A two-year-long battle over drug and alcohol fines could be over soon, after more than a year in the court system.

We have more on an apparent agreement between the county and the non-profit Clearfield-Jefferson Drug & Alcohol Commission (CJDAC).

Three different sides of this case were in court on Friday. It’s all about money submitted by certain criminal defendants to the courthouse.

Last year, CJDAC announced it should have been getting drug and alcohol fines since 2003, when Act 198 was instituted, totaling $250,000 over that time.

Now, CJDAC may never get the money.

“I’m not exactly certain what the final outcome will be,” says the CJDAC’s attorney, Patrick Lavelle.

“He spoke confidentially with each of the parties involved,” says county commissioners’ attorney Kim Kesner.

At a status conference on Friday morning, visiting judge Daniel Milliron met separately with the commissioners, CJDAC, and the county controller, and said he plans to issue a settlement order.

“There will be no indication that anything wrong occurred in the past,” says Kesner. “But, what we’re going to try to do is develop processes to clearly and transparently provide information on the distribution of funding from two sources: two statutes that provide money for drug and alcohol treatment.”

Judge Milliron said three sections of state law are involved, in Title 4, Title 18, and Title 42.

Milliron said he believes once the commissioners establish a “Single-County Authority” like CJDAC, that that authority should get the fines.

After the discussions, Milliron said he just realized on Friday that he needs to talk to President Judge Fred Ammerman about collections from the probation office before he can write an order.

“We’ll wait to see what the final outcome is going to be. Hopefully it’s going to be something that’s appropriate for everybody involved and everybody can move on doing what they do,” says Lavelle.

Milliron said he will definitely issue his order within 60 days, although he hopes to do it within 30 days.