MEDINA – The Medina County Drug Task Force, schools and other agencies will share about $1.5 million generated by the county’s anti-drug levy this year.

The Medina County Drug Abuse Commission and county commissioners have approved the latest allocation of funds which are awarded each year on the basis of grant applications approved by the MDCAC board.

Grant money is derived from the county’s unique 0.35-mill anti-drug levy which generates about $1.5 million a year to fund MCDAC prevention programs and a drug task force made up of undercover police officers.

MCDAC Director Brian Nowak said the grant awards announced May 9 are virtually the same as those awarded last year.

“We’ve kept annual funding the same as last year,” he said. “Voters approved the anti-drug levy in 2015, but that was a renewal and did not increase our funding at all. As a result, we continue to do the best we can with the money taxpayers have provided us.”

Keeping up with the growing challenges of drug abuse is not easy, however. Nowak said eight of the 17 agencies getting MCDAC grants requested an increase in funding this year.

“We talked about moving some money around, but any increase for one program meant a decrease for another and we didn’t want to do that,” Nowak said.

That may change in coming years, however. Nowak said MCDAC board members will be discussing that possibility with grant recipients who may be facing a cut in funding next year.

The biggest share of money for the 2017-2018 funding year – $753,000 – will go to the Medina County Drug Task Force.

MCDAC and county commissioners also allocated $55,000 to LCADA Way Wellness Centers of Medina County. Formerly known as Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, the nonprofit agency offers outpatient programs to people with drug addictions from offices in Medina and Wadsworth.

Other agencies were awarded funding on the basis of their grant applications which were screened by the drug commission with the aim of meeting the MCDAC goals of combating drug abuse through law enforcement, education and rehabilitation programs. Therefore, grants are awarded to put prevention specialists in county schools and fund programs that help people overcome their addictions.

Those grants included $50,000 to help fund the Medina County Juvenile Court Drug Court, $25,000 for detox services offered by Solutions Behavioral Healthcare Professionals, and $31,000 for Cathy’s House, which provides separate clean living environments for recovering male and female alcoholics and drug addicts.

The Medina County Sheriff’s Department also gets $149,000 this year to put DARE officers in Cloverleaf, Highland and Buckeye schools where they provide a variety of drug prevention and education programs to students.

MCDAC also provides funding for certified specialists who provide additional prevention programs in other schools around the county. The amount of those education grants vary depending partly on the number of students in the school district.

Following is a list of education grants awarded by MCDAC for the coming fiscal year:

• Black River Schools – $20,000

• Brunswick Schools – $76,000

• Buckeye Schools – $42,500

• Cloverleaf Schools – $67,000

• Highland Schools – $58,000

• Medina Schools – $82,000

• Career Center – $35,000

• Wadsworth Schools – $78,000

• SHARE cluster training – $18,600

In addition, MCDAC awarded grants of $20,000 to both the Brunswick and Spencer police departments for Family Assistance Coalition Teams for youths that are in crisis.