Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Wilson County approves Veterans Plaza work and opioid-settlement grants
Summary
Wilson County approved a Veterans Plaza budget amendment and accepted committee recommendations to award opioid-settlement grant funds totaling $905,528 to 16 organizations, with roughly $94,000 remaining to allocate; recipients will report back on spending in January–February.
Wilson County approved multiple budget amendments on routine motions Wednesday, including funding for Veterans Plaza improvements and the county’s recommendations for opioid-settlement grant awards.
Speaker 3 (role not specified) introduced the Veterans Plaza amendment, describing “3 walls, and some other stuff for the Veterans Plaza,” and the body approved the measure by voice vote. The meeting then moved to distribution of opioid-settlement funds, which Speaker 3 described as multi-year payments from pharmaceutical companies used to fund annual community grants.
Speaker 4 (role not specified) described the committee’s work and its recommendations: “We had 20 applications for asking for 2,700,000. We granted 16 of those. We had 1,000,000 dollars to start with… They awarded $905,528. We still got 94,000 left.” He said the awardees will be asked to return in January or February to report how they spent the funds and what difference the money made.
Speaker 2 asked who serves on the review committee. Speaker 4 read members’ names and roles as stated at the meeting, including Robert Bry, Judge Kane, Doctor Morris, Health Department Director Alvaro Valdez, ER specialist Brandy Warman, Jenny Bennett, Aaron Maynard (finance), and Kathy Vaughn (medical specialist). Speaker 4 said the committee used a grading process and prioritized awards by score until funds were exhausted.
The commission voted to approve the grant recommendations by voice vote. The motion records in the transcript do not specify individual movers, seconders or a roll-call vote tally; vote counts and individual vote names were not specified in the meeting record.
The commission indicated leftover funds will be reallocated in January and recipients will report back to the committee on outcomes and reimbursable spending. No formal appeals or denials of these grant awards were recorded at the meeting.
What’s next: Award recipients will be invited to report back in January–February; the remaining ~$94,000 will be considered for further awards in a subsequent meeting.
