Penobscot County’s three commissioners have set a date to vote on who will get a share of the county’s pot of opioid settlement money.
Thirty-three organizations applied for portions of the funds, Opioid Advisory Committee Chair Jamie Beck said at a commission meeting Wednesday. Grant applications will be evaluated by the committee, and the commissioners will vote on the committee’s recommendations at their Dec. 23 meeting.
The upcoming vote is the latest development in a long process that began when Penobscot County, along with many other counties and cities in Maine, began receiving the funds in 2022 as part of national settlements with companies accused of contributing to the opioid epidemic.
Penobscot County has about $1.4 million in settlement funds in the bank, although this round of grant applications will only award $400,000 in total — about a third of the available money.
The grants will be awarded to organizations based in Maine and providing services in Penobscot County that have proposed opioid remediation projects in the categories of prevention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery.
Organizations that applied for money can receive funding in three tiers: up to $10,000, $10,000 to $25,000, and up to $49,999.
Penobscot County is set to receive approximately $4.5 million from opioid settlements by 2038. The county spent some of its settlement funds last year on medication-assisted treatment at the county jail — an expenditure that totaled more than $200,000, Beck previously said.
Cushing has said he expects the commission to use most of the opioid settlement funds for projects related to the county jail.
He reiterated this at the meeting Wednesday, implying that the commission would need to use opioid funds to fill holes in the county’s existing budget amid a $3.5 million shortfall. Using these funds, he said, would be necessary in order to continue paying for medication-assisted treatment for people in the county jail who have substance use disorder.
BDN writer Kasey Turman contributed to this report.
