Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Harm Reduction topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident urges safe injection site and warns against spending reserves before raising taxes
Summary
A Bangor resident told the City Council during public comment that public restrooms are being used as unsafe injection sites and urged the city to consider establishing a supervised consumption site. The resident also urged caution about using reserve funds and warned against raising taxes after depleting reserves.
During the meeting’s public comment period on June 9, resident Scott Hardy urged the Bangor City Council to consider establishing a supervised consumption or "safe injection" site and criticized the condition and use of recently installed public restrooms.
Hardy said the city’s public restrooms “have in fact been turned into unsafe injection sites” and described visiting the locations, sometimes finding only discarded needle caps and other times “alarmingly unsanitary and dangerous” conditions. “Instead of continuing to unintentionally support these dangerous spaces, let’s build a proper safe injection site,” Hardy said.
He framed the proposal as a harm‑reduction measure that would provide hygienic conditions and connect people to recovery services, saying such sites “would not only provide a hygienic environment for drug use… but critically would also expose individuals to fire recovery services.”
Taxes and reserves. Hardy also addressed city finances, urging the council not to spend reserve funds and then raise taxes: “If you do have reserve monies… don’t spend the money and then raise the taxes.” He said many residents cannot afford higher taxes and asked the council to consider reserves before increasing tax burdens.
Council response. Comments were made during the public comment period; the transcript records no formal council vote or direction tied directly to Hardy’s remarks. The comment will be part of the public record for council and staff consideration.
