Residents and recovery providers urge Bay County to speed opioid-settlement funding, request multi-year RFPs

At the June 17 meeting of the Bay County Board of Commissioners, residents and recovery-service providers urged county leaders to accelerate disbursement of opioid-settlement funds and to widen the length and stability of grant awards.

The appeals came during the meeting’s public comment period from Laurie Ziolkowski of Face Addiction Now and from Ricardo Bottom, director of 50/60 Recovery Alliance. “The house is on fire. We are still in an epidemic,” Ziolkowski said, urging the board to use “the full resources” of settlement funds and to issue longer-term funding opportunities. She said Bay County ranked highest in overdose deaths per capita among the 20 counties covered by the region’s Medicaid-managed PIHP, Mid State Health Network (statement attributed to speaker).

Why it matters: Settlement dollars are one-time resources intended to support treatment, harm reduction and prevention. Local providers said longer, multi-year grants would increase program stability and lower the administrative burden on small providers that otherwise must reapply every year.

Speakers asked the board to consider multi-year requests for proposals so programs can build sustainable services rather than repeatedly reapplying. “We’d love to have another request for proposal. We’d love to have that be longer than just one year. That would help us have some stability,” Ziolkowski said.

Ziolkowski also offered immediate, practical assistance for county facilities: she said Narcan (naloxone) nasal spray should be available in the building’s safety kit and offered to provide training and supplies. “If you would like to be trained in Narcan or would like to have it available for the building, you just tell me who to do that with,” she said.

Later in the meeting, Ricardo Bottom thanked the board for steps taken to distribute funds and said local organizations that have received awards are ready to scale services. “We appreciate your commitment to that journey…we’re really just here to say thank you and look forward to doing the work,” Bottom said.

Board members who spoke in the discussion supported examining a longer funding horizon. One commissioner said the county should pursue a three-year grant structure to improve sustainability and reduce turnover of programs funded on single-year awards.

What wasn’t decided: The county board did not vote to change the length of future RFPs at this meeting. Commissioners discussed moving to a different administrative agent and continuing work on the distribution process, but no formal action changing RFP length or award terms was recorded.

Community context: Speakers described a continued presence of multiple substances — opioids as well as stimulants and counterfeit pills — and urged speed and scale in treatment and harm-reduction spending. Several providers said they can help with rapid deployment of life-saving supplies and training if the county will facilitate those arrangements.

The public comment segment was followed by routine business and does not show a formal vote on RFP term length or earmarking at this meeting.