Council committee recommends splitting $330,000 in opioid‑abatement funds among four local providers; attorney‑general reporting and reimbursement emphasized

A city ad‑hoc committee and staff briefed the Rochester City Council April 15 on recommended uses of roughly $330,000 in opioid‑abatement settlement funds and on how the city plans to manage reporting requirements tied to the Attorney General’s settlement guidelines.

Councilor Tim Fontenot, chair of the mayor’s opioid‑abatement committee, described a process that began with a posted request for proposals in December and yielded about a dozen submissions from eight organizations by a January deadline. Committee members used a scoring matrix — weighting agency capacity, fit with core abatement strategies, reporting plans, reach/impact (30% weight) and sustainability — to rank proposals and identify finalists.

The committee’s recommendation is to distribute available funds among four organizations that presented at the council meeting: Hope on Haven Hill, Dismas House, Infinity Peer Support and SOS Recovery (the committee proposed fully funding three finalists and partially funding a fourth). Committee members explained their aim was to spread funds across populations and service types — higher‑intensity residential services for justice‑involved women, peer support and outreach, and youth/family prevention and education —…