OFFICIALS MUM ON DRUG AGENCY'S FUNDING

Carbon Has No Answer For Nonprofit Involved In Condom Debate.

Carbon County commissioners on Thursday refused to act on a request to fund
a multicounty drug and alcohol organization that raised their ire in August
when a prevention worker allegedly gave a 13-year-old girl a condom in a
playground where younger children were playing.

The commissioners fell silent when county Administrator Randy Smith
presented the board with the Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol
Commission's request for $9,298 from fines the county collected from people
convicted of drunken driving.

An official from the agency said it faces ''disastrous'' cutbacks without
the money.

None of the three commissioners offered a motion to grant or reject the
request after Smith read it. After moments of silence, Smith moved on to
the next item on the agenda.

The drug and alcohol commission is a private, nonprofit group licensed by
the state Department of Health. The commission has an office on S. First
Street in Lehighton.

After the meeting, Commissioner Tom Gerhard said he believes the county
should keep the money. He said it could be used to help offset residents'
tax bills.

The agency drew criticism from the commissioners - particularly Gerhard -
in August because of its condom distribution program.

Monroe County temporarily halted the program - intended to teach 13- to
18-year-olds about AIDS and the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that
causes the disease - after Gerhard said the 13-year-old's mother reported
the girl had been given the condom.

Gerhard at the time said he was appalled and called the distribution ''a
sick policy.''

The outreach program later was suspended indefinitely, drug and alcohol
commission director Richard Mroczka said.

Reached at the organization's Monroe office after the Carbon meeting,
Mroczka reacted with disbelief to the commissioners withholding funds.

Mroczka said the organization, which has served the area for more than 25
years, needs the money to continue its programs in Carbon.

He said all the money it gets from Carbon is spent in the county for drug
and alcohol prevention, intervention and treatment programs, especially at
the prison.

If the commissioners never act on the request, he said it would be the
first time the county has withheld the money in about 15 years.

By law, he said, a quarter of fines the county collects should be allocated
for education, treatment and prevention programs.

''It's kind of shock here, and I'd like to take a look at this and talk
with the commissioners,'' he said.

The drug and alcohol commission also uses the money it gets from member
counties to develop education initiatives, such as the Drug and Alcohol
Resistence Education, or DARE, program.

But Gerhard said Thursday he doesn't believe that work is effective as a
deterrent.