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Lincoln board disperses opioid settlement dollars, awards turf contract



LINCOLNTON – With an unusually light docket of rezoning cases to rule on, the March 20 meeting of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners addressed other matters, including a resolution directing the expenditure of opioid settlement funds and a contract for artificial turf installation at Rescue Squad Park.

 

Opioid settlement funds

Lincoln County is set to receive nearly $6 million from the National Opioid Settlement in which the three largest pharmaceutical distributors – McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen, as well as manufacturer Johnson and Johnson – were assigned responsibility for playing a role in the nationwide opioid epidemic by distributing inordinate amounts of pain medication.

Last year, there were 32 overdose deaths reported countywide, with 26 of those attributed to illicit opioids such as heroin and fentanyl, according to Lincoln County Emergency Medical Services. 

On Monday, the board approved $2.4 million in spending over a four-year period to launch a pair of programs intended to address opioid abuse. The first strategy, establishing post-overdose response teams (PORT), will see community paramedics paired with certified peer support specialists to serve as PORT program responders. 

These teams will meet with individuals who were transported by EMS following a non-fatal overdose, as well as their family members, to provide peer support services, links to appropriate care, education on the disease of addiction, harm reduction, safety education, parenting education through a partnership with Lincoln County Social Services and education on any co-occurring health care needs in addition to their substance abuse disorder. Training in naloxone administration, financial management and health literacy will also be available. 

The second strategy funded involves the establishment of treatment and recovery courts in Lincoln County to help reduce drug and prison recidivism while providing guidance, treatment and discipline to those facing recovery from addiction. The program will be voluntary, with each consenting individual agreeing to bi-monthly check-ins with the overseeing judge for a period of two years. 

“Our court system has embraced these kinds of efforts for the past four or five years, but we’ve done it informally, so to have the backing of the county provides validity and gravitas to how we approach it,” Superior Court Judge Todd Pomeroy said. “Obviously we have a rampant addiction problem, but this will be a very big catalyst in addressing those issues.”

 

Rescue Squad Park

The county received $1.1 million in the state budget for the installation of turf on one of the fields at Rescue Squad Park. 

A request for quote was submitted on two separate occasions, with two responses to the initial request and none for the subsequent issuance. Of the two companies to submit a quote, only one responded when contacted by the county and that was JD Goodrum and Dewberry, which was awarded the design/build contract Monday night.

The company responsible for installing artificial turf fields at each of the four high schools in the county system did not submit a quote, according to Lincoln County Purchasing Agent John Henry.

“We don’t know the exact cost of the project yet but we’ve got some preliminary numbers from JD Goodrum and we’re looking at a challenging site,” Henry said. “We’re going to have to have a retention area because the fields are down in a hole. They identified an area where they’d like to put a retention pond but that spot won’t work because there’s a 30-foot dropoff, which leads us to the more expensive option of having to put the retention area under the field.”

Henry mentioned a conversation with County Manager Davin Madden in which they identified $250,000 that had been allocated to be put toward a new park in the Denver area – a project that never materialized – which could be transferred to provide extra dollars for the turf installation. The preliminary estimate given by JD Goodrum and Dewberry is $1.48 million, with the county currently able to cover $1.35 million. 

“That’s all we can come up with right now, but there’s a possibility through this design/build process that we can get their cost estimate down to what we need,” Henry said. “If not, we’ll be coming back to y’all to discuss how we want to proceed.”

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