T-L Photo/KAILEY CARPINO Katie Norris, Deputy Health Commissioner at the Harrison County Health Department, shows some of the “goodies” that the health department will distribute during its outreach event to recognize Overdose Awareness Day. The event will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday outside of the Harrison County Health Department building.

CADIZ — The Harrison County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution to recognize today as Overdose Awareness Day during their meeting Wednesday. All commissioners voted in favor of the motion and wore purple to the meeting to support overdose awareness.

“Overdose Awareness Day calls attention to raising awareness, supporting communities in the fight against drug addiction and remembering loved ones lost to the epidemic,” Katie Norris, Deputy Health Commissioner at the Harrison County Health Department, said.

Norris provided the commissioners with several facts about the prevalence of drug overdoses.

“Overdose can happen to anyone, and in 2020, 5,107 Ohioans died from unintentional drug overdoses. Statistics show men have consistently higher rates of fatal drug overdose than women, and unintentional overdose can happen when pills are laced with substances like fentanyl,” she said.

Norris said that she was thankful for the commissioners’ support.

“Drug overdoses are preventable, and we are calling on partners and community members to recognize that the national overdose epidemic has a personal impact on Ohio communities,” she said.

Norris said that the health department is having an outreach event from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday outside of the health department. She said that the event is open to anyone, and the department will be handing out “goodies” to anyone who attends.

“We have a personal protection kit and a safe, prescription-use pill organizer. We’re going to have two types of hygiene kits available to anyone in need with personal hygiene items, a dental hygiene kit and Deterra drug deactivation bags which are really convenient for anyone that may have prescription drugs at home. We will also have a limited number of Narcan kits available for the public,” Norris said.

Norris said that the outreach event was made possible through grant funding and through partnering with the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Belmont, Harrison and Monroe Counties.

For more information, visit harrisonpublichealth.org or go to the Harrison County Health Department Facebook page.

In other news, Deb Knight, director at Harrison County Department of Job and Family Services, stated that the department has an open income maintenance position. Knight said that she has received 47 job applications and recommends hiring Chelsea Rusen-Wells for the position.

“She currently works for Help Me Grow and is very excited to start,” Knight said.

Knight said that she recently learned that another staff member at DJFS is planning to retire in the next few months.

“Because the state is offering a new worker training, starting in September, we decided to fill that position to try to get somebody trained so that we don’t have two of our five staff that do that same work, not trained,” she said.

Knight said that the department recommends Sydney Elliott from Hopedale to fill the position once the current employee retires.

The board of commissioners voted unanimously to accept Knight’s and the department’s recommendations for the two new hires.

The commissioners also discussed an agreement with American Electric Power for easement and right of way on land in Freeport Township. The property contains 25.64 acres.

“This is an easement for AEP to move some power poles for the Freeport wastewater treatment project. It’s been reviewed by the prosecutor,” Commissioner Paul Coffland explained.

All of the commissioners voted to approve the agreement.