{"id":7876,"date":"2026-04-09T14:03:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/10k-in-county-opioid-settlement-funds-benefit-recovery-wellness-community-center-piscataquis-observer\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T14:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T14:03:21","slug":"10k-in-county-opioid-settlement-funds-benefit-recovery-wellness-community-center-piscataquis-observer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/10k-in-county-opioid-settlement-funds-benefit-recovery-wellness-community-center-piscataquis-observer\/","title":{"rendered":"$10K in county opioid settlement funds benefit Recovery Wellness Community Center – Piscataquis Observer"},"content":{"rendered":"

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DOVER-FOXCROFT \u2014 A month and a half after the Piscataquis County Commissioners voted to have $10,000 in county opioid settlement money <\/a>go annually to the non-profit Recovery Wellness Community Center of Sangerville, county officials heard about the impact of the funds during a commissioners meeting on the morning of April 7.
A $10,000 check from Piscataquis County has been received, Recovery Wellness Community Center<\/a> Program Manager Alan Burgess said.
The center has been open for about a year at a former Catholic church on the Douty Hill Road. 
\u201cWe want to say thank you very, very much,\u201d he said. \u201cThe money is really, really helpful, it goes a long way in what we\u2019re trying to do and what we\u2019re trying to accomplish.\u201d
Maine counties receive opioid settlement money <\/a>regularly as part of national settlements with companies accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic. Funds can only be used for specific purposes and previous expenditures had been in the Piscataquis County Jail. With monies going to an area non-profit, as opposed to an expanded county program, there won\u2019t be an added cost to taxpayers after the settlements end.
Burgess said the Recovery Wellness Community Center has received more support since the late February commissioners meeting \u2014 including having a story on the front page of the Piscataquis Observer. 
\u201cI have noticed a lot more conversation from a lot more people after that,\u201d he said.
\u201cI don’t want to say that\u2019s equally as important, just a different kind of important,\u201d Burgess continued. \u201cObviously we need money, we can\u2019t function without it, but what we\u2019re seeing is the whole community\u2019s bought in and it\u2019s really been quite an amazing thing to be a part of.\u201d
\u201cIt gives people a place to go, something that they are hopeful for and somewhere where they can get involved in,\u201d he said.
The Recovery Wellness Community Center is offering programs at the jail, including one on one recovery coaching.
The center offers outreach in Milo and is looking to expand to Greenville.
\u201cThank you very much and thank you for what you\u2019re doing,\u201d Commissioners Chair Paul Davis said.
In other business, County Manager Mike Williams said the safety committee has been working on a communications system should there be a severe event such as a fire.
\u201cThat way if we have an evacuation or something the department heads can let me know they\u2019re out,\u201d he said. Emergency responders would not need to search buildings for those who are able to radio in and say they are okay.
Piscataquis County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Director Maureen Conley helped locate some push-to-talk radios for reliable communication. Williams tested these and the radios worked nearly everywhere on the county campus \u2014 inside the jail bubble was an exception.
Williams tried some locations across the region and the only problem spot he encountered in his travels was in Blanchard, likely caused by the topography in this unorganized territory. The county manager also tried a radio in known cellphone dead spots on his way home to Greenbush and he was able to speak and hear with the device.
The county could purchase 14 radios for department heads, several locations and to have some backups, at a cost between $1,000 and $1,500. Sim cards would need annual $50 renewals moving forward.
\u201cYou will have perfect communication all day, except for a few small areas,\u201d Williams said.
Sheriff Bob Young said on Tuesday, April 21, during the week of school vacation, there will be a \u201cmajor active shooter exercise at Foxcroft Academy.\u201d Various county police, fire, EMS and dispatch agencies will be working together.
\u201cThe idea, we have been planning this since last summer, is to make it as realistic as we can just to test systems to see how communications work, see the command structure how fire and EMS would integrate,\u201d Young said. \u201cWe know we are going to make mistakes, and that\u2019s the whole idea to see where we make the mistakes.\u201d
The sheriff also said that former long-time Chief Deputy Dale Clukey Sr. <\/a>passed away the weekend prior at age 89. Clukey served as chief deputy from 1991 to 2009 as part of a 38-year law enforcement career. Clukey was the chief deputy prior to Young serving in the position for close to a decade before he became sheriff in 2018.
A funeral service with military honors is scheduled for 10 a.m. on May 1 at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Exeter.<\/p>\n

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Username or Email Address Password Remember Me DOVER-FOXCROFT \u2014 A month and a half after the Piscataquis County Commissioners voted to have $10,000 in county opioid settlement money go annually to the non-profit Recovery Wellness Community Center of Sangerville, county officials heard about the impact of the funds during a commissioners meeting on the morning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}