The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday afternoon at the Polk County Government Center in Crookston. The commissioners approved the distribution of the 2026 Opioid Settlement Funds to 12 entities, received an update on the closure of the Highway 75 bridge at Climax, and approved new members for the Youth Advisory Board. The meeting recap is below.
OPIOID SETTLEMENT FUND DISTRIBUTION
The commissioners unanimously approved the distribution of $527,998 in Opioid Settlement funds to 12 applicants.
The committee received 14 applications for $943,048.50, and 12 applications were recommended for funding for $500,000. “We had almost a million dollars of requests for funding and had $500,000 available for us. We had to consider many factors. We had to consider funding. current and new grantees, we needed to consider geography, we needed to consider impact and reach, and we had to consider the use of evidence-based best practices that are identified in the Attorney General’s MOA, or Memorandum of Agreement,” said Reese. “We also needed to consider the focus on prevention, treatment, recovery, and harm reduction, which are the four areas. And so we had a lot of really great applications and ideas and unfortunately needed to make some really hard decisions.”
Tri-County Community Corrections will receive $96,000 for the SUD project coordinator, Screening, Brief Intervention, and referral to Treatment/release planning.
Alluma will receive $80,000 for LADC/Crookston (add capacity) and East Grand Forks (new) School Districts and Community.
Care and Share of Crookston for $60,000 for contractual services for RiverView Recovery Center and related nursing services.
Tri-Valley Opportunity Council for $50,000 for the Family Resource Centers – Protective factors for strengthening families, prevention, (education, connection to care, and concrete supports), programming partnerships.
RiverView Recovery Center for $50,000 for digital access and early screening; harm reduction-medication take back and sharp disposal boxes.
Recovery Partners – HopeWork Network for $50,000 for staffing/contracts associated with peer-led sober housing community-based housing.
Recovery Partners – NW MN Center of Hope for $47,600 for establishing residential treatment facility/recovery services, capacity building.
Crookston High School for $40,000 for resilience and regulation room/calming corner, immersive trauma-informed programming, Sources of Strength, staff training for primary prevention and early intervention.
KROX Radio for $10,400 for media campaigns, digital ads, and radio coverage.
New Heights Elementary School in East Grand Forks for $10,000 for a sensory room – support students impacted by drug addiction either prenatally or early childhood; replace SPED room supplies/expand classroom supports.
Fosston Magelssen Elementary for $4,000 to extend the Social Emotional Learning curriculum from the classroom to family/community engagement opportunities. Includes sage medication storage and disposal, interactive engagement supplies/education materials.
Fosston High School for $2,000 for Calm Room – SEL materials/concrete supports; staff training.
They will also have $2,520 for Advisory Council Members for the quarterly meetings. $35 stipend and mileage available upon request. $2520 allocated for 2025 with no funds used to date. There was also $21,208 dedicated for the chief health strategist, council facilitation, RFP/grant management, annual state reporting, technical assistance, media campaigns to prevent opioid misuse, community naloxone distribution/training and education, prevention programming in schools, and $4270 for Narcan/naloxone nasal spray.
POLK COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT AND HIGHWAY 75 DETOUR UPDATE
Polk County Highway Engineer Richard Sanders gave an update to the commissioners on the Highway 75 bridge detour at Climax. He asked the commissioners to approve a detour agreement as the Minnesota Department of Transportation closed Highway 75 at Climax due to bridge concerns. The detour will use Highway 45 at Eldred for the 5.69-mile detour, which is a 10-ton road. “Whenever MnDOT has a construction project or is closing a road, and they need to detour traffic on a local road,” said Sanders. “Then they have to get an agreement approved through the central office and through the county to use that detour route. And so, today I brought forward the draft agreement, as the final agreement will take a little longer than a week to finalize. But basically, for them to use our County State Highway 45 between 75 and 220 is the official detour. Make that official.”
Sanders said he has received word from Vineland Township that people have been using their township roads instead of the detour and causing problems. The township requested that MnDOT install five-ton weight limit signs on some of its roadways. Polk County will include the township roads on the 2025-26 Road Restriction Map. (See picture at the bottom of the page)
Polk County will receive $22,694.40 from MnDOT for maintaining the detour through 2026. “They’ll be paying us a little over $22,000 to use that as a detour when the agreement’s finally signed by the board chair and the administrator,” said Sanders. “If the detour lasts longer than 26, then MnDOT will come back to us and ask us to extend it, at which point the county would be doing that as well.”
Sanders told the commissioners he thinks the bridge replacement will take some time. “If it were a Polk County bridge and we had to close it in an emergency, you know, it’s going to.. It’s gonna take six to eight months to get a final plan approved. Then you’re looking at a letting that takes a little over a month, followed by contractors getting on site, and depending on the size of the bridge and the materials used. My guess is it’s gonna be a 27 opening date. I’m guessing they’re hoping for a late fall 26, but we’ll wait and see.”
Sanders thinks the state will have to replace the bridge with a larger and longer bridge. “The river’s too large just to rip the bridge out and put a culvert in the bottom of it and fill in the road so you have to put in something that’s going to be able to carry spring flooding and keep the road open,” said Sanders. “They’re going to have to put another span bridge in that location. My guess is it’ll be longer, and so it’s going to cost a little bit of money to do so.”
The Highway Department received one quote for tractor rental in 2026. Valley Plains Equipment of Crookston offered a rate of $25 per hour for 500 hours for three tractors. The board unanimously approved the contract, but did notice the price was six dollars more than in 2025.
APPOINTMENT OF YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD MEMBERS
The commissioners unanimously approved nine new members to the Polk County Public Health Youth Advisory Board. The new members are Julia Aker of East Grand Forks Senior High; Skyler Benson of Fertile-Beltrami; Emily Reitmeier, Kinley Korynta and Makenzie Quirk of Fisher, Clara Kolden of Win-E-Mac, Abigail Seed of Fosston, Lauren Erickson of Sacred Heart, and Leah Johanneck of Crookston. They will join the current board members of Sofie Grunhovd of Fertile-Beltrami, Addison Jeuch of East Grand Forks Senior High, Macie Haskett of Win-E-Mac, Lexi Mahlen of Fosston. “These students help us understand what it’s like to be a teenager and a young adult today, and so that we can work with and in the community to support healthy lifestyles and health and wellness across our communities, and the students provide us with the best feedback,” said Reese. “They have the best lived experience, and so we might start out an initiative thinking or doing something one way, and it might end a completely different way. And that is so important to the work we do because without them, we wouldn’t have the best product, service, or community initiative that we could have. We are also trying to merge civic engagement and leadership opportunities into their experience, so that they might consider a career in government, healthcare, or a combination of the two.”
