$350,000 grant to fund Tonopah drug court

Nye County’s Board of Commissioners approved a $350,000 grant this month from the United States Department of Justice to open an Adult Drug Court program in Tonopah.

According to the grant, the new Drug Court, which will be stationed in the northern part of the county as part of the Fifth Judicial District Court, will serve the communities of Tonopah, Round Mountain, Hadley, Belmont, Manhattan, Gabbs and Beatty in Nye County and Goldfield, Silver Peak and Dyer/Fish Lake Valley in Esmeralda County.

The Fifth Judicial Court, which serves Nye, Esmeralda and Mineral counties, already has one Drug Court program set up in Pahrump that has been in operation since 2002. Judge Robert Lane helped start the program before handing it over to Judge Kimberly Wanker who currently oversees the specialty court.

The purpose of the federal funding is to help courts across the country “implement drug treatment courts that effectively integrate evidence-based substance abuse treatment, mandatory drug testing, sanctions and incentives and transitional services in a judicially supervised court setting with jurisdiction over non-violent, substance-abusing offenders.”

With the acceptance of funding for the new project, the county also reportedly agrees to provide a match of $116,782 toward the program, which will be made up of cash and in-kind match.

According to information submitted to commissioners in their consideration of the funding, $12,190 of the matching funds will come from civil filing fees the Drug Court already receives for the prevention and treatment of drug and alcohol abuse. The other $104,592 the county is being asked to match will go toward covering staff salary and travel expenses over the 36-month term the grant is set to run.

With the creation of the new program in the northern part of the county, the Drug Court will also be required to hire three new staff members, two Drug Court facilitators and one Drug Court case worker, to help run the program. The positions will be part-time with no benefits and will last only as long as there is funding for the specialty court.

The Drug Court applied for the grant earlier this year after county commissioners gave the staff permission to submit a grant proposal for the needed funds.

The grant was approved by the United States Department of Justice earlier this month and was placed on Tuesday’s regular meeting agenda for approval.

Wanker, who currently heads the Drug Court program in the southern part of the county, will also reportedly overlook the new program the grant establishes in Tonopah.

According to the grant, the program has a goal of helping 20 people in the first year and goals of helping 25 people in the second and third years of operation for a total of 70 people in three years. It went into effect Tuesday with the commissioners’ approval and is set to cover the court until Sept. 16, 2016.