HERMANN – A request for a share of Gasconade County’s opioid settlement dollars made by the county’s MU Extension Council has been rejected as lacking a specific education or awareness program about the dangers of opioid addiction.

The county’s Opioid Settlement Committee Thursday morning told Tanner Atkins of the MU Extension Council staff that the plan to use $14,000 for 4-H camps and after-school programs did not include any specific education or awareness efforts that would steer young people away from addiction on opioid-based drugs. Extension officials several weeks ago were encouraged by the County Commission to apply for a share of the opioid funds, saying it believed the plan as outlined at that time would qualify.

As proposed by the Extension staff, $7,250 would be used for materials for additional 4-H day camps and an expansion of the after-school programs and the other $7,000 would be used as salary for the additional hours needed for the staff member who conducts the after-school program. The after-school program currently is offered in Gasconade County R-2 School District, although Atkins said the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) courses are offered to Gasconade County R-1 students, also.

“At all these places are volunteers that are trained to help youth,” Atkins told the Opioid Settlement Committee. Vice Chairman Jenny Schneider, the county’s circuit clerk, conducted the panel’s session, acting in the absence of Chairman Kenna Fricke.

Without a specific anti-opioid component to the 4-H camps and after-school programs, the request doesn’t actually fit within the parameters of the education-and-awareness priority item approved at the formation of Opioid Settlement Committee.

“Not quite within the realm of what we disperse funds for,” member Mike Mueller, the chief and top administrator of the Hermann Area Ambulance District.

Atkins said Extension staff would review the application and see if a more-specific course or program could be developed. If so, the Extension staff likely would resubmit its application.

Meanwhile, another application for funding scheduled to be considered Thursday morning was sidelined until the panel’s May 14 meeting. An organization called Hitting the Streets is requesting up to $2,000 for a vending machine and accessories for the distribution of NARCAN, the chemical administered to someone experiencing a drug overdose. Mueller questioned the need for a vending machine.

“You can get NARCAN at a number of places. Is it necessary?” he asked.

Hitting the Streets will be advised that it can make a presentation at the May 14 meeting.