Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Opioid Settlement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commissioners direct $4.67M in opioid settlement funds, approve $2.0M in behavioral health allocations; public comments press for school funding and harm-redu
Summary
Forsyth County approved $4,672,810 in FY27 opioid settlement projects and $2,000,262 in behavioral health grants. Public commenters used the meeting to press for more local school funding and raised concerns and praise related to local harm reduction services.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners on May 7 approved allocations of opioid settlement and behavioral health funds and heard a series of public comments pressing the county on school funding and local harm-reduction services.
The board authorized directing $4,672,810 in FY27 opioid settlement funds across 34 recommended projects focused on prevention, treatment, and recovery. Separately, commissioners approved $2,000,262 in behavioral health funding to expand mental-health, substance-use, and intellectual/developmental disability services across 20 projects. Both measures passed unanimously.
During the public-comment period before those votes, several speakers urged the county to expand local school funding. Jenny Easter, president of the Forsyth County Association of Educators, asked commissioners to consider the school system's supplemental request of roughly $33 million to address staff losses and classroom stability. "If additional investment helps stabilize classrooms and improve the experiences our children and people serving them have, then it is worth it," she said.
Residents from West Salem (Nancy Gold and Nancy Grafton) described neighborhood impacts linked to the Twin City Harm Reduction Collective, reporting hundreds of unique participants and thousands of visits annually and asking the board to ensure the program coordinates referrals and community protections. City with Dwellings (Ruth Cole Burkhaw) urged a "balanced approach" in opioid-settlement spending to include housing stabilization and recovery supports; she said prevention investments that keep people housed often cost a few hundred dollars per family and can prevent more costly crises.
Board members and staff said the funding recommendations came from a stakeholder process and a juvenile-crime-prevention council review and that additional reporting and allocation details would follow in the coming weeks.
