harmon Kelsey Hillenbrand, Christina Wicks, Cassidi Todd, Beth Greenwell, Jane Vickers, Ben Joergen, Aimee Stachura, Wally Paynter
Guests: Tracey McCaffrey, Brad Bolin, Iluna Askelid, Amanda Hrabley
The meeting via Zoom was called to order by Vice-President Heather Woods at 1:30 p.m.
Minutes of the April 5, 2021, meeting had been emailed in advance of the meeting. Some corrections were made: Marie J. is Marie Johnson. Other spelling errors were corrected. Kathryn Kornblum-Zelle moved to approve the minutes as corrected; Kevin Groves seconded the motion. The motion passed and the minutes were approved.
Committee Reports:
Prevention Committee. Laura Wathen, chairman, had no report.
Law Enforcement Committee. Chairman Daren Harmon had drug crime filing statistics from April. His report is attached to these minutes.
Treatment Committee: Chairman Jackie Hughes indicated prior to the meeting that she would not be present and had no report for this meeting.
Director’s Report: The director’s report is attached to the minutes. Dan Miller made one addition to the Director’s report. He was able to make contact with Susie Schenk, the Regional Prevention Coordinator, who also attends Substance Abuse Council meetings and was present at this meeting.
Previous Business:
Screening Committee Recommendation: James Akin, chairman of the Screening Committee, gave the committee report. The committee recommended 21 grants to be funded, but not all will be funded in the amount requested. The funding recommendations are attached to these minutes. The screening committee voted to approve this recommendation at its meeting. This being a committee recommendation, a second was required. Keven Groves moved to second the recommendation of the Screening Committee. The funding recommendation passed.
2021 Comprehensive Community Plan Update: Dan Miller has not yet received any notice from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute about whether our plan has been accepted. This will be required before we can proceed with the funding just approved by the council.
New Business:
Fall Festival Booth Committee: A chairman needs to be selected. Dan Miller found a job description for the position of booth committee chairman, but he does not know where that description came from. It appeared to him that many of the duties are those that the director should do; however, direction and decisions should come from the committee. Also, booth leadership is needed during the festival. The executive committee strongly recommended Crystal Sisson. She is willing to serve but not as the chairman. James Akin, Heather Woods, Dee Lewis, Avril Miller and Kim Ashby were also mentioned as potential members with previous experience. Kevin Groves, Daren Harmon and Jill Hoskins also expressed willingness to serve. Someone from Now Counseling also indicated to James Akin that they wished to be part of the committee. It was suggested that perhaps we have co-chairs instead of a single chairman. A committee meeting date was set for May 24 at noon. Dan Miller will make the arrangements for that meeting and will send meeting invitations. Anyone else interested in being on the committee were invited to contact Dan.
Race for Recovery: The Race for Recovery typically takes place in August, but it was cancelled last year. The question Dan posed was whether we should try to have it again in August 2021. The costs of putting the race on were relatively low; the profit in 2019 exceeded $5,000.00. In the past, a race organizer handled many of the arrangements. Dan Miller will contact the race organizer to determine if it is possible to schedule the race for this August.
Presentations:
- Counseling for Change: Cassidi Todd gave the partner report. Counseling for Change provides a variety of treatment services and is also a Recovery Works agency. They received a Substance Abuse Counsel grant to provide treatment services to low income clients. In 2020, CFC was able to provide 30,000 different treatment services; 10,000 of those services were at Lighthouse Recovery in Washington, Indiana. The grant from the Council helped 40 clients receive treatment by paying all or part of the treatment costs. CFS also has the Peppiatt House which offers a 90 residential program where clients receive treatment in house or can walk to CFC’s facilities for treatment.
- Evansville Police Department: Mike Gray gave the department’s report as the acting Lieutenant of the drug enforcement unit. EPD’s “Communication is Key” grant provided protective equipment so that officers could field test suspected narcotics which could contain highly lethal fentanyl analogs. It also funded extra batteries for communications equipment; this is useful for surveillance and other enforcement operations which can last up to 24 hours. Mike further reported that synthetic drugs periodically run through the homeless shelters, causing overdoses. Heroin, fentanyl and other opiates are fueling area overdoses, and narcotics detectives are trying to connect the overdose back to the dealer of the drug. Methamphetamine remains the most abundantly used and dealt drug in Vanderburgh County; it is not uncommon for law enforcement to recover pounds or more of methamphetamine. A new phenomenon is methamphetamine combined with heroin. THC vape cartridges, containing nearly pure delta-in tetrahydrocannabinol are also prolific. Within the last 18 months, cocaine has re-emerged in Vanderburgh County with law enforcement recovering dealing amounts from offenders. Finally, since Mike became acting lieutenant in late 2020, his detectives have recovered 24 guns in their investigations. EPD is currently understaffed due to a combination of retirements and officers with less than 5 years’ experience leaving the department. The narcotics division is currently three officers short. However, the department benefit by having officers assigned to FBI and DEA task forces, which enhances their investigative abilities. Finally, they are asking for a grant this year to enhance their video capabilities; it is virtually impossible currently to prosecute drug transactions without video.
Announcements:
- Dan sent out an email this morning from Avril Miller about job opportunities for high school students at Burdette Park.
- Kelsey Hillenbrand announced that Girl Scouts was filling their summer outreach calendar and will come to any youth program during the summer to present educational programming. Girl Scouts is also looking to employ summer interns to deliver this programming.
- Laura Wathen from Youth First announced that Youth First is making its counselors available to summer youth programs.
- Heather Woods announce that the CHINS (child in need of services) drug court has changed its name to Family Treatment Court.
The next meeting is scheduled June 7. Dan Miller asked if it would be possible or desirable to begin meetings in person. The consensus seemed to be cautious but to plan to have an in person meeting once a quarter. We will see about having an in-person meeting in July. Dan was directed to check with the public library about the Browning Room or to check with St. Vincent Hospital about one of its meeting rooms.
Marie Johnson moved to adjourn the meeting; her motion was seconded by Laura Wathen. The motion passed, and Heather Woods adjourned the meeting at 2:30 pm.
Submitted by Dan Miller
Felony Statistics Summary Report
04/01/2021 – 04/30/2021
Drugs Total: 233
Dealing in a Schedule I Controlled Substance: 4
Dealing in Marijuana: 5
Dealing in Methamphetamine: 20
Maintaining a Common Nuisance – Controlled Substances: 2
Possession of a Controlled Substance: 31
Possession of a Narcotic Drug: 23
Possession of Marijuana: 41
Possession of Methamphetamine: 89
Possession of Paraphernalia: 10
Unlawful Possession of Syringe: 8
DIRECTOR’ REPORT
May 3, 2021
I submitted our 4th quarter report to ICJI by the deadline of April 15. This was a difficult report to prepare because it is the final report of our progress in the 2020 grants, and you will not submit your final grant reports until July. As to our comprehensive plan, the folks at ICJI reported that they were halfway through the more than 80 county plans, and they still had to be reviewed and approved by the division leader. They said they were looking at completeness, whether the smart goals are achievable, and the funding calculations. I am cautiously optimistic, but we have to wait and see. We cannot finalize our grants for next year until this process is finished.
For our grant screening process, the screening committee met for 2 hours after the executive committee meeting on April 19. There were 7 readers and the chairman, James Akin; I served as the 7th reader and the third reader on all grants. So one of my activities in the last month was to read and score all 21 grant applications.
I attended the Stepping Stone virtual forum on April 13, a SAMHSA webinar on medically assisted treatment on April 20, and a meeting of the Indiana Coalition Network on April. The ICN is a coalition of LCC’s like us from around the state. One of the things that learned is that the Division of Mental Health and Addictions has Prevention Regional Coordinators to help counties develop drug abuse prevention strategies. I was not aware of this program. I got the name of the coordinator for our region. Her name is Susie Schenk. I reached out to her, but I have not gotten a response yet. I would like to know if anyone here was aware of the prevention regional coordinators or had met Susie Schenk. If someone else doing work in the prevention area in Vanderburgh County, I would like to make sure that we are on board and coordinating with them.
The executive committee has authorized me to contact A2Z services to make changes to our website and email accounts as well as to empower me to make changes as needed to the website so that it is up-to-date on events and meetings. If you have visited www.drugfreecounty.org recently, you will notice that I have been posting our meeting agendas on the website to comply with the state’s open door requirements. I also post the agenda outside the door of our office.
Other tasks: Paying bills and booking the payments that get made automatically or by electronic funds transfer into Quickbooks. I reconcile the checking accounts every month, which, given our relatively low activity, is not difficult. However, we do it in Quickbooks so that there is always a record of the reconciliation for the auditors. That task is something I have had to learn, and I will be faster as I get a few more under my belt.
I am in the process of compiling a master list of SAC members, including grantees with all contact information, which is something I do not currently have. I want this to keep track of meetings for purposes of grant compliance, as well as establishing voting rights. I also need this for accurate reporting to ICJI. The lists I have are wanting in several respects, and there are people on the lists whom I’ve never met and not yet seen at a meeting. If we were meeting in person, I would have you all write the information I need on a sheet, and I would record it. As it stands, I will likely send something out via email and ask you to supply missing information. It may be that some of my large email group members are not members in reality, but rather supporters who should be part of a different contact list. I will see what kind of response I get. So, if you receive a request to check your information on a membership list, please respond.
Finally, as of this meeting, the following grantees for the current cycle have not given presentations: Vanderburgh Misdemeanor Court, Girl Scouts, Prosecutor’s Office, and Deaconess Cross Pointe. I point this out not as an accusation; things have been up in the air for the past year. Rather, it is a task that needs to be completed. So I ask your cooperation to volunteer to give your presentation at either the June or July meeting.
| Agency | Project Name | Contact | Pre App Request | Amount Requested | SAC Approved Amount | Final ICJI Funding | |||
| Law Enforcement | |||||||||
| Evansville Police Department | Next Level Tech | Michael Gray | 6,000 | $ 4,440.00 | |||||
| Foundation Assisting in Recovery (FAIRS) | Drug Testing | James Akin | 6,000 | $ 4,440.00 | |||||
| Vanderburgh County Adult Probation | Bus Tokens | Cherie Wood | Cherie Wood | 2,000 | $ 1,480.00 | ||||
| Vanderburgh County Adult Probation | Expanded Drug Screens | Cherie Wood | 4,000 | $ 2,960.00 | |||||
| Vanderburgh County Prosecutors Office | Digital Evidence Storage | Jessica Powers | 5,475 | $ 3,650.00 | |||||
| Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Department | Operation Black Box | James Budde | 4,000 | $ 2,960.00 | |||||
| Vanderburgh County Superior Court, Juvenile Div. | Vanderburgh County CHINS Drug Court | Heather Woods | 1,000 | $ 850.00 | |||||
| Vanderburgh County Superior Court | Verification Officer | Leslie Jackson | 4,000 | $ 2,000.00 | |||||
| YWCA of Evansville | Court Services | Dee Lewis | 3,000 | $ 2,220.00 | |||||
| Total | 35,475 | $ 25,000.00 | |||||||
| Prevention/Education | |||||||||
| Boom Squad, Inc. | Boom Squad Social Worker Partnership | Avril Miller | 6,000 | $ 6,000.00 | |||||
| Holly’s House | Think First and Stay Safe | Crystal Sisson | 6,000 | $ 6,000.00 | |||||
| Patchwork Central | Arts&Smart Sparks Protective Factors | Jane Vickers | 6,000 | $ 6,000.00 | |||||
| Tri State Alliance and Unity Fellowship | TSA Youth Group | Wally Paynter | 6,000 | $ 3,000.00 | |||||
| Vanderburgh County Health Department | Recidivism Reduction Program | Savannah Patterson | 4,000 | $ 4,000.00 | |||||
| Total | 28,000 | $ 25,000.00 | |||||||
| Treatment | |||||||||
| Echo Community Healthcare | Treatment | Jackie Hughes | 4,000 | $ 3,320.00 | |||||
| YWCA of Evansville | Client Services | Dee Lewis | 3,000 | $ 2,512.50 | |||||
| Drug&Alcohol Deferral Services | Cognitive Behavioral Interactive Journals | William Wells | 2,003 | $ 1,660.00 | |||||
| Safe Haven Foundation | Telemedicine Accesibility Iniative | Sara Goad | 5,250 | $ 4,357.50 | |||||
| Southwestern Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. | Transportation | Kevin Groves | 4,800 | $ 4,020.00 | |||||
| Vanderburgh County Superior Court, Juvenile Div. | Vanderburgh County CHINS Drug Court | Heather Woods | 5,000 | $ 4,150.00 | |||||
| Counseling for Change | Low Income Treatment | Ken Scheller | 6,000 | $ 4,980.00 | |||||
| Total | 30,053 | $ 25,000.00 | |||||||
| 21 grants | Total | 93,528 | |||||||
| Administrative Costs | $ 24,648.00 | ||||||||
| Total | $ 99,648.00 |
