Carbon County commissioners invite local municipalities and police departments to apply for mini-grants for National Night Out drug prevention education and activities.

The commissioners on Thursday announced the mini-grant program, which will give communities up to $5,000 to promote awareness and education related to the opioid crisis.

The grants will come from the county’s opioid settlement funds.

The commissioners hope to use the money to reach children, parents and other adults in the community and educate them on the effects of opioids, Commissioner Chair Michael Sofranko said.

“We’re trying our best to get some of that back down to the local areas, where we felt that there needs to be some education,” he said. “We all know that the DARE programs and all that have dried up.

“This will be a way to get stuff right out to the local communities,” Sofranko said.

The commissioners will also be offering a grant program to help school districts provide educational programs, or speakers, as well, he said.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner pointed out that the deadline for mini-grants for National Night Out is tight, and municipalities or police departments would have to act quickly to provide opioid awareness programming this year.

“This is something that we thought of within the last month,” he said. “I think it’s going to be hard to put together. At least, they know that there’s money here available.”

Speakers providing an anti-drug/opioid message can often cost $10,000 for an event or school visit, Ahner said.

The deadline for the National Night Out grants is July 24. School districts will have more time to plan and secure speakers or programming on the negative effects of opioid use and addiction.

The county is looking for ways to get the message out to the community, and is able to fund the programming. Ahner noted that the commissioners will consider awarding higher grants if a good plan emerges, he said.

“If they come up with something that cost $15,000, we can allocate that,” Ahner said. “Education was always the number one thing. Let’s keep driving on that.”

The commissioners are looking to award between $75,000 and $100,000 just for opioid education, Sofranko said.

“We want to make sure that is being spent down in the communities that have been greatly affected,” he said.

The commissioners and the opioid committee are also meeting with department heads, such as probation, to see who best to spend the rest of the opioid settlement funds, which the county receives each year.

The county needs to allocate the funds, which had to be documented and used under strict guidelines, within a year of receiving them, Ahner said.

“We have a deadline to get it out,” he said. “The next one that we got is $447,000. That has to be expended by June of 2025. It sounds like a lot of money, but it’s not.”

Ahner hopes that the schools and communities with National Nights Out come up with good ideas and get the message out to people.

The county is also learning from other counties about what they can effectively use the settlement funding for, and funneling money to school districts and NNO programs were successful, he said.