Abby Gray
NLJ Correspondent
Underage drinking, tobacco use and suicide are usually pushed aside during conversations, or maybe talked about in hushed tones. With Weston County Prevention, however, Kristi Lipp and her team of approximately 20 volunteers are trying to educate the community and change the way Weston County thinks about these type of behaviors.
“We had a big change because our contract ended with the PMO on June 30,” Lipp said. “Instead of all of the money for state prevention going to the Prevention Management Organization and then being given out to the counties, now what they did with the legislative footnote was all of the counties got a specified dollar amount.”
The budget for this biennium is $209,843, allowing for Weston County Prevention to use $104,921.50 for both this year and next year. Last year, Lipp said, she had a budget of $124,335, but that money was to fund both Crook and Weston counties, leaving only $62,167.50 for Weston County.