Mills County OKs $2,379.75 opioid-fund purchase for gloves and capnography sensors pending guideline confirmation

The Mills County Board of Supervisors approved a $2,379.75 expenditure from opioid-settlement funds for the county fire department to obtain nitrile gloves, medical supplies and capnography/O2 monitoring sensors, but conditioned the approval on staff verification that the purchases comply with opioid-settlement guidance.

Matt, presenting the request, described frequent overdose calls and cross-agency shared use of supplies: "We respond to a lot of overdoses throughout the county," he said, and cited contract pricing through a vendor that reduced the total cost. He listed the primary uses as responder protection and improving the department's ability to provide oxygenation and measure capnography during resuscitation attempts.

Board members and staff raised procedural questions about coding and allowable uses. Amber said the amendment packet language was "a little vague" on what the settlement funds explicitly permit and asked for clarification so the item would be correctly documented in end-of-year reporting. The motion that passed included the condition that the purchase "follows along the guidelines of the opioid settlement fund."

Supervisors noted the county still has approximately $35,000 remaining in the opioid-related line item and discussed an upcoming additional settlement distribution referenced in the meeting (participants mentioned a Purdue/manufacturer settlement), but they also cautioned that administrators' interpretations of allowable uses have sometimes been inconsistent.

Next steps: the fire department will either submit an invoice for reimbursement or request county direct purchase, and staff will confirm coding and eligibility for the opioid-settlement report before final accounting.