ELKINS — City officials shared details on how professionals are dealing with the local drug problem during a recent public meeting.

The Regional Task Force on Addiction, Homelessness and Mental Health Issues met at Elkins City Hall to offer information and insight into the work being done to address these local issues.

“We are pushing three years of having this task force up and running,” Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco said at the beginning of the public meeting. “We like to do a public forum and kind of test the waters every now and then to let the public know what we’re doing.

“We have some amazing partners behind the scenes who come together and meet with us once a month, report on services that they’re providing to our citizens that are suffering or struggling right now. We have some churches that are involved. We have a lot of entities within the city that are involved.

“We have a core task force that meets every Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. to figure out what the plan’s going to be for our monthly meeting, and figure out what our deficiencies are,” Marco said. “We’re actually very fortunate to have the services that we do in a city this size. We’ve made some great progress.

“You’re going to hear some numbers and some stats tonight that I think will shock some people,” he added. “Sadly enough, like other places, we have a drug problem here, we have a homeless problem here, and we have some folks who are suffering from mental health, and we’re aware of that. We’re not ignoring it. So for the folks who think that we’re not doing anything, there’s a lot going on behind the scenes. I commend the partners and the people who actually provide these services.”

Fifth Ward Elkins City Councilman Dave Parker, the chair of the task force, spoke about the establishment of the Opioid Settlement Fund, emphasizing the importance of local interventions to directly assist individuals seeking recovery.

“One of the questions I’ve been asked about, I was again last week, is ‘Is this money just going to be a giant political slush fund?” Parker said during the public meeting.

“We believe the money should be used on the ground, at the grass-roots level, to provide direct care to those who are seeking recovery and their support, and for their children who have been deeply impacted by this, and for their care givers.”

Markie Jeffries talked about her role as the Peer Recovery Support Specialist for the Task Force.

“My main job is for Jobs and Hope West Virginia, I cover six counties. Also I am the peer for (Randolph) County and I work closely with the deputies and especially EPD (Elkins Police Department),” she said.

“As for our numbers, last year I got called out 25 times. Of those 25 individuals, only three did not stay in treatment. All the other ones stayed in treatment. They’re doing good. They’re either in sober living (facilities) or back home with their families, and are productive members of society. They keep in contact with me, once a week and sometimes every day.

“From Jan. 1 to as of today, we have had 14 calls. I had three in one day the other day actually. And out of those 14, only one left treatment. The others are still in treatment and I have contact with them,” Jeffries said.

“It’s different from case to case. Sometimes I go to the scene, it’s easy, find treatment, boom, it’s done. There’s other nights where I’m out for eight, nine, 10 hours sometimes. I’ve worked 24 hours before to make sure this person gets treatment and gets to where they need to go, because I will not leave that person until I know that they are safely where they need to go. Transportation has been an issue, but I have maneuvered around that as well.”

Elkins Police Chief Travis Bennett said, “For this to work it takes buy-in by law enforcement. And that’s something that may not come really fast initially. Sometimes it starts with one officer who sees the benefit of how this works. This isn’t a problem that we can simply arrest our way out of, and just lock everybody up and be done with it. That doesn’t fix anything.

“Once the other officers see one person doing it … it starts to steamroll, and then you have an entire department doing it … when they get on scene, they think, ‘Do I have some other kind of option to help this person, other than simply arresting them and taking them to jail?’

“We’re close to 40 people now, that we’ve been able to do something, an alternative means than what the police normally do,” Bennett said. “We’re glad to be doing it, and we hope we can influence others to do the exact same.”

Rob Williamson, founder of A.N.T. Recovery and RRG Behavioral Health, highlighted the significance of community support in maintaining sobriety, underscoring the recent establishment of sober living homes in Elkins.

Terry Danielson, CEO of RRG Behavioral Health, unveiled plans for expanding services to address the growing need for comprehensive care, including the development of an inpatient facility in Elkins specializing in detox and stabilization — a vital resource currently lacking in the region.

The meeting ended with an interactive session, inviting questions and feedback from the audience.

“If we can save one person,” Marco said, “that’s not one individual, that’s one family that’s getting healthy. It impacts so many people.”