Representatives of the City of Dickson presented residents’ concerns regarding the proliferation and lack of regulation of recovery homes in the area to state officials Thursday.
Dickson Mayor Don L. Weiss Jr., Acting City Administrator David Travis, City Attorney Jerry Smith, Assistant City Attorney and lobbyist Ross Smith, lobbyist Andy Daniels and Dickson County Attorney Brian Ragan met Feb. 20 with State Rep. Mary Littleton, 78th District, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Marie Williams and members of her staff and Tennessee Association of Alcohol, Drug and other Addiction Services Executive Director Mary Linden Salter at Rep. Littleton’s office in the Cordell Hull Building in Nashville.
Mayor Weiss and Administrator Travis presented Commissioner Williams and Rep. Littleton with a summary of all the comments made and a recording of the Town Hall meeting held at Dickson City Hall Feb. 18 along with copies of related emails and messages received by the city. The information presented also included a letter from Mayor Weiss outlining the city’s concerns along with reports from the Dickson Police Department and Dickson Fire Department regarding responses to calls from recovery homes in the city.
“The whole purpose of Tuesday’s Town Hall meeting was to give citizens the opportunity to voice their concerns and suggestions to us at the City so we could relay them to state officials where we believe the first steps toward addressing the issues must be taken,” Mayor Weiss said. “As we explained at the start of the Town Hall meeting and Commissioner Williams confirmed in our meeting, city government is very limited in what actions it can take by federal and state laws that we must follow and changes will need to start there.”
Rep. Littleton and her staff plan to research and draft a bill to present to the General Assembly this session.
A capacity crowd of 106 people attended the Feb. 18 Town Hall meeting at Dickson City Hall and 20 people spoke. Comments ranged from the benefits and necessity of addiction recovery programs to concerns over the number and location of recovery homes in residential neighborhoods, the lack of oversight for recovery programs, the lack of supervision of some recovery program participants and follow-up protocols for participants who leave or are expelled from recovery programs, among other issues.
“We sincerely hope that the legislature and Commissioner Williams will seriously consider the concerns and information we presented and take action to address these issues,” Mayor Weiss said.
Mayor Weiss’s letter to Commissioner Williams and Rep. Littleton and an audio recording of the Town Hall meeting are available on the News and Information page of the City of Dickson’s website (cityofdickson.com). Video from a live stream of the Town Hall meeting can be viewed on the 101.5 The Ride page on Facebook.
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