The Nantucket Council for Human Services on Feb. 25 reviewed the Contract Review Committee(CRC) grant process and said staff will seek a one-time opioid-settlement award of about $50,000 to support substance-misuse services.

Council Chair Veronica Volczyk said the CRC received 17 grant requests this cycle and that 13 applicants presented to the committee. "As usual, we have much more ask than money to give," Volczyk said.

Jericho Maley, town administrator and staff representative, told the council the town expects an initial tranche from opioid remediation settlements that would be distributed as a single award of roughly $50,000 to $55,000 and that the town plans to run an accelerated solicitation for that money in March or April to deliver awards quickly.

Members discussed a separate funding change: a previously collected $175,000 pool for substance-misuse grants (collected as an impact-cost fee tied to dispensaries) is no longer being collected after state-level rulings and guidance. Volczyk said the impact-cost mechanism was ruled inappropriate and "the $175,000 is no longer being collected from that impact cost." She and staff said they do not expect the same source to exist in the coming fiscal year.

Committee members said the loss of that revenue increases pressure on the CRC and CHS to demonstrate need and seek additional town funding in the FY27 cycle. Staff and CRC members plan to present the grant recommendations and funding request to town finance in March.

The CRC said it has been doing targeted interviews with applicants, prioritized by whether applicants were new to the process, requested larger awards, or required follow-up questions. Deliberations are scheduled for the CRC's next meeting; the intent is to finish scoring and deliver a report to town finance promptly.

Volczyk and Maley also noted one applicant substantially reduced its requested award during the interview process; staff said an initial request that was roughly $300,000 was lowered to about $80,000 in a revised budget.

What happens next: CRC deliberations will continue on a date set by committee members; CHS plans to bring a funding request to town finance in March to cover the human-services grant pool (noted at $650,000 for this cycle) and to ask for additional ongoing resources to offset the loss of the dispensary impact fee.

Ending: Council members signaled urgency for both completing this grant cycle and building a long-term case for increased funding, noting that settlement money will not cover ongoing needs and that the town receives far more in requests than funds available.