Luzerne County ponders multimedia ad campaigns targeting opioids

Nearly an hour of this week’s Luzerne County Council work session was devoted to prospective multimedia ad campaigns targeting opioids, but it’s still unclear if the county will end up pursuing that option.

The four presenters had submitted applications to the county’s Commission on Opioid Misuse and Addiction Abatement, which makes recommendations to council on project earmarks from opioid litigation settlement funds.

Council Chairman John Lombardo, a commission member, said the panel has not made a recommendation or any decisions related to future advertising campaigns.

Instead, the commission decided it may be easier for the ad presentations to come directly to council for additional feedback due to their length and complexity, he said.

After Tuesday’s presentations, Lombardo stressed the commission won’t be making an immediate decision on whether an ad campaign will be recommended.

“It’s going to be a little bit before this comes back up on a council meeting agenda — if at all,” Lombardo said.

Council has the final say on how the money is spent.

In total, the county is expected to receive approximately $30 million over 18 years from the state’s settlement against opioid manufacturers and wholesale distributors.

Unlike typical funding requests that come with firm deadlines, the commission is accepting applications on a rolling basis because the funding is ongoing over multiple years.

Applications and information about eligible uses for the settlement funds are posted on the commission’s section at luzernecounty.org. The commission will hold its latest public town hall meeting to provide program updates and accept feedback at 5:30 p.m. March 24 in Hazleton City Hall, 40 N. Church St.

Council voted last August and December to earmark a total $2.56 million for a range of internal and outside projects that met eligible uses, including programs that provide medication-assisted treatment at the prison, warm hand-off and recovery specialist services and treatment and prevention education.

More earmarks must be made in coming months because $1.7 million the county had received toward the end of 2023 must be spent by June 30, officials have said.

The four entities presenting proposals at Tuesday’s work session: Kudu Creative, Seven Mountains Media/Seven Mountains Creative, WNEP and WBRE/WYOU Nexstar Media Group.

Company representatives discussed their work and strategies to reach county residents.

Each proposal and some supplemental submissions are posted as separate attachments with Tuesday’s work session agenda at luzernecounty.org. A link to the YouTube recording of that meeting is posted at council’s online public meeting section at luzernecounty.org, with the opioid campaign presentations starting at the 1:46:29 mark.

During Tuesday’s session, Lombardo told his colleagues this presentation differed from one last summer.

At that time, the commission had recommended spending $985,500 in opioid settlement funds on a yearlong multimedia advertising campaign with Nexstar Media Group. Council unanimously removed that proposal from the voting agenda after county Manager Romilda Crocamo’s discovery that there was no existing human services division contract with Nexstar that would allow an award without publicly seeking proposals from any interested entities.

Lombardo, who has not taken a position on the current proposals, said applications are now available to any entities through the website link that was subsequently activated.

The commission also was still in its infancy last summer and had to spend $1 million in 2022-awarded settlement funds by the end of August 2024 to avoid returning them. As a result, the commission switched gears and recommended allocations for other existing programs.

In addition to Lombardo and Crocamo, the following serve on the commission: citizen Mary Butera (appointed by council); county District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce; county Drug and Alcohol Administrator Ryan Hogan, county Human Services Division Head Megan Stone; and county Correctional Services Division Head James Wilbur.