Finance Committee recommends appropriations for opioid abatement, state DSS, criminal-justice and public-safety grants; motions approved

The Lynchburg City Council Finance Committee on Sept. 23 voted to recommend several grant appropriations and funding actions to the full council.

Opioid abatement and VDSS funds: The committee recommended appropriation of $266,311 from the Opioid Abatement Authority and $375,033 from the Virginia Department of Social Services. Staff said the opioid-abatement dollars and VDSS funds will be split among four program areas: $52,560 to the Department of Community Corrections and Pretrial Services for treatment for clients on pretrial or probation, $69,958 to the Lynchburg behavioral health docket (a mental-health docket with many co-occurring substance-use cases), $25,000 to Lynchburg Juvenile Services for counseling and education at the group home (youth at the group home are there for shelter or foster-care stabilization, not for criminal convictions), and $118,793 to the Lynchburg Department of Social Services. Of that $118,793, $50,000 is for treatment services and $68,793 serves as the required local match to a VDSS-provided allocation to add child-protective-services workers focused on substance-affected families. Staff said no local dollars are required for the VDSS allocation; city opioid funds will…