Union Township, Union County

Summary

The money must go to the abatement uses the national settlements list, or to documented evidence-based programs that address the epidemic. It must add to local spending, not replace it. The listed uses cover treatment, recovery, connection to care, prevention and harm reduction.

The Township produced two prints of its settlement account, G-01-00-900-165, Opioid Settlement Grant. Together they run from 01/01/2022 to 08/28/2026. The first charge is dated 07/24/2024. No revenue account was produced, so the amounts received below are the Township's own figures.

One more order, an American Heart Association BLS instructor package for 180.06, was still open on 08/28/2026.

The split is 15,714.80 conforming, 49,150.53 non-conforming and 125,115.40 unverified. Unverified means the record neither documents an abatement use nor rules one out. Read the Township's findings.

What the Township told the State

• FY2023. Received 116,365.42 as of 6/30/23. Expended 0.00, administrative 0.00. The Township wrote that it "waited for further guidance from the state and county" and began planning. No public engagement and no strategic plan. The account shows no charge before 07/24/2024, so the report and the books agree.
• FY2024. Received 166,617.03 in the year and 282,982.45 since 2022. Spent 9,000.00, encumbered 30,404.33, administrative 0.00, unspent on hand 309,728.24. One program, the Health Educator Push-In Program to HS Athletes, 9,000.00. Its goals included "support, equipment and training instruments to our fire and police departments."
• FY2025. Received 110,404.58 in the year and 393,387.03 since 2022. Spent 29,080.00, encumbered 166,397.72, administrative 12,900.00 "for project coordinator and CFO," unspent on hand 294,671.83. One new program, Nurse Practitioner Health Education Services for Students, funded at 60,000.00 with 10,880.00 spent, and a 5,300.00 update to the Push-In program.
• FY2026. Received 74,833.51 in the year and 468,220.54 since 2022. Spent 88,931.00, encumbered 304,023.61, administrative 0.00, unspent on hand 304,023.61. One program update, the nurse practitioner, at 43,520.00. The Township Administrator, the CFO, the Governing Body and the Economic Development Director decided how to spend the money. No public engagement and no strategic plan.

What the books show for each year:

The FY2024 figure is the Push-In program's 9,000.00. Patrick Tuohy's order for it was first encumbered on 06/26/2024 and paid on 07/24/2024, after the year closed. The FY2024 encumbered figure, 30,404.33, is the exact total of two orders first encumbered on 08/02/2024 and paid in August and September 2024: V.E. Ralph order 24-03816 for EMS equipment and naloxone, and Team Life order 24-03815 for AED items. The FY2024 unspent figure, 309,728.24, is 26,745.79 more than the 282,982.45 the report says was received since 2022. The question asks what the Township currently has, so the figure may count money received after 06/30/2024.

The FY2025 figure, 29,080.00, is the 5,300.00 Push-In update, the 10,880.00 nurse practitioner program and the 12,900.00 administrative charge, to the cent. The rest of the 71,564.33 paid that year is the 39,404.33 the FY2024 report had already counted and one 3,080.00 Team Life order for AED items. No order was open on the account at 06/30/2025. The record does not show what the 166,397.72 encumbered figure holds.

The FY2026 report

The form tells a town that reports spending at question 6 to answer the program questions for each program the money funded. The FY2026 report gives one program for the year, the nurse practitioner update at 43,520.00. Its only other block is the 5,300.00 Push-In entry from FY2025, reprinted with a 2023 to 2024 period. That leaves 45,411.00 of the certified 88,931.00 in no program.

The account paid 103,786.40 in the year.

The report mentions equipment only in its goal statement: "providing support, equipment and training for PD and Fire." Several combinations of the year's payments add to 88,931.00, so the record does not show which payments the certified figure leaves out. Certified 45,411.00 spent that no program describes.

The report also certifies 304,023.61 appropriated or encumbered but not yet spent. It gives the same 304,023.61 as the unspent and uncommitted money on hand. On 06/30/2026 the account had two open orders, the 180.06 BLS instructor package and a 5,440.00 nurse practitioner order paid on 07/08/2026. The account's whole 2026 budget was 142,242.05. Through 06/30/2026 it had paid 59,046.40 of that, which left 77,575.59 neither spent nor on order. All the appropriations the account has carried since 2022 total 258,546.38. The certified 304,023.61 is more than any of them. Certified 304,023.61 committed with 5,620.06 on order.

Defibrillators and EMS equipment

From 08/22/2024 to 06/04/2026 the account paid 49,150.53 for defibrillators, CPR training equipment and EMS supplies.

The Township owned this kind of equipment before the settlement money arrived. Its UC CARES Act Grant account paid Team Life 74,553.00 for Powerheart G5 semi-automatic defibrillators and related items in January and February 2021. The same account paid V.E. Ralph on 04/22/2021 for a Laerdal CPRmeter, suction units, oxygen regulators, pulse oximeters and resuscitators. From 2019 to 2025 the Township bought Powerheart items and batteries from Team Life on its general equipment, motor vehicle parts, office supplies, training aids and emergency materials lines. On 04/09/2026 it paid Team Life 1,098.00 on an office supplies line. On 05/07/2026 a recreation trust account paid V.E. Ralph 2,000.00 for an FRX defibrillator and carry case.

Check 970996 of 08/22/2024 shows the two budgets side by side. It paid the settlement account's equipment order. It also paid a defibrillator item and a resuscitator from an office supplies line, and naloxone from a training aids line.

No report describes this equipment in a program. Defibrillators and CPR equipment treat cardiac arrest. No overdose program using any of it is documented, and none of it is among the uses Exhibit E lists. 49,150.53 of the fund bought AEDs and EMS equipment.

The same V.E. Ralph order included 1,414.80 of naloxone syringes and nasal atomizers. Naloxone is a listed use, and this project counts those lines as conforming.

The nurse practitioner

Progressive Therapy & Wellness has billed the Township 5,440.00 a month for nurse practitioner and health education services 37 times since 08/15/2023. The vendor history names the account charged each time.

The amount never changed. The FY2025 report certifies the service as a new program, funded and launched 06/01/2024, and reports 1,657 students reached "for the period of June 2024 to present." From 06/01/2024 to 04/16/2025 the grant accounts paid the vendor eleven times and the settlement account paid nothing. The grant account named for July 2024 to March 2026 last paid the vendor on 03/20/2025.

The record does not show whether the grants could have kept paying. That the settlement money took over a cost the grants carried is this project's inference from these records. The State's agreement with its towns requires the money to supplement local spending, not supplant it. Until the record settles that question, this project counts the payments as unverified. Moved a nurse practitioner service off public health grants.

The administrative charge

On 12/04/2024 the Township charged 51,600.00 to the settlement account, described as a "20% Admin Fee for 258,000.00." Revenue journal 24833 booked it as a reimbursement to the Economic Development salary line. On 12/20/2024 budget journal 3403 corrected the fee to 5 percent and charged 38,700.00 back to that line. The net charge is 12,900.00. The FY2025 report discloses it as administrative expense for the project coordinator and CFO.

Staffing the oversight of abatement programs is a use Exhibit E lists. No voucher, time record or calculation of the 258,000.00 base was produced, so this project counts the charge as unverified.

The high school program

The Push-In program is the part of the record that ties cleanly. The FY2024 report certifies four opioid education sessions for high school students at 9,000.00, with 1,201 participants and pre and post assessments. The FY2025 update adds two sessions at 5,300.00. Three payments to Patrick Tuohy make the two figures to the cent. The Push-In program ties to the books.

The Wisdom Spring workshops, 21,200.00 so far, are described in the ledger as opioid workshops and opioid abuse education. No report describes them in a program, and no produced record shows who attended. This project counts them as unverified.

What should happen

The account has paid 49,150.53 for defibrillators, CPR equipment and EMS supplies that no documented overdose program uses, equipment the Township has bought with other money before and since. The Township can restore that money to the fund and spend it on a listed use or a documented abatement program.

The Township can document the workshops and the nurse practitioner program, and show what the public health grants paid for before May 2025.

The State relies on these reports to track the money. The Department of Human Services and the Office of the State Comptroller should examine the FY2026 report, its 45,411.00 in no program and its 304,023.61 committed, and the records behind it.

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