Fontana Dam – Graham County’s smallest municipality has presented its upcoming fiscal budget.
At its June 16 council meeting, the Town of Fontana Dam discussed the year ahead. The prediction included $244,700.43 in expected income and among the breakdown of the budget ordinance, included an estimated $144,000 in user fees – paid by the town’s largest business, Fontana Village Resort & Marina, for miscellaneous maintenance needs – $62,206.51 in administrative expenses and $51,125.54 for general maintenance/sanitation expenses.
“It’s similar to years past,” Mayor Rob Hardy said. “We’re being funded fully with the user fees
and utility reimbursements. Everything in that respect is flowing fairly normally.”
The $144,000 estimate in user fees might be refigured, should the Tennessee Valley Authority find a lessee for the resort. The TVA has operated in conjunction with an entity titled BCS Fontana since August of 2020 – following a four-month closure in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the previous owners defer the lease back to TVA.
The council will finalize the budget – which has already been reviewed with the Local Government Commission – at a special hearing Wednesday.
“The LGC asked to be in the loop with us because of COVID and the special circumstances surrounding building a budget last year,” Hardy added. “What (Town Administrator) Zelerie (Rogers) worked up was to their liking. They didn’t have too many questions."
Opioid settlement
County Finance Officer Becky Garland pitched the Fontana Dam Council on joining an agreement for proper distribution of funds received, thanks to a national lawsuit.
Purdue Pharma – the manufacturer of OxyContin, an often-abused painkiller – has been ordered to pay $4.5 billion, as part of a settlement in a lawsuit with roughly 614,000 claimants. The suit contended that for the better part of two decades, Purdue marketed the drug as “non-addictive,” which led to many dependencies and unfortunately, countless overdoses.
The lawsuit will bankrupt Purdue Pharma and, overall, pharmaceutical companies are being ordered to pay in the neighborhood of $26.5 billion because of various litigation.
The N.C. Association of County Commissioners began prioritizing several lawsuits filed in the state in association with the opioid crisis in January 2020, forming a committee to negotiate with Attorney General Josh Stein about distribution of funds in national settlements. In the end, around $850 million allocated to North Carolina; funds will then be distributed to each county, though many – including Graham – did not litigate.
Stein’s original recommendation was 80 percent of the proceeds to be kept at the state level; 15 percent to all counties and remaining five percent in a contingency account, on the off-chance counties run into budgeting issues.
“Their reasoning was, they said, that small, local governments were not good at managing their money,” Garland said. “But small towns – like Fontana Dam – have the same requirements that Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) has. We were worried that the money would get swallowed up in the state general fund and never be seen again.
“I was able to put my ‘bean-counter’ hat on rather quickly and say, ‘Not no, but heck no. This money will not sit in the local government.’
Garland raised all the right questions, helping bring to light the uneven distribution of the settlement. After much discussion, Stein reversed course and now, counties will be getting 80 percent of the cut, while the state will hold the other 20.
“We were really happy with that,” Garland noted. “I call the opioid crisis the “other” pandemic, because it has kind of been overshadowed by COVID, but it is still very active. This pandemic is not in the General Assembly; it’s on the streets, in our local communities.”
Garland forecasted $100,000 a year for 18 years for Graham County, noting that the sum could go toward salaries for extra deputies and paramedics.
“It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s more than we’ve been getting,” Garland noted.
The agreement Fontana Dam signed helps form a uniform front across the state, with support from counties and each municipalities key to its success. “It sounds like a wonderful initiative,” Hardy added. “This is a pretty serious issue, and it has affected a lot of families.”