Lee County commissioners approve rezoning, ARPA home‑repair match and CIP; hear updates on RENEW, opioid plan, Trillium and Brickyard development

The Lee County Board of Commissioners on Monday approved a rezoning request for a small parcel on Hawkins Avenue to allow expansion of a metal‑fabrication business, authorized $125,000 from ARPA revenue‑loss funds to match the City of Sanford for a home‑repair program, adopted the county's 2026–2030 capital improvement plan and accepted an $18,288.98 veterans services grant. The board also received detailed presentations on the county's RENEW behavioral‑health programs and opioid‑reduction initiative, an annual report from Trillium Health Resources, and a development update from Helix Ventures on the Brickyard/Kiawah Kirin site in Sanford.

Autumn Smith of Community Support Services and Emma Bach, a North Carolina fellow working on the county's opioid initiative, briefed the board on RENEW, a 2024 program that bundles behavioral‑health reimbursement, opioid use disorder treatment access and reentry services. "In this initiative for that year, we served 140 community members, and the total reimbursement was over $76,000," Autumn Smith said. Smith reported the county's reentry work served 85 people in 2024 and described a reentry success story of a resident who obtained employment and support services after 11 years in federal prison.

Emma Bach said the county expects to receive just under $8 million in opioid settlement funds between 2022 and 2028, with about $2.5 million received to date. She told commissioners the county contracted with Sanford Treatment Center to provide medication for opioid use…