Wayne County’s Drug and Alcohol Commission steers publicly funded treatment clients to just two outpatient providers — while two other licensed facilities operate in the same county without SCA contracts.
Four outpatient drug and alcohol treatment providers hold full DDAP licenses in Wayne County, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs facility locator (sais.health.pa.gov).
PA Treatment & Healing, 1855 Fair Avenue, Honesdale. Little Creek Outpatient Services, 473 Easton Turnpike, Lake Ariel. Avenues Recovery Center of Lake Ariel, 50 Industrial Park Road, Lake Ariel. And Serenity Mountain Recovery Center, 94 Adams Drive, Waymart — operating under the legal name God’s Mountain Recovery Center LLC.
All four are open. Combined licensed outpatient capacity exceeds 400 clients.
But the Wayne County Drug and Alcohol Commission contracts with two of them. PA Treatment & Healing and Little Creek Outpatient Services are the only local outpatient providers on the SCA contract list, per the Wayne County Office of Drug and Alcohol Commission Governing Board Agenda dated June 20, 2025 (items #16 and #17). Pocono Review reviewed governing board agendas and county commissioner minutes published on waynecountypa.gov spanning 2017 through June 2025. Avenues Recovery and Serenity Mountain do not appear on any of them.
Serenity Mountain‘s outpatient license dates to November 8, 2018, per the DDAP facility locator. Avenues Recovery‘s dates to October 10, 2019. The county has had six-plus years to bring either into the system. It hasn’t.
Who Gets Left Out
If you’re arrested on a drug charge in Wayne County, DA A.G. Howell‘s office decides whether you’re eligible for Drug and Treatment Court. President Judge Janine Edwards presides. If the court orders outpatient addiction treatment — or a probation officer needs a substance abuse evaluation — the Drug and Alcohol Commission, directed by Jeffrey Zerechak, connects you with a provider. The Wayne County Case Management & Treatment Services page (waynecountypa.gov) names two outpatient options. The contract list names two. If you’re paying with Medicaid or county-funded dollars, two is what you get.
Serenity Mountain makes this concrete. Its DDAP facility locator listing shows it serves women exclusively — Adult Female: 100. Little Creek Lodge‘s residential listing is male-only. Little Creek Outpatient skews heavily male in its DDAP-reported demographics: 74 men, 23 women. The one outpatient facility in Wayne County designed specifically for women does not hold an SCA contract. If a woman is court-ordered into outpatient treatment and can’t pay out of pocket, the county steers her somewhere else.
Avenues Recovery raises a different question. It’s a national chain. Wayne County’s SCA actually contracts with Avenues — listed as item #2 on the June 2025 governing board agenda — but only for residential beds at the company’s Valley Forge location, 130 miles away. The Lake Ariel facility, which sits in Wayne County and holds a licensed outpatient capacity of 35, is not contracted for local outpatient services.
Pocono Review has not determined why these providers are excluded. They may have declined to pursue SCA contracts, or their rates and services may not meet county requirements. Zerechak‘s office has been contacted for comment. But two licensed outpatient providers have operated in Wayne County for years without SCA contracts, and the county has renewed the same two agreements on rolling six-month extensions without publicly explaining the selection.
What the County Is Buying
Of the two contracted providers, one — PA Treatment & Healing — is a nonprofit headquartered 90 miles away in Milton, Northumberland County. A Pocono Review analysis of PATH’s IRS Form 990 filings found that the organization has lost more than half its revenue over the past decade, operates with negative unrestricted net assets, and has a board member simultaneously collecting $122,000 a year as its highest-paid contractor. A separate Pocono Review report examines PATH’s financial condition in detail.
The other contracted provider, Little Creek Outpatient Services, operates out of Lake Ariel. Little Creek wasn’t always in the picture — Wayne County Commissioner Minutes dated March 21, 2019 describe the organization as a “new partnership.” Before that, PATH stood alone as the only local outpatient D&A option for every person the court system sent through the door.
The Closed Loop
The Wayne County Drug and Treatment Court operates as a joint project of the DA’s office and the Court of Common Pleas. The Bureau of Justice Assistance FY2021 Adult Drug Court grant page (bja.ojp.gov) shows a $198,000 award to Wayne County and describes the program as running “through a unique partnership of criminal justice, community, government and private agencies and individuals.”
DA Howell‘s office controls the front end. The Wayne County Drug Court page (waynecountypa.gov) states that “The Wayne County District Attorney will make an initial determination at Central Court (Waiver Court) regarding your eligibility to apply.”
Wayne County is the 22nd Judicial District — its own district, with a two-judge Court of Common Pleas bench. The pool of officials involved in prosecution, adjudication, treatment referral, and provider contracting is small. Zerechak‘s commission has documented ties to individuals connected to both contracted providers — Wayne County commissioner agendas from September 2023 and September 2024 place him at public Recovery Month events alongside figures linked to Little Creek Lodge and the Wayne County Heroin Prevention Taskforce.
The system reviews its own contracts. The D&A Advisory Board — Brian W. Smith (Chairman), Joseph W. Adams, Jocelyn Kramer — meets quarterly, per the Wayne County Drug and Alcohol Commission Advisory Council Agenda dated August 31, 2021. Zerechak presents annual reports. The commissioners approve the renewals. The capitated rate, per the Wayne County Commissioner Minutes dated May 7, 2020, was $34,000 per provider per year with per diem rates on top. Whether those rates have changed, what total annual payments flow to each provider, and what clinical outcomes the county requires — none of it appears in any publicly accessible document.
Read Part II: The Nonprofit Wayne County Pays to Treat Its Addicts Has $34,000 Left
DDAP facility licensing data is publicly available through the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs facility locator at sais.health.pa.gov. Wayne County meeting agendas and minutes are published at waynecountypa.gov/AgendaCenter. All governing board agendas, commissioner minutes, and advisory council agendas cited in this article are available at those addresses.
Pocono Review is an independent investigative news outlet covering Monroe, Wayne, Pike, Carbon, Lackawanna, and Luzerne counties. We report on the government, never for it.
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