Price County Is Finalizing $250,123 in Opioid Money. Its ER

Last updated: August 2026

By Price County Fun Editorial Team | Price County, Wisconsin

By the pricecounty.fun newsroom | Last updated: August 7, 2026

Price County is about to hand out more than a quarter-million dollars for opioid recovery. Its largest emergency room saw zero opioid overdoses in the past year.

Those two sentences shouldn’t sit together comfortably. They do here, and that tension is the whole story. Marshfield Medical Clinic–Park Falls logged no opioid overdose visits between July 1, 2025, and July 1, 2026, according to the report Laurie McEwen filed with the opioid ad-hoc committee. The county’s settlement pile sits at $250,123. The committee finalizes the spending plan in five days.

Quick Answer: Price County’s opioid ad-hoc committee will finalize its $250,123 settlement allocation at the August 12, 2026 Health & Human Services Board meeting. The draft plan spreads roughly $230,000 across school programs, public health, His House of Hope, drug testing, and future women’s recovery housing. Yet Marshfield Medical Clinic–Park Falls reported zero opioid overdoses at its emergency department from July 2025 to July 2026, and the visible drug crisis has shifted to meth and mental health, not opioids.

Why is the county spending big on a problem its ER barely sees?

Nobody on the committee dodged this. McEwen’s written report for Marshfield Park Falls said the clinic is seeing more meth use and mental health cases than opioid-specific ones. Providers told the committee that recovery money goes furthest on stable housing, food, and income support, not more naloxone.

That’s a direct challenge to the default playbook. Wisconsin counties that get settlement cash tend to reach for harm-reduction supplies and Narcan. Price County’s own public health arm is watching its SOR grant expire and has pitched more Narcan training, lock boxes, and Deterra bags. All worthwhile. But the data coming back from the ER says the opioid-specific wave may have already crested here.

So the county faces a genuinely odd problem. It has $250,123 earmarked for opioids, a committee legally bound to spend it on opioid-adjacent categories, and a hospital that can’t point to a single overdose in twelve months. The money is real. The emergency is not what it used to be.

What the $250,123 actually is

The figure is not in dispute. Nick Trumner, from the Office of Administration, confirmed the total at the July 8 committee meeting, and the Health & Human Services Board ratified it the same day. The county started around $247,000 in May and added two fresh checks, one for $4,000 and one for $8,000, before the July gathering.

More is coming. Trumner projects roughly $10,000 to $12,000 a year for the next five to ten years, depending on how fast defendants pay ahead. The county does not have to spend it all at once, and it can set money aside and refill the pot annually. For a running tally of how these funds have moved, see our settlement fund spending tracker.

Where the $250,123 is heading: the draft spreadsheet

The committee spent the heart of the July 8 meeting on a draft allocation spreadsheet. Nothing was voted on. Every number below is a proposal, subject to change at the August 12 finalization. Treat these as a sketch of intent, not a budget.

Trumner’s own summary left the spreadsheet hovering near the limit. He put it bluntly: “That leaves us $19,000,” according to the auto-generated transcript.

School and prevention programs

The draft sets aside roughly $15,000 for speaker programs at the three public school districts, Phillips, Park Falls, and Prentice, at about $5,000 per school. Jessica Fullstad, new to the committee from one of the districts, called $5,000 reasonable given travel costs and noted schools could share speakers.

Prevention curriculum and training

Public Health’s Tiffany Pollitchek floated a menu of evidence-backed programs: Sources of Strength, the vaping-prevention Catch My Breath, and QPR plus Mental Health First Aid workshops. All need implementation funding more than they need curriculum development.

Public health and the substance-use coalition

The draft pairs the Substance Use Mental Health Coalition with Public Health for the first two years at roughly $45,000. Spread out to 2028, the coalition piece totals about $100,000. Public Health’s line through 2038 sits near $40,000. Measured against the county’s long-term projection of roughly $624,000 in total settlement money through 2038, the committee framed the coalition at about 16 percent of that projected total and Public Health at about 6 percent, figures that shrink dramatically against the $250,123 actually on hand right now.

Harm reduction that’s losing its funding

Here’s the uncomfortable wrinkle. Public Health’s current harm-reduction work, Narcan supplies, lock boxes, and Deterra disposal bags, runs on a SOR grant that is expiring, leaving a gap of about three months. The settlement money could cover it, but the ER data suggests the county’s opioid-specific harm-reduction need is shrinking even as the funding source to pay for it fades.

His House of Hope wants $50,000. Probation won’t send anyone.

Mark Distin and Robert Knack came back for a second crack at the committee, and this time they brought a detailed ask. We covered their first pitch in June in our His House of Hope piece. His House of Hope, the men’s residential recovery program near Phillips, wants about $50,000 total: a professional security system at roughly $10,000, a vehicle to carry up to eight residents to appointments, and the Genesis Process curriculum at about $10,000 a year for three years.

Knack cited real-world results for the Genesis Process. Hope Gospel in Eau Claire saw an 18 percent bump in success rates after adopting it, and the committee heard retention-and-recovery figures from programs in Rockford, Salt Lake City, and Santa Barbara, though those are claims from the presenter, not independently verified statistics.

The barrier the committee couldn’t explain

Here’s the systemic gap that kept surfacing. Probation does not currently approve His House of Hope as housing for people on supervision. Committee members said they’ve seen residents get turned away. Nobody at the table could say exactly why, though security seems to be the guess, but it was never confirmed.

The practical consequence is brutal. A person leaving jail who wants to go straight into a structured recovery program often can’t, because the county’s own probation office won’t sign off on the house as an approved residence. The county is weighing whether to fund a program it won’t route its own people into.

No women’s program yet

His House of Hope serves men only. The committee discussed setting aside $25,000 for a future women’s recovery program, money that would be reallocated if nothing materializes within about two years. Northwoods Living in Hope exists but is not treatment; it serves abused, pregnant, and homeless women and wouldn’t qualify for opioid grant dollars.

Why there’s no drug court, and why there’s a $40,000 machine on the table

The committee looked seriously at a drug or wellness court and walked away. Forest County’s model costs roughly $800,000, about $400,000 in grant money plus a local match north of $300,000, on top of tribal funding. That’s not feasible on Price County’s settlement pot, so the idea was shelved.

Instead, the draft sets aside about $40,000 for a drug-screening machine. Trumner argued it’s easier to justify than a jail body scanner, and the discussion leaned toward a diversion-and-safety rationale.

Treatment costs, line by line

Smaller items round out the spreadsheet. Behavioral-health drug-testing supplies run about $7,500 a year at $625 a batch. AODA assessments come in near $1,000. Inpatient room and board, the part Medicaid doesn’t cover, is pegged at $15,000 to $20,000, since a 28-day stay runs roughly $90 to $135 a day per person. Secure transport through Ride or Talons costs about $2,000 one way. The Embrace harm-reduction vending machine needs roughly $2,000 a year in temperature regulation. Advertising and outreach carries a $5,000 line, with the caveat that a single billboard runs about $5,600 a month.

What happens at the August 12 meeting

August 12 is the finalization target. The Health & Human Services Board moved its meeting to 4:00 p.m. that day to accommodate the opioid committee, with public participation at 5:00 p.m. The committee has two meetings to narrow the list, then the recommendation goes up through HHS and eventually to the County Board. For the broader county picture, our overview of who decides how the money is spent lays out the committee structure.

Members left with homework: reach out to Distin about His House of Hope’s expansion, check the women’s facility, connect with Embrace about the vending machine, and tighten the dollar figures. Nothing is locked until the votes happen.

The real decision isn’t which line item gets $5,000 or $25,000. It’s whether Price County keeps funding an opioid response calibrated to an epidemic its own ER says has already shifted. The settlement money is real, the need for recovery housing and stable income is real, but the county should be honest that the “opioid crisis” label may no longer fit what its hospitals are actually seeing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much opioid settlement money does Price County have?

About $250,123 as of the July 8, 2026 committee meeting, up from roughly $247,000 in May. The county projects another $10,000 to $12,000 a year for the next five to ten years.

When will the county finalize how the money is spent?

The opioid ad-hoc committee targets the August 12, 2026 Health & Human Services Board meeting for finalization, with public participation at 5:00 p.m.

Did the committee approve any allocations at the July 8 meeting?

No. All dollar amounts discussed were proposals. The committee approved only the June 10 minutes, unanimously. The allocation spreadsheet is a draft subject to change.

Did Price County see opioid overdoses last year?

Marshfield Medical Clinic–Park Falls reported zero opioid overdose visits to its emergency department between July 1, 2025, and July 1, 2026. Providers said the clinic sees more meth use and mental health cases.

Does the county have a drug court?

No. The committee considered a wellness court but found Forest County’s model, roughly $800,000 including a local match, too expensive for the current settlement funds.