Bangor and Penobscot County coordinate opioid-settlement grant process; city had approved two case-management positions

Bangor City officials and Penobscot County leaders met on Aug. 27 to coordinate how they will distribute local shares of opioid-settlement funds, align application timelines and avoid duplicate funding decisions. The City of Bangor approved a proposal in recent weeks to create two intensive case-management positions intended to work with people diagnosed with HIV in the city’s current outbreak, city and county participants said.

The discussion focused on using a common application framework, sharing letters of interest and coordinating scoring and reporting so city and county awards do not duplicate services. "So our first proposal to city council was approved 2 weeks ago ... to create two intensive case management positions within the city," said Jason Pope, a Bangor resident who described the city proposal and its focus on people who have identified substance use and homelessness as risk factors in the outbreak.

The meeting served as a working session rather than a vote. Scott Atkins, Penobscot County administrator, said the county sees value in "working together and collectively with resources" and signaled interest in contributing an initial amount to joint projects. "We look forward to working again with the city and coming up with some pretty good projects to work on," Atkins said.

Committee members described next steps: the city has issued a request for letters of interest that the committee said are due by Sept. 5, with a tentative workshop for applicants in mid-September to help shape the final application. "We have a request for letters of interest out that are due by September 5," said Jamie Comstock of Bangor Public Health during the meeting.

Participants discussed using a modified Massachusetts or Moss Center application template as a starting point and limiting the number of allowable uses to those most relevant locally. They also debated tiered awards so smaller applicants can receive funding and larger, regional projects can compete for pooled resources. One county official noted the goal of using local awards to build coordinated projects that could be scaled up and submitted for state-level prevention funding if available.

The group agreed on a reporting cadence of semiannual narrative and financial reports for awardees, to be managed by city staff. Wendy Dana, identified in the meeting as the county grant manager, was named as the county’s staff lead on grant-management matters; the city indicated its staff would compile and accept reports from grantees.

No formal votes took place at this meeting on awards or funding allocations. Participants said they will reconvene after reviewing letters of interest and refining scoring criteria. "As we get our information back from the letters, that will be good. We'll be sharing that," Atkins said near the close of the meeting.

Details that were discussed but not finalized at the meeting included whether awards must primarily serve Bangor residents, exact tier amounts for grants, and how the city and county will handle applications from organizations based outside Bangor that serve Bangor residents.

Contacts and next steps: Scott Atkins said he will serve as a point of contact for coordination and can refer requests to city staff as needed. The committee tentatively targeted an early-October window for the first round of applications and set a mid-September workshop for applicants; the final application timeline may shift after the letters-of-interest review.