City council poised to approve opioid funds for police, fire departments on May 21 despite public opposition
After several citizens spoke against the police department request for opioid settlement funds - including the purchase of a UTV - city councilors are expected to approve it on May 21.
Wheeling, W.Va – At a public meeting on May 7, residents shared their concerns over the use of the city’s first round of opioid settlement funds. Two organizations–the city’s police and fire departments–requested $152,438 and $431,834, respectively.

At that May 7 meeting, city councilors voted to table the proposals and send them to the Public Safety Commission. That meeting occurred on May 16, but Wheeling Free Press was unable to attend in person. Now, councilors have included the proposals for their May 21 meeting.
The city of Wheeling received $726,000 from the opioid settlement funds, and is expected to receive a second disbursement of the same amount at a later date. No formal process exists for organizations to request use of the funds. The city’s police and fire departments forwarded their requests to the city administration in April.
Two other requests were allegedly sent to the city manager after the police and fire proposals were made public on April 16, but no information was released about who requested funds or in what amount.
In recent weeks, several alerts have been made to warn of an increase of overdoses in the city of Wheeling. From May 16 through May 19, at least a dozen people overdosed including two who overdosed while the W.Va. First Foundation—in charge of disbursing the state’s opioid settlement funds—met and agreed to pay their executive director $230,000 per year.
In a letter to city solicitor Rosemary Humway-Warmuth, Wheeling Fire Department requested $431,833.69–the lion’s share of available funds–for life-saving equipment and training. Included in that request is $154,219.45 for automated CPR devices, $89,441.46 for automatic external defibrillators, $64,714.55 for power chairs to evacuate incapacitated individuals from confined areas, and $29,035.52 for ballistic vests.
The request details funds for CPR and Narcan training equipment, boxes for the secure storage of controlled substances, disinfecting equipment, and a slide attachment to the department’s utility task vehicle (UTV), or side-by-side vehicle.
Speakers at Tuesday’s meeting were more concerned with the Wheeling Police Department’s request. The city’s police department requested $152,438.08. In their request, the department is requesting $20,000 for a new police dog, or K9 unit, $14,882 for “covert cameras”, and $1,179 for Crisis Intervention Training, among other items.
Nearly 55% of the police department’s request would go to the purchase of two (2) UTVs and a cargo trailer for the vehicles. In defense of their request, the department cited “homelessness” and the proximity of the city’s exempted homeless camp to Heritage Trail and concerns about access to the camp.
It was the city’s decision to place the exempted camp off the beaten path along an often-muddy access road; however, this did not stop a Wheeling Fire Department ambulance from accessing the camp when an overdose occurred in mid-April.
The police department went on to claim a “majority of reported crimes [involve the homeless]” despite their own statistics showing homeless individuals account for 36% of reported crime. These crime statistics include quality-of-life checks and warrant services, which, overwhelmingly, are not new crimes.
At the May 7 city council meeting, several speakers voiced concerns over the police department's request, or otherwise explained how they wished the money to be spent.
Stephanie Joseph, Wheeling resident, spoke in opposition to the police department’s request for opioid settlement funding to purchase a UTV. “I object to that. I think that for a city of our size, I think we could put half a million dollars to far better use,” Joseph said. “We do not have enough recovery options.”
Emotionally, Joseph spoke about losing her daughter to an opioid overdose despite her previously attending an in-patient treatment program. She advocated that the funds be used “wisely.”
“I support our police department and respect our police department,” Joseph said, “but, I would just urge everyone to really think carefully with these dollars.”
Another woman, Melissa, who was later identified as a person experiencing homelessness, had signed up to speak, but abruptly walked out saying, “I have to leave because this is all bullshit.”
Melissa said the funding request was an example of officials pocketing federal money. “That’s why the homeless people can’t get [food] and they can’t get the help that they need.” She told the council she was not in active addiction before walking out of the meeting.

Holly Eckert, who accompanied Melissa and comforted her as she left, stood up to speak. “That’s what homelessness looks like,” Eckart said. “She needs counseling. She needs care.”
Eckert is 57 years old and a former dancer from Seattle, Washington. At age 34 she began having epileptic seizures. “My life fell apart,” Eckert said. She spoke about her experience with the medical field during this time, recalling a story when a doctor pulled a “bottle of pills out of his drawer and threw them to me.”
She advocated for preventative care rather than addressing the problem after a crisis occurs. “Start taking out the stressors in people’s individual lives and maybe they, too, will avoid very serious chronic illness, and possibly death,” Eckert said.
Several women from the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). Laura Albertini-Weigel, Director of the Women Inspired in New Directions (WIND) program, spoke first, saying substance use disorders are “catastrophic to the very fabric of our society.”
Albertini-Weigel cited a statistic showing West Virginia having the highest age-adjusted per capita overdose death rate in the nation at 9.9 people per 100,000. “Addressing this epidemic in West Virginia requires a whole community approach,” Albertini-Weigel told councilors. “There is hardly a family in West Virginia who has not been directly or profoundly impacted by this multi-generational epidemic.”
Albertini-Weigel advocated for funds to support substance use treatment programs and training of behavioral health therapists and certified addiction healthcare providers. She, along with members from Youth Services Systems (YSS) and West Virginia Northern Community College (WVNCC) are seeking funds to assist in expanding training courses at WVNCC to increase the pool of local treatment providers.
Kathy Herrington, Program Director for the WVNCC substance abuse intervention programs at WVNCC, spoke next. She says 52 people have been trained and graduated from the program over the last four years. Herrington estimates as few as nine certified alcohol and drug counselors in the northern panhandle.
One of the hurdles to becoming certified by the W.Va. Certification Board for Addiction is a required 250 hours of clinical supervision by a licensed provider. Herrington says these providers can charge anywhere from $50 to $100 an hour to provide supervision, totaling anywhere from $12,500 to $25,000 for the required hours.
Herrington proposed using $62,500 of the funds to assist WVNCC in creating an alcohol drug counselor clinical supervision training program to provide the required 250 hours of supervision in a “more cost-effective group supervision format” for individuals seeking certification. Ten students could be enrolled at one time.

Jim Blazier, Chief of the Wheeling Fire Department, spoke in defense of his department’s request for use of the opioid funds. “This equipment will be used in the treatment of overdose patients, but will also be available for the community at large,” Blazier said. “I feel this is an investment not only for the opioid crisis, but also for the citizens of Wheeling as a whole and the protection of our first responders.”

Shawn Schwertfeger, Chief of the Wheeling Police Department, spoke in defense of his department’s funding request. Speaking about the K9 unit, Schwertfeger said it was to replace a dog that was retired last year.
Scwertfeger, speaking about the purchase of two UTVs, said the vehicles would be used to transport their victim advocates and peer recovery specialists to the exempted camp, and to patrol the city’s walking trails. “I’m tired of hearing citizens that report they are afraid to use our trails,” Schwertfeger said. He says some of the police vehicles the department has cannot navigate the trails.
The department owns several motorcycles and bicycles.
The city council will hear the proposals at their May 21 meeting, where they are expected to be adopted. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. Any person wishing to speak can do so by signing up before 5:15 p.m.