City Commission approves opioid strategy and budget, tables recovery housing ordinance

By John Chaney | The Winchester Sun

Winchester, Ky. — The Winchester Board of Commissioners moved for­ward on sev­er­al pri­or­i­ties dur­ing its Tuesday evening meet­ing, approv­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in a region­al opi­oid abate­ment strate­gic plan, adopt­ing the fis­cal year 2027 bud­get, and advanc­ing emer­gency med­ical train­ing partnerships.

A pro­posed ordi­nance on recov­ery res­i­dences, how­ev­er, drew sharp pub­lic debate and was tabled for fur­ther revision.

Jennifer Miles, a life­long Clark County res­i­dent and for­mer project direc­tor for the Healing Communities Study, encour­aged the city to part­ner with Clark County on a strate­gic plan for opi­oid set­tle­ment funds.

“I’m here to ask if Winchester City Commissioners would like to par­tic­i­pate in a strate­gic plan ini­tia­tive for this fund­ing,” Miles said. She not­ed the free ini­tia­tive, backed by the Kentucky Association of Counties Opioid Solutions Network and the University of Kentucky, would help iden­ti­fy ser­vice gaps. “It does not dic­tate where the dol­lars go. The only thing that dic­tates where the dol­lars go would be the set­tle­ment agree­ments them­selves, and the KRS statute.”

City Manager Mike Flynn voiced sup­port for the col­lab­o­ra­tive effort. “I mean, I think if it can aug­ment what we’re already doing… there’s no doubt that they’ll pro­vide insight,” he said. The com­mis­sion approved the mea­sure unanimously.

Winchester Fire Department Major James Brown pre­sent­ed details of a new part­ner­ship with Bluegrass Community and Technical College and George Rogers Clark High School to deliv­er EMT and future para­medic training.

“This does pro­vide us with… an addi­tion­al source of new para­medic recruits,” Brown said. He stressed the finan­cial advan­tages: “The city will reduce costs. Always good. Taxpayer mon­ey is tax­pay­er money.”

The com­mis­sion approved the mem­o­ran­dum of agree­ment with BCTC.

Commissioners also gave first-read­ing approval to the city’s FY2027 bud­get. The gen­er­al fund is pro­ject­ed at approx­i­mate­ly $29.5 mil­lion for the fis­cal year begin­ning July 1.

The meeting’s most spir­it­ed dis­cus­sion sur­round­ed a pro­posed ordi­nance to reg­u­late and cer­ti­fy recov­ery res­i­dences. William Baker, rep­re­sent­ing the Poynterville neigh­bor­hood, called for stronger pro­tec­tions after a home­less shel­ter pro­pos­al was denied in his area.

“We as mem­bers of our com­mu­ni­ty believe that a home­less shel­ter would not enhance our neigh­bor­hood,” Baker said. “We believe that it would degrade our neigh­bor­hood and it will cre­ate safe­ty con­cerns for our seniors and all mem­bers of our res­i­den­tial neigh­bor­hood community.”

Jessica Nelson, a licensed men­tal health and drug and alco­hol ther­a­pist in long-term recov­ery, expressed con­cerns that por­tions of the ordi­nance could con­flict with fed­er­al fair hous­ing pro­tec­tions for indi­vid­u­als with disabilities.

“Recovery res­i­dences are homes for indi­vid­u­als who are often pro­tect­ed under the Fair Housing Act,” Nelson stat­ed. “A local gov­ern­ment may not impose a spe­cial zon­ing approval process on hous­ing for per­sons with dis­abil­i­ties while allow­ing com­pa­ra­ble hous­ing for per­sons with­out disabilities.”

Mike Palmer of Better Days Sober Living added that while reg­u­la­tion is need­ed, the cur­rent draft goes too far.

“This thing is out of con­trol with unsu­per­vised peo­ple but… there is some stuff in here that’s over­board that makes the hard­ship on all of us,” he said.

Following the com­ments, Commissioner Cox with­drew his motion to approve the ordinance.

Officials indi­cat­ed the mea­sure would be revised with the pub­lic input and recon­sid­ered, pos­si­bly at the July meeting.

In oth­er busi­ness, the com­mis­sion approved local incen­tives for Washington Penn under the Kentucky Business Investment Program and award­ed a demo­li­tion con­tract for the Lincoln Street rede­vel­op­ment project.

The next reg­u­lar meet­ing of the Winchester Board of Commissioners is sched­uled for June 16.