Penobscot County advisory committee finalizes application language and rubric, aims to open opioid-settlement grants Oct. 1

At a Penobscot County Opioid Advisory Committee meeting (date noted in minutes as Sept. 24 planning), committee members agreed to finalize the application form and scoring rubric for the county’s opioid-settlement grant round and to forward the materials to county commissioners for approval so applications can open Oct. 1.

The committee said they would send a PDF of the finalized rubric and application to Mary Anne (county administrative contact) and to commissioners so those materials appear in the commissioners’ binders before the October agenda. Committee members discussed logistics for a public webinar to walk applicants through the online form, and a reviewer training session with the Moss Center to reduce scoring bias.

Committee members reviewed several operational details of the grant round. The advisory group said the funding available for immediate release will be $400,000 rather than the $1.2 million figure previously used in early drafts; members described the county’s expectation that additional money may be awarded in future rounds. The committee discussed using a draw-payment process for larger, multi-source projects so funds are disbursed as project milestones and other financing are confirmed. Members also discussed a proposed maximum per-award cap for the first round (a cap of “50” was raised in the meeting but the unit—$50,000 or otherwise—was not specified in committee remarks and therefore is not asserted in this report).

The advisory committee reviewed application fields intended to prevent duplicate funding: applicants will be asked whether they have already received opioid-settlement funding for the same project, and whether they have applied for additional funding sources. Committee members rewrote the question to read, in effect, “Have you already applied for or received opioid-settlement funding for this project? If yes, from whom and for what amount, and over what period?” The committee also limited narrative fields; the application will include a 200-word limit for the question that asks how the applicant will collect or track data related to objectives.

On scoring, the committee decided the rubric should be used as an objective first pass. Each application will be scored by multiple advisory members, with individual scores averaged and then followed by a secondary review that considers geographic distribution across Penobscot County and distribution among the recovery pillars (prevention, treatment, recovery, harm reduction). The rubric’s categories will use a 1–5 scale; members asked staff to convert the rubric into a fillable form to standardize scoring and provide comment fields for each category.

To reduce conflicts of interest and increase scorer consistency, committee members requested a short education session for reviewers, ideally provided by the Moss Center or similar technical assistance staff. The advisory committee also requested that administrative correspondence from Mackenzie (Moss Center contact) be copied to the whole committee so all members receive the same guidance.

Logistics and timeline discussed during the meeting include: forwarding the finalized materials to the commissioners for their meeting (committee discussion references a commissioners meeting on Sept. 24 at 10 a.m.), opening applications Oct. 1, and planning a public application webinar and applicant help sessions (committee members discussed potential dates including Oct. 8 for a practice/training webinar and a staff-led help session once the application is live). The committee emphasized keeping the form simple and putting clear word limits on narrative questions.

The meeting closed with the committee agreeing to finalize the rubric, convert it into a fillable scoring form, send the materials to Mary Anne to be included in commissioners’ packet, and schedule the applicant webinar and reviewer training.

Ending: The committee assigned a staff member to PDF the application and rubric and circulate them to committee members and county administrative staff. Members said they will reconvene after the commissioners’ meeting to confirm final edits and webinar logistics.