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By Carey Reeder | Staff Writer

County Attorney Roger Bates presented the Chilton County Commission with two resolutions at the July 26 meeting that would award the county money from two opioid epidemic settlements.

McKesson pharmaceutical company has reached a settlement with the Alabama Attorney General for just over $141 million that will be paid out over ten years. Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson affiliate, will also pay the state of Alabama a settlement that has not been finalized at the moment. The state made claims against the two companies “for their role in exacerbating the opioid crisis in Alabama,” according to a press release on April 19.

The commission signed an agreement to partner with the Alabama Attorney General who is helping counties all across Alabama settle with the companies.

No allocation sheet has been released to see how much Chilton County will receive. The amount will be calculated by a population-based formula, according to Bates.

There are spending restrictions with the money that it needs to be spent “on opioid mitigation and remediation efforts,” said Bates.

Every county in the state is being presented with the same resolution with each company.

A motion for the chairman to sign the resolutions and the signing of both resolutions were passed unanimously. Chairman Jimmie Hardee was absent from the meeting.

The meeting was the second for nominations for the vacancy at the Chilton Water Authority.

No new nominations were made, and nominations will close next meeting.

County Engineer Tony Wearren said that the road department got bids for the material that will be put on the dirt roads for the Dirt Road Reclamation Project. The material is a crushed rock, concrete based gravel. Wearren received three bids and a resolution was passed to receive the bids.

USA Brierfield made a bid for $13 per ton, and the commission unanimously chose to award the bid to them. The next step for the project is to select which roads in the county to start on.

Also, at the meeting, the commission:

• Reclassify Riley Barnett as a part time Deputy Sheriff effective July 20 and reclassify Mathew Mosley as a Sergeant/Shift Supervisor effective Aug. 6.
• Hire James Garrett Pittman and Nia Jean Sullivan as corrections officers effective July 23 and hire Jared Davis and a school resource officer effective July 27.
• Approved a preliminary plat for Pine on 97 subdivision.