The announcement deadline has come and gone and Cowlitz County officials still don’t know if they got a grant that would save the Drug Court program.

“We’re still waiting with our fingers crossed,” said Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning Thursday. “I think a lot of us aren’t sleeping too well though.”

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration was supposed to announce grant recipients by the end of September after delaying the initial Sept. 15 announcement date. Officials at the federal agency said Thursday that the delay is likely because grant awards aren’t publicly announced until all recipients have been notified.

Cowlitz County officials haven’t heard either way and several county employees are checking the Web site regularly for updates.

Drug court allows approved defendants to avoid felony convictions by agreeing to get treatment and follow a strict set of rules. It’s credited with turning lives around and reducing the number of babies born with drugs in their system. A study of the Cowlitz County program found that people who qualified for the program but did not participate were five times more likely to re-offend compared to people in the program.

The county applied for a the three-year $749,000 grant to ensure the popular program will continue. It was put on the chopping block during county budget cuts in May. County commissioners said the superior court judges were making the decision to sacrifice drug court while judges countered it was one of the few discretionary programs they could legally cut.

In May commissioners agreed to fund the program though September and later extended that through October because the deadline was moved back.

In 2008, it cost the county $78,000 to run the program with another $91,000 in costs covered by grants and participant fees for a total of just under $170,000.

It would cost about $15,000 to keep the program running through the end of the year with the amount of grant and participant fees unknown because of the uncertainty of the program continuing. Commissioner Kathleen Johnson said Thursday that she’d like to at least extend the program through December but hadn’t talked with the other commissioners.

Update: County's Drug Court denied federal grant