In an action that began nationally in 2017, the Washington County Supervisors on Tuesday, Dec. 21 unanimously approved joining a settlement agreement regarding claims against several opioid pharmaceutical companies, the result of a national settlement agreement of July 21, 2021. However, as supervisor Jack Seward, Jr. explained, the class action suit went through the courts with the settlement at the federal level. What now is underway is how to distribute the funds state by state, for which there is a legal group coordinating it.

“Right now, we have no idea what money we will receive,” only that by approving four actions, there will be some, a move Seward likens to bureaucratic housekeeping. The actions were approval of a Subdivision Distributor Settlement Participation Form (essentially putting the county on the list); a specific Subdivision Janssen Settlement Participation form (Janssen is one of the first in the suit), and a Resolution for a settlement agreement with McKenna Corporation, Cardinal Health, Inc., AmerisourceBergen Corporation, Johnson & Johnson, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. under the terms of  the Iowa Opioid Memorandum of Understanding and the Iowa Opioid Allocation Memorandum of Understanding.

As Seward noted, “It’s the lawyers that are raking it in on this,” not the thousands who were affected by the use of the opioids. Actual payment to states will not be before 2022 or later. The county attorney was named the legal representative for the county in this action.

The board approved closing of a section of 275th street (county road 27) between Gingko Avenue and Fir Avenue, south of Grace Hill, and disposing of the bridge over Indian Creek, concluding something that began 10 years ago with an earlier closing of part of the road. County Engineer Jacob Thorius explained that the landowners were in agreement with the closings, and they can take the bridge “and do whatever they want with it,” including using it in a walking trail or for the materials in it. The creek’s low water crossing, like others in the county, will have a culvert replacing the bridge.

The engineer also presented the third quarter secondary road report, noting that the department put down 30,000 tons of gravel on secondary roads, cleared 5,000 feet of ditches, stabilized all the gravel roads in Noble, as well as several other gravel roads, completed road work at Premier Ag and work on 125th street, west of Wellman and on Riverside Road, between Riverside and Washington.

In other business, the board:

•approved the employment contract with the engineer that, except for a raise to $130,900, remained unchanged; and

•approved an amendment to a joint agreement with the City of Washington to expand the city’s unified south central residential urban renewal area, involving property outside of the city limits but well within the city’s two-mile jurisdiction. The area, south of the golf course, will provide 30 lots for homes and a few duplexes, with the average cost of the homes at $325,000.  A related move was the extension of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for the project from 10 years to 15 years for payback and includes the Washington School District.  Mary Audia of WEDG said “it is an important project” that will provide the needed housing “to support our work force” which is a vital component to attract industry to the area.