Crow Wing County updates BLADE opioid plan; Narcan vending, local grants cited as tools

Crow Wing County officials and community partners updated the county board on local use of federal opioid-settlement dollars during a March meeting, highlighting a jail Narcan vending machine, a county-approved opioid-crisis blueprint and community grants to local treatment and outreach organizations.

The report said Crow Wing County signed on to the federal opioid settlement and in 2022 the state legislature assigned public health responsibility for strategizing how the dollars would be spent. County staff reported the community-led Brainerd Lakes Area Drug Education (BLADE) coalition used community surveys and stakeholder input to build a response blueprint that identified prevention, justice system changes, treatment and recovery, and harm reduction as top strategies.

The county previously approved funding for a Narcan vending machine in the jail; local residents and treatment providers told the board about the impact of naloxone access. Kaylin Collette, who identified herself as an alcohol and drug counselor at a local treatment center and a participant in the county’s drug court program, described multiple overdoses in her own history and said naloxone (Narcan) repeatedly saved lives. “Addiction is cunning, baffling, and powerful,” Collette said. “We cannot help someone if they are dead.”

County staff said the board also approved up to $200,000 to distribute as community grants from the opioid funds. Grant recipients who described their work to the board included Timber Bay, which used its award to reduce camp fees and mentor at-risk youth; Relationship Safety Alliance, which received $20,000 to fund a training series, drug testing and medication lockboxes and to pay for an emergency roof at the Louise Celiski shelter; and the Lakes Area Restorative Justice Project, which received $20,000 to expand case management and restorative conferences.

Timber Bay’s representative described bringing an eighth-grade youth to a reduced-cost work-and-mentoring weekend; Relationship Safety Alliance reported training 245 people and delivering 612 services with its grant funds. Brian Andrews, director of Lakes Area Restorative Justice Project, explained grant-supported staffing and community-engagement work used in diversion and reentry cases.

Board members asked follow-up questions about future BLADE requests and thanked presenters. Staff said the coalition would return with two additional formal requests at a later date.