With some $90,000 in funding from the state’s Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission available, the town of Middletown will need to decide how to spend the money.
Middletown is one of ten local jurisdictions which signed on to the state’s settlement with opioid manufacturers, and is entitled to a share of the money. Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission Director Bradley Owens told town council members this week that about 15 percent of the funds received will go to local governments, amounting to around $2.25 million each year for the next 12 years.
“Middletown this year is entitled to $94,000-ish, for this year and essentially for the next 12 years to follow,” he told council members.
He noted that the money could make a real impact in the community.
“$2.25 million split between 10 jurisdictions isn't necessarily a lot of money, but it's enough money to do some real good,” he said.
Mayor Kenneth Branner noted that while Middletown’s share of the funding is the smallest of any of the localities’, that’s a good problem to have.
“The dollars are broken up by whoever has the most cases, the most issues gets the higher dollars, “ he said. “And ours are the lowest, which is good.”
The share of money a community will receive depends on several factors, including the number of overdose deaths, the number of referrals for treatment, its population, and variables like its poverty rate. If those benchmarks change in Middletown over the years, its share of the settlement funding could change as well.
Owens told council members that last December, the POSDC launched a new grant program for local governments who participated in the opioid settlement. He stressed that the purpose of the program is to give communities more control over their funding.
“A big part of this money was to give you some power. What do you think the money should be used for in your communities? Not what does Brad think, or what the Opioid Commission thinks, but what does the town of Middletown think needs to be done in their communities?”
Participants in the grant program can choose to have the money distributed to third parties doing work in the community, or they can choose to receive the funding directly and put it to work, Owens said.
“It might be to supplement EMS services. It might be to add a behavioral health specialist or a clinician on the EMS team,” he explained. “Something that the town pays for directly.”
Regardless of which option Middletown chooses, they do face a deadline to submit their proposal, Owens said.
“You have approximately two months to propose your ideas,” he explained. “We'll vet them to make sure that they align with the settlement agreement., and then we're going to put those ideas forward to our commission.”
Branner committed to a quick but public process.
“So we're going to sit down as a council and as a public and think about ideas with the police department, with the fire company,” he said. “What are the things that we can use our $100,000 toward?”
Owens said that the funding helps support communities which have had to deal with the brunt of the opioid crisis.
“With folks overdosing and dying, that puts a tremendous impact on emergency response services, our health care services, our police departments, et cetera. And the lawsuits were meant to try to make [communities] whole in some way, shape, or form,” he said. “Money's not going to bring back those who are lost, but it's the only way to hold the pharmaceutical companies accountable for their actions.”
