Iron County opens separate opioid settlement account and approves Kroger settlement allocation

The Iron County Board voted to open a separate checking account at Chippewa Valley Bank to hold opioid settlement proceeds and named the treasurer, clerk and board chair as authorized signers.

County staff explained the change to segregate opioid funds in both accounting and banking records, ensuring settlement dollars are tracked separately from the general fund. "We decided to create a new special fund to account for it in the accounting system and also to open up a new bank account to keep those funds separate," one supervisor said during committee reports.

The board also considered and approved Resolution 2024 D368 authorizing Iron County to enter into a settlement agreement with Kroger as part of the ongoing multistate opioid litigation. County staff and supervisors said the Kroger agreement is one of a series of settlements with distributors and retailers; the county's allocation is a small percentage (listed in the materials as 0.0061) but may yield meaningful dollars when aggregated across settlements.

Kelly from Human Services and other staff described ongoing work to form a coalition to analyze public‑health data and survey the community so the county can develop a plan for how to spend settlement proceeds within the limits set by the settlement agreements. "We have a coalition ... and are analyzing data from public health and sending out a survey to the community," staff said.

The board voted on each item and the motions carried. Next steps: county staff will complete bank setup and the coalition will return recommendations to the board about eligible spending priorities and a standing agenda item for public health would track progress.