Committee approves $150,000 overdose-response grant and subcontract with recovery coach provider

The Government Operations Committee voted to accept and appropriate $150,000 in grant funding from the Maine Office of Behavioral Health for an overdose response program operated by the public health department and authorized the city manager to execute a subcontract with Together Place to supply two recovery coaches for the project.

Public health staff member Jamie Constock told the committee the grant supports an overdose response team that makes post‑overdose visits to people who have overdosed and to their families to connect them with treatment and other supports. Constock said the program is a partnership with statewide options liaisons, Penobscot and Piscataquis county liaisons, the Bangor Police Department and Together Place, which provides the two recovery coaches.

Constock said the subcontract would run Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 of this year and that Together Place has provided recovery coaching under prior agreements. A motion to accept the grant and a separate motion to authorize the subcontract were moved and seconded; committee members registered no opposition and both measures were approved by unanimous consent.

The committee did not record a roll‑call vote or individual vote tallies in the transcript. The grant is described as continuing an existing local overdose response program; Constock said this is about the sixth year of the grant relationship.

Items described during the presentation that did not become conditions of approval include program details about outreach cadence and precise reporting metrics; Constock described partnerships and the subcontract term but did not state a final budget allocation breakdown beyond the grant total.