Morgan County Health Department cleared to apply for $65,000 opioid-settlement grant; multiple MOUs approved
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Commissioners authorized the health department to apply for a $65,000 opioid-settlement grant (motion passed with one abstention) and approved several MOUs and a public-health preparedness letter of intent; commissioners asked staff for data linking proposed obesity/physical-activity programming to opioid-settlement outcomes.
The Morgan County Health Department received commission approval on Feb. 17 to apply for a $65,000 opioid-settlement grant and to pursue several memoranda of understanding for community health programs.
Trish, speaking for the health department, said the department is working with a Healthy Community Coalition of roughly 36 organizations and 22 individuals to coordinate proposals. She said coalition partners are preparing requests that together could total about $6,065,000 in program asks and that the health department would request the $65,000 from the opioid-settlement unrestricted funds to support prevention and recovery-adjacent activities. "We're applying for unrestricted funds," she said, noting partners such as the YMCA and Playworks would carry out programming.
Commissioners pressed for supporting evidence linking obesity-prevention or physical-activity programs to opioid-prevention or recovery outcomes. One commissioner asked for the underlying data; Trish agreed to provide research documentation and said commissioners would still have final approval of any awards following the RFP and scoring process managed by the Kendrick Foundation and a mental-health task force.
The commission approved the motion to submit the $65,000 application; the vote was recorded with one abstention so the tally was 2 yes, 0 no, 1 abstain. Separately, commissioners approved a routine grant letter of intent and the Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI) LOI for public-health emergency preparedness; Trish said the county typically receives about $20,000–$26,000 in these federal programs and will report exact award amounts when notified.
In addition to the grant-application vote, commissioners approved five MOU addendum revisions and one new MOU with the YMCA of Morgan County to continue community health programming in 2026–27. Those motions were recorded as unanimous (3-0). Trish noted Health First Indiana (HFI) funding cuts constrained the number of grantees and that the YMCA will be the only grantee carried forward for the coming year to provide services the county cannot deliver internally.