Ewing Township

Summary

Ewing Township, Mercer County, reported receiving 173,108.27 in opioid settlement money through 06/30/2026. The national settlements list abatement uses such as treatment, recovery, connection to care, prevention and harm reduction. The list is not exhaustive. Other documented, evidence-based programs that address the epidemic also qualify. The money must add to existing spending, not replace it.

The Township keeps the money in one spending account, 11580928, National Opiods Settlement, as the Township spells it. The account report generated 09/08/2026 shows 170,272.94 appropriated through 08/11/2026, 37,332.77 paid, 249.60 open on an order for AED pads and 132,690.57 unspent. This project classifies 36,468.65 of the payments as non-conforming and 864.12 as unverified. None is classified as conforming.

Each of the four reports the Township filed with the Department of Human Services certifies a spent figure equal to the account's payments for that year, to the cent. The label is the problem. The FY2026 report certifies cardiac equipment, most of it ordered by the police and fire departments, under a drug education program for children. Read the Township's findings.

What the Township told the State

The FY2023 report covers the period to 06/30/2023. It certifies 35,527.11 received and nothing expended. It says the Township had no strategic plan but planned to develop one, and that it relied on a needs assessment.

The FY2024 report certifies 68,357.44 received in the year, 103,884.55 since 2022, 864.12 expended, nothing encumbered and 94,845.62 unspent on hand. Asked for its goals, it answers "Health Department has not submitted a plan as yet." It reports no strategic plan, no risk assessment and no public engagement.

The FY2025 report certifies 31,112.02 received in the year, 134,996.57 since 2022, nothing expended, nothing encumbered and 122,954.35 unspent on hand. It answers "N/A" for its goals and reports no new program.

The FY2026 report certifies 38,111.70 received in the year, 173,108.27 since 2022, 36,468.65 spent, nothing encumbered, nothing for administration and 138,639.62 unspent on hand. It gives the year's goal as "acquisition of equipment to assist in resuscitation of opioid overdose victims." It names the Fire Director, the Health Director, the EMS Director and the Police Chief as the officials who decided. It says "No formal plan has been established to date" and reports no strategic plan. It reports a completed risk assessment and answers No when asked whether it may be posted online.

The children's program

The FY2024 report created one program, Opioid Education, with the Township as recipient. It names the problem as "Lack of education on drug awareness for children." Its target population is children and young adults aged 0 to 18. Its primary category is Primary Prevention, Education, and Training, and its Schedule B strategy is Prevent Misuse of Opioids. It was funded at 1,000.00 and reports 11 training or education sessions and 2,600 people expected to be reached each year.

The account paid Positive Promotions 864.12 on purchase order 121491, by check 2192 on 04/23/2024, for "say no to drugs give aways." That is the certified figure to the cent, and the report names "Promotional items (give aways) procured through Positive Promotions" as its procurement.

The Township's vendor history for Positive Promotions runs from 2018 to 2026. It prints 28 lines netting 29,793.67 on twelve accounts. The 864.12 is the only one on the settlement account. The others include "community promotional items" on 12/15/2023, "health education materials" on 02/25/2025 and 03/11/2025, and "Educational Materials" on 03/10/2026. The report gives account numbers, not account names, so the record does not show which funds bought them. No evidence-based program built on the giveaways is documented, and none is ruled out. This project classifies the 864.12 as unverified.

FY2026: cardiac equipment under the children's program

The FY2026 report carries one program, an update to Opioid Education. The update reports one modification, to funding amount, explained as "Utilized additional funding received." It gives as its performance indicator "Purchase of AEDs and Defibrillators for use by first responders during calls for opioid overdoses." The program's name, population, category and strategy are still those of the FY2024 children's program.

The settlement account paid six lines in the year. They make the report's 36,468.65 to the cent.

Purchase order 128523 is a Police Department requisition, shipped to the Police Department. Purchase order 128656 is a Fire Department requisition. Its header line, in the Township's words, reads "Purchase of an AED and a LUCAS Device with Opioid Settlement Funds." The LUCAS device alone is 19,682.27. Stryker billed the order to TWP OF EWING EMS and shipped it to the Ewing Twp Fire Dept. Its quote prints the 3,024.30 ProCare term as 11/08/2023 to 11/07/2025. The invoice prints no term.

No line bought education. The orders and invoices describe defibrillators, defibrillator supplies and a chest compression system. No overdose program using the equipment is documented, and defibrillators and chest compression devices are not among the uses Exhibit E lists. The report names the equipment in its goal and its indicator, but it certifies it under a children's drug education program. Certified defibrillators as children's drug education.

The update's own expended figure is 38,468.65, which is 2,000.00 above question 6 and above the payments. No payment or open order on the account explains the difference.

Where the fund has gone

Cardiac equipment is 36,468.65 of the 37,332.77 paid, 97.7 percent. Nothing in the account pays for treatment, recovery, connection to care or naloxone. Cardiac equipment took 36,468.65 of 37,332.77 ever spent.

The trade-in

Purchase order 128656 credits 300.00 for a "Trade-In of Expired AED Unit." Stryker's quote for the Fire Department describes it as a Philips HeartStart FR3 traded toward the LIFEPAK 1000. The Fire Department owned an AED before the settlement fund paid for the new one.

The records do not show which fund bought the FR3 or how the Township paid for AEDs before 2025. That the settlement money took over a cost another fund carried is an inference from these records. Section D(7) of the agreement between the State and its towns requires the money to supplement local spending and not supplant it. Traded in an expired AED toward the settlement-funded one.

What should happen

The account has paid 36,468.65 for cardiac equipment certified under a children's drug education program, with no overdose program documented. The Township can restore that money to the fund and spend it on a listed use or a documented abatement program. The 249.60 order for AED pads was still open on 08/11/2026. The Township can cancel it against this account.

The State relies on these reports to verify compliance. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2026 report, who prepared it, and what records support it.

How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy.