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PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission is looking to convene a meeting of local officials from around the region to go over possible ideas that grants from the West Virginia First Foundation could address while also determining who will represent the region on the Foundation’s board.

Commission President Blair Couch said he was contacted by someone who was interested in possibly running for the next term on the Foundation’s board as the representative for the Foundation’s Region 3 which makes up Wood, Tyler, Pleasants, Ritchie, Wirt, Calhoun, Roane and Jackson counties.

“I think we need to call for an election,” Couch said. “There are so many municipalities, counties and townships in Region 3.”

Parkersburg Mayor Tom Joyce was originally elected to represent Region 3 for a two-year term that expires in November.

Joyce said he is interested in continuing to serve and wants to seek re-election to the board.

“I found the work to be rewarding,” he said. “I have enjoyed everything I have done.

“I would like to stay on the board if the cities and counties in Region 3 feel I should.”

He has reviewed around 90 applications for the initial Opportunities Grants. The Foundation was set up to receive and distribute opioid funds received by the state as part of billion-dollar settlements from pharmaceutical companies for the opioid crisis the state had endured for a number of years.

Joyce said there was a lot of work done during the first two years to get everything in place and up and running. The Foundation’s website said they have awarded grants for 94 projects totaling $17 million.

“Since I have been elected to represent Region 3, I have visited 30 treatment providers across the spectrum from peer support to recovery residences to medically assisted treatment to prevention activity to youth prevention and workforce development with different providers,” Joyce said. “I think we need to continue to identify what areas need funded.”

Going forward, Joyce said he really wants the board to focus on outcomes and making sure they are funding programs and initiatives across the state, not just in Region 3. He wants to look at programs that are working, why they work and if they can be done in other areas.

Joyce talked about touring facilities and reviewing programs with high accountability and responsibility expected from the participants.

“If we are going to whip this thing we are going to do a couple of things,” Joyce said. “We will continue the programs that generate the best results.

“We need to focus more and more all the time on educating our youth and the next generation of West Virginians to not use illicit drugs and to make those kinds of smart, healthy choices from elementary school to adulthood.”

There is a lot of money being spent on treatment, but there needs to be more focus on prevention, Joyce said. Figures he has seen indicate there is around $18 spent on treatment compared to $1 on prevention.

Joyce said he would like to continue with the Foundation’s Board.

“I have learned a lot, but I feel there is more to learn,” he said. “I think there is more value I can add if they want me to.”

Each region has an “Expert Panel” that will help the Foundation’s Board review and evaluate different programs proposed for funding through the Foundation as well as providing feedback. The Region 3 Expert Panel was formed six months ago and includes Treatment Expert – Jolie Kerenick; Prevention Expert – former Vienna Police Chief Mike Pifer; Recovery/Lived Experience Expert – Alison Browning; Systems of Care Expert – Amy Yokum; Law Enforcement & Judicial Systems Expert – Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard; First Responders Expert – former Parkersburg Police Chief Joe Martin; and Corrections & Reentry Expert – Aaron Simonton.

This group is supposed to have its first meeting within the next few weeks, Couch said.

Former Wood County Sheriff and former West Virginia Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeff Sandy also serves on the Foundation’s Board as an appointee from the Governor’s Office.

Sandy said Friday his term is also up in November and he expressed his interest to the Governor’s Office in continuing on the Foundation Board for another term.

“I have been honored to be on the board and I serve at the will and pleasure of Governor (Patrick) Morrisey,” he said.

When the county originally got hold of all the local leaders across the region two years ago to set up the first meeting at the Judge Black Annex, Wood County Administrator Marty Seufer said it was “a very heavy lift” to get as many officials as they could to one place to do the meeting.

Couch said they were supposed to have quarterly meetings among regional officials to discuss ideas and programs they might submit to the Foundation for grants, but that has not been done. He hopes to do that to provide ideas to the expert panel to be able to go over and review.

“We have a wide and varying region,” Couch said, adding he also wants to continue talking with leaders from around the region about what resources do other areas have that are not available locally and what officials think would work in this region.

Officials said they will start putting the word out to see when a meeting can be held.

“It was a fun meeting,” Couch said of the original meeting held on July 12, 2023. “We saw people we don’t usually get to see.”

Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com.