Beltrami Co. Shares Updates on Opioid Settlement Fund Steering Committee

At a joint meeting this week between the Beltrami County Board of Commissioners and Bemidji City Council, one topic of discussion was Beltrami County’s Opioid Settlement Fund Steering Committee.

Beltrami County Public Health Director Amy Bowles shared updates on what the committee has done recently, as well as their plans for the future.

One big thing that the committee did last year was host community listening sessions that are open to the public. People informed the committee of their ideas for where funding should go and what it should be used for. The committee then met up and narrowed down their choices.

“After we came up with some ideas on where we might want to spend that money, we decided that one of the best ways to get that money out into the community was to do an RFP [Request for Proposals],” explained Bowles. “So in January of 2024, we released an RFP where anybody in Beltrami County could apply for that funding. Five of them were accepted and approved by our county board. And so as of July 2nd, those individuals had the opportunity to sign their contract and begin using their funding.”

The committee is currently finalizing the next sessions that will occur during the fall of this year. The full schedule can be found on the Beltrami County website.