Sheriff Kyle Dukes addresses the Kosciusko County Council on Thursday, March 14.

WARSAW — Kosciusko County’s sheriff received good news on Thursday, March 14, in his mission to bolster a program designed to help jail inmates battle drug addiction.

Sheriff Kyle Dukes appeared before the Kosciusko County Council with a grant request for the county’s Jail Chemical Addiction Program. The grant, totaling $163,260.40 would provide much-needed funding for personnel coordinating the fledgling program.

Dukes told the council that previous attempts to secure the grant had failed, but that the grant request has been properly configured and, with council approval, ready to re-submit.

The council unanimously approved the request.

“The nice thing about this grant is that it has a salary for a paid coordinator, which is Courtney Jenkins,” said Dukes. The JCAP program graduated its first class of attendees late last month and Dukes stressed at the ceremony his goal of finding the funding to pay Jenkins for her efforts. The money from the grant, if awarded, will be used to pay Jenkins as a contractor and will also fund services from program partners such as The Bowen Center and other entities.

“We’re on the verge of doing something Kosciusko County has never seen before,” said Dukes. According to Auditor Michelle Puckett, the county could find out in a two or three months whether or not the grant was awarded.

Dukes told the council that he is sitting down on March 20 with other stakeholders, such as organizations who help with chemical dependency in order to create a coalition with a common goal.

“We are meeting at the sheriff’s office,” Dukes said. “We’re going to work together to come up with a game plan on how we’re going to tackle this addiction issue.”

Prior to presenting to the council, Dukes received the nod to submit the grant request from the county’s board of commissioners on Feb. 19.

In other business, Attorney Chad Miner gave the council an update on the Tippecanoe/Chapman Regional Sewer District.