When Nebraska’s Department of Health and Human Services announced how it would distribute millions of dollars from opioid settlement funds, one award drew particular attention. The Central Wyoming Counseling Center, a nonprofit based outside the state, is the only out-of-state organization selected to receive funding. The group has been awarded $3.4 million from Nebraska’s Opioid Treatment Infrastructure Cash Fund to construct a crisis stabilization center in Kimball County, along the Wyoming border.
The award has raised questions because the counseling center’s former acting CEO, Steve Corsi, now serves as CEO of Nebraska’s DHHS. Agency officials say Corsi had no role in reviewing or selecting grant applications and has not been involved with the Wyoming organization since leaving it in 2023. DHHS spokesperson Jeff Powell said the grant process followed objective scoring criteria and that reviewers had no conflicts of interest.
State officials declined to release application materials for the grants, citing public records laws that allow certain proprietary or evaluative information to remain confidential. In total, 23 organizations applied for this round of funding, including two from outside Nebraska. According to DHHS, the Central Wyoming Counseling Center’s proposal was the only infrastructure project submitted for the Nebraska Panhandle.
Nebraska is set to receive more than $150 million over time from nationwide opioid settlements reached in 2021 and 2022 with drug manufacturers and distributors. Those funds are placed into the state’s Opioid Recovery Fund, overseen by DHHS’s Division of Behavioral Health. A portion is reserved for long-term infrastructure projects, with this year’s inaugural round totaling about $10.5 million.
Other grants in this cycle include funding for crisis stabilization services near South Sioux City, expanded residential treatment in Lincoln and Omaha, and smaller awards for medical and recovery organizations. State officials say the projects address a critical shortage of crisis and withdrawal services in western and northern Nebraska, where law enforcement and hospitals often lack appropriate facilities for individuals in acute distress.
Experts note that crisis stabilization centers are an important first step in treatment but stress that long-term recovery requires continued care and strong community resources. They also emphasize the importance of transparency in how opioid settlement dollars are spent, given the scale of harm caused by the opioid epidemic. DHHS officials maintain that all legal disclosure requirements have been met and that the new Kimball County facility will focus on stabilizing patients and connecting them to services across the Nebraska Panhandle.
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