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The Tahlequah City Council, during an Aug. 16 meeting, agreed to enter into a settlement of the Oklahoma’s Opioid Abatement Board.

City Administrator Alan Chapman said a non-litigating primary subdivision is the classification of Tahlequah.

“Basically, this is free money. This is part of the settlement; it’ll be part of an allocation, and hopefully, by the first of the year, we should receive a check from the settlement money," he said.

Nathan Hall, of the Attorney General’s Opioid Litigation Team, reiterated what Chapman said and explained how the funds were result of a settlement the AG’s office reached in three opioid litigation cases.

“Those are cases against opioid distributors and one of the things I wanted to clarify here is that this money, this settlement, and the city of Tahlequah’s participation in it would only affect its entitlement to receive money from these cases. It does not have any baring on the city’s ability to participate in the other settlements that have been reached,” Hall said.

The settlement will be paid out over a period of years, according to Hall.

“The amount the city of Tahlequah would be entitled to likely will not be paid out immediately, but would also be paid out over a number of years,” he said. “It is essentially an offer to participate in this settlement without having brought a lawsuit in exchange for agreeing not to bring a lawsuit.”

Chapman said 15 pages of proposed remediation uses for the funds was requested, and once the city receives its funds, they’ll revisit the list.

“I’m sure a lot of the things in that list are things the city is already engaging in, but the few I’d like to highlight are things I think are the other cities and counties that I talked to on this matter, are often excited to hear, and those are the ones that pertain particularly to law enforcement and first responders,” Hall said.

Resident Nancy Dyson said her brother passed away due to an opioid overdose years ago.

“No offense, Mr. Chapman, but this sounds like a boring subject, with lawyers and money and things, but you are positively impacting people in our community,” Dyson said.

The board gave its nod to purchase a storm siren and a Generac Mobile light tower at the request of City of Tahlequah/Cherokee County Emergency Management Director Mike Underwood. Underwood said the initial quotes for both items ended up increasing due to rising costs. The cost of the light tower was budgeted for $25,257.

“When I went in to put in my order after the new budget kicked in, it jumped up $2,073. Just that much in that amount of time,” he said.

The light tower is a portable unit and serves for emergence lighting for emergency management, the street department, and special events.

“We can light up an area say of concerns that’s a little too dark for public safety. We can light up an area with this new unit, we can extend it even further and light up a pretty good-sized area,” Underwood said.

The original price of the storm siren was $1,060 more than the initial quote.

Underwood said they haven’t determined where the storm siren will be placed, but the siren in area of Ross Street and the Bertha Parker Bypass wasn’t operating over the weekend when they tested the sirens.

“That one’s been prone to lightning strikes, and I’m hoping when they come and test it, that’s not the case. If so, we’re going to need to replace it,” he said.

Underwood said he would suggest not replacing a siren as such and install it somewhere else instead.

The next Tahlequah City Council meeting is Friday, Aug. 19 at 10 a.m. in the council chambers at City Hall.

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