Scott County earmarks opioid funds for recovery services and county-hall work

At the Nov. 5 meeting the Scott County Board of Commissioners agreed to two allocations from opioid settlement money: $35,000 of restricted opioid funds to support a recovery-court program and a request to the county council to appropriate $61,000 of unrestricted opioid funds to support county-hall renovation and relocation planning.

During discussion commissioners and staff reviewed restricted and unrestricted account balances. The board moved to use restricted opioid funds to cover a recovery-related request totaling $35,000 and the motion was seconded and approved. Commissioners then discussed earmarking $61,000 of unrestricted opioid money to be appropriated by the county council to fund initial work on county-hall relocation and projects such as painting and architectural work; staff advised that council appropriation is required before spending and that individual invoices would return to the board for approval.

Commissioners framed both actions as preliminary budgeting steps: the restricted $35,000 is intended for recovery-court programming and the $61,000 earmark is intended to create an appropriation framework to start relocation/renovation work, not to authorize specific project invoices.

Quote: "So what we are voting on is we're gonna use $61,000 of unrestricted to move over to county hall for work that's pending," the chair said while summarizing the board's direction.

Next steps: Staff will notify county council of the appropriation request for $61,000. The board will return to vote on specific contracts and invoices for painting and other renovation work after the council appropriation is secured.