Highland Park

Summary

The Borough of Highland Park, Middlesex County, has received 126,313.61 in opioid settlement money through 06/30/2026, by its own reports. Its FY2025 report put the total at 98,800.90 a year earlier. The money must go to opioid abatement. Exhibit E Schedule B of the national settlements lists the uses.

Through 08/31/2026 the Borough's opioid accounts paid 24,642.51. Of that, 2,000.00 went to the Middlesex County Blue Cares Program, a recovery hotline. The other 22,642.51 bought defibrillators and LifeVac anti-choking kits for the police department on 08/12/2025. No overdose program using either is documented, and neither is among the uses Exhibit E lists. The Borough had bought both kinds of equipment from its current fund before.

Its FY2026 report to the State misdescribes the purchase. It certifies the defibrillators and kits as an overdose prevention program.

The grade and the full ledger are on the Highland Park page.

What the Borough bought

The Borough keeps its settlement money in two accounts, G-02-41-776-200, Opioid Settlement Grant, and G-02-41-794-201, 2024 Opioid Settlement. The charges below come from the account audit trail printed 05/28/2026, the update printed 09/01/2026 and the purchase orders and vouchers.

• Paid, all payees: 24,642.51
• Defibrillators, check 020138: 22,037.78
• Anti-choking kits, check 020139: 604.73
• Paid to a listed abatement use: 2,000.00

Check 020138 pays for twenty two defibrillators. All three purchase orders ship to the police department at 222 South Fifth Avenue. The vendor quotes and invoices are billed to the Highland Park Police Department. Police command staff signed the officer's certification on each voucher. Apart from the words AED for Library on one purchase order, no record produced shows where the units went. No overdose response program is documented.

Check 020139 pays for ten LifeVac travel kits at 59.46 each plus shipping. The quote is billed to the police department. The vendor's letterhead reads The Original Airway Clearance Device. A LifeVac clears an airway blocked by a foreign body. It does not treat or prevent substance use disorder.

What the Borough bought before

The Borough's vendor history and its appropriation line reports show the same equipment paid from the current fund.

The seven Lifesavers payments total 1,127.21. A purchase order for a new defibrillator from Allied 100 was open on the Police Supplies line from 11/14/2022. The LifeVac kits were paid on 05/21/2024. Fourteen months later the Borough ordered the same kits from the same vendor and charged them to the opioid account.

The settlement money then paid 22,642.51 for the same kinds of equipment. That is about twenty times what the current fund spent with Lifesavers in the six years before. The Borough kept paying some defibrillator costs from its own budget afterward, including a 363.34 battery from UniFirst First Aid Corp paid 09/16/2025 on the Building Maintenance and Repair line. The settlement money paid a cost the Borough already carried. Finding.

What the Borough told the State

Each town with a direct share files an annual report with the Department of Human Services.

The FY2023 report certifies 25,490.97 received and 0.00 spent. The Borough wrote that it was still working on a plan. The books agree.

The FY2024 report certifies 2,000.00 spent on the Blue Cares Program, a 24 hour line to peer recovery coaches, detox, treatment and aftercare. The ledger shows purchase order 24-00471, check 17648, paid 04/16/2024 for 2,000.00. The report and the payment agree to the cent. Finding.

The FY2025 report certifies 0.00 spent and 0.00 encumbered for the year ending 06/30/2025. The books agree. Asked for its goals, the Borough wrote that it had identified projects for 2025-26, "including installation of defibrillators in all Borough buildings and in police vehicles." The first defibrillator purchase order was encumbered 07/09/2025, nine days after the period closed. Finding.

The same report answers No on public engagement, a strategic plan and a risk assessment. It says the Borough relies on input from its Police Department, Community Services Department, Board of Health and social worker.

FY2026

Both equipment checks were paid on 08/12/2025, inside the reporting year 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2026. The FY2026 report, published 10/01/2026, certifies 22,642.51 expended in that year, 0.00 encumbered and 0.00 of administration. Checks 020138 and 020139 make that figure to the cent. The audit trail printed 09/01/2026 shows no other payment from either opioid account after 08/12/2025. Finding.

The report calls the spending one program, Purchase of defibrillators, with the Borough as recipient.

The report's own goals answer names the equipment plainly: defibrillators in all Borough buildings and in police vehicles. It then certifies them under an overdose category they do not meet. Finding.

What should happen

The Borough should restore 22,642.51 to its opioid accounts from its own budget and spend it on a listed abatement use. It paid for this equipment from its current fund before the settlement money arrived.

How this project classifies spending is set out in the methodology and the rubric. Corrections follow the corrections policy. Other towns that charged police equipment to the settlement are listed under police vehicles and gear.