Rogers County doubles state mental health grant, funding app and personnel
Nov. 30—Rogers County will receive an additional $289,173 grant from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.
That brings the county to a total of $578,346 it can spend to bankroll a mental health resource app, a juvenile diversion specialist for Rogers County Youth Services and two GRAND Mental Health personnel in the county jail.
County spokesperson Diana Dickinson said Monday the county originally applied for the mental health grant for Fiscal Year 2024, which ended July 1. Dickinson said the state allowed the county to amend its contract to pick up the county’s Fiscal Year 2025 allocation as well.
She said the county must use the FY 25 funds for the same purposes for which it agreed to use the FY 24 funds. But since the county will only have to pay to develop the Better Together mental health app once, Dickinson said the county will have some excess money to spend.
The Rogers County Commissioners hosted Tulsa web developer Inhouse Web Services, a candidate to develop the app, at their Oct. 22 meeting. Inhouse quoted the cost of designing, creating and launching the app at about $20,000.
“Chances are [the excess is] going to be used for a project manager and to increase funding for first responders’ [mental health crisis] training,” Dickinson said.
Rogers County Youth Services may now start constructing its new building off South 4130 Road, following the commissioners’ Monday meeting.
The commissioners approved a special exception to the plat where RCYS plans to build. Brittany Senters, deputy director of the Rogers County Planning Commission, said the tract is zoned agricultural, and RCYS must obtain the exception so it can provide medical outpatient services.
The commissioners gave RCYS $800,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to kickstart the project. District 2 Commissioner Steve Hendrix said Herb McSpadden, the organization’s executive director, needs help with additional funding for the new building.
“Youth Services is really doing something here,” said District 1 Commissioner Dan DeLozier. “…This is going to be a good thing when it’s done.”
The commissioners also entered into an agreement with Patsy Myers, a northern Rogers County property owner, to enter her property to remove a tree.
“The reason we’re having to get on the property is to keep the tree from falling on a fence,” DeLozier said. “They just built a new fence right inside an old, rotten tree, so we’re going to take this tree out to keep it from falling.”
The commissioners took no action after entering executive session to confidentially discuss a pending investigation, claim or action.
