ESCANABA — The Delta County Board of Commissioners announced the recipients of its first-ever round of grant funding to combat the opioid epidemic Tuesday, releasing a total of $92,492 of state opioid settlement funds to local nonprofits and governmental agencies.

The state of Michigan is slated to receive nearly $800 million from opioid settlements over the next 18 years, 50% of which will be distributed directly to county, city and township governments. Those funds are up to the local units to distribute for opioid harm reduction, so long as counties and other municipalities prioritize certain strategies, like providing the over-dose reversing drug Naloxone; offering medication-assisted and other opioid-related treatment; and expanding treatment to certain at-risk populations like pregnant and postpartum women, incarcerated people, people who are uninsured or underinsured and babies born addicted to opioids.

The county has its own list of additional prioritized strategies that were used for judging which organizations would have access to funding, many of which are related to the social issues caused by drug abuse. For example, the county’s list of strategies included expanding access to testing for infectious diseases that are linked to opioid use, funding anti-drug media campaigns focused on opioids, creating culturally appropriate services for addicted individuals, fostering programs that reduce the stigma around addiction, and creating support systems for children and families who face trauma as a result of addiction.

Both lists and a rubric grading system were used by the county’s newly-formed opioid task force to select which grants would be awarded.

“The opioid task force has set a limit of up to 100,000 per fiscal year for disbursement of these funds so that we can have longevity of these funds over the 18 year period and so, being able to do that we received, I believe, 15 applications and we chose these five to not exceed the $100,000,” said Commissioner Kelli van Ginhoven, who with Commissioner Christine Williams, sits on the task force.

The grant recipients for 2025 are:

— Face Addiction Now — $19,800

— Escanaba Public Safety — $10,692

— Delta Regional Child Advocacy Center — $10,000

— 94th District Court — $30,000

— Great Lakes Recovery Center — $22,000

Because of when the first round of grants were made available, all applying organizations were informed that they would have to spend the funds by Sept. 31 of this year. The application period for the next round of grants will open after that time, and the grant funds that are issued for 2026 may be spent within that year.

A number of reasons were provided to the commission as to why the other ten applications were rejected. Some examples were the task force not being willing to fund the purchase of a Gladstone Public Safety vehicle, and a private company being denied because is is not a nonprofit, government agency, or municipality as required by the state. Multiple nonprofits were denied because their programs or proposals were not specific to opioid abuse prevention.

The applicants that were not selected will be sent letters informing them of the reason that their applications were denied. It is the hope of the opioid task force and the county that the denied entities will reapply, using the information to submit stronger applications in the future.