MORGANTOWN — When it comes to the state’s opioid-settlement dollars, there are two pools of money.
There’s nearly $1 billion dollars to be distributed at the state level through the regional application process to the West Virginia First Foundation.
Then, there’s the money that’s been distributed directly to the state’s counties and municipalities.
On Wednesday, the Monongalia County Commission opened the grant application process for the $1,019,972 it’s received in direct allocations thus far.
Agencies can apply through the county’s grant portal at grantinterface.com/Home/Logon?urlkey=mcc
Applications must be submitted by noon on June 7.
“We are hoping to start the possibility of distributing funds come July 1. I also want it clear we aren’t giving lump sums. We’ve learned our lessons. There will be invoices on a monthly basis,” Commissioner Tom Bloom said, explaining the application requires a budget and specifics about what approved use will be addressed with the money.
The commission has no expectation on how much will be distributed in this first round of grants.
“That will all be determined by the grant requests that come in,” Commission President Sean Sikora said. “We haven’t set up any guidelines as to whether we’ll use any or all of that. We’ll figure that out when we get actual grants.”
Bloom said the county will receive directly allocated opioid-settlement dollars over the next eight years, but it isn’t known how much those allocations will be.
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