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Residents press council on taxes; opioid treatment provider urges post-overdose response
Summary
During public comment, residents urged tax relief and transparency; Katie Lee of Vance Recovery urged using opioid funds for a post-overdose response team and harm-reduction nurses as the city reports $140,000 in opioid funding.
Three residents used the council’s public-comment period on April 14 to press elected officials on taxes and public-health responses.
Melissa Lemmond asked the council to reduce the tax rate in the upcoming budget, criticized what she described as excessive spending and said she hoped the proposed Sister City relationship would not require public funds. Mary Susan Williams urged transparency and cautioned that rising property values and taxes are burdening residents on fixed incomes.
Katie Lee, representing Vance Recovery, described her clinic’s work treating people with opioid use disorder and said the clinic serves about 400 patients. She urged the council to allocate part of the city’s opioid funding to create a post-overdose response team and to support harm-reduction nurses to prevent overdoses.
City Manager Hassan T. Kingsberry reported the city has received $140,000 in opioid funding and proposed using $20,000 for an opioid awareness event and holding $5,000 for future events. Mayor Elliott said she had discussed placing two Narcan vending machines in the city, with machine pricing quoted at $6,000 each and the Granville-Vance Health Department offering to stock them with previously acquired grant funding. The council did not take a formal vote on spending the opioid funds during the April 14 meeting.
