Swain commissioners at an Aug. 18 meeting voted unanimously in favor of pursuing a $60,000 Purdue-Sackler settlement-funded contract with Tonya Snider from tenBiz, Inc. to facilitate implementation of the county’s drug overuse mitigation program.
County Manager Tommy Dills explained he’d selected tenBiz because the group, in partnership with OMNI Institute and the Southwestern Commission, had helped coordinate a strategic plan for North Carolina’s Region A, made up of Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, and thus possessed extensive knowledge of the project.
The OMNI North Carolina Region A Opioid Settlements Strategic Plan — plus county-specific needs assessments — was the product of 137 community surveys, 16 one-on-one interviews and 11 focus groups. Findings indicate Region A was impacted by the opioid crisis at a rate exceeding the state mean — and that Swain County experienced above-average impacts within the region.
