Council supports Fend Off Fentanyl Act

By Dan Holland

Feb. 5 city council meeting

Members of Broadview Heights City Council unanimously passed a resolution at a Feb. 5 meeting urging the U. S. Congress to adopt H.R. 3333, the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence Act, also known as the FEND Off Fentanyl Act.

According to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs website, nearly 107,000 Americans died from an overdose in 2021, with 65% of overdose deaths caused by fentanyl. According to language in the bill, its purpose is to “impose sanctions with respect to trafficking of illicit fentanyl and its precursors by transnational criminal organizations, including cartels, and for other purposes.”

The effects of fentanyl have been seen locally, according to city officials.

“It has slowed down a little bit, but we’ve had quite a few heroin overdose deaths in the city; It’s tragic for the families who lose someone due to this,” Police Chief Steven Raiff said. “But it is a concern sending people out there; my officers are at risk with fentanyl with traffic stops, because just touching a milligram of that substance can kill my guys and the EMS personnel as well. So, it’s definitely something that we have to do whatever we can to stop. It can affect my officers and it affects families; it’s just horrible.”

Councilperson Glenn Goodwin noted during the meeting that he would be attending the funeral of a local resident who overdosed.

“Anything that we as councilmembers can do in any way, shape or form to help as a deterrence to keep this from happening in our community or anywhere else, I’m all for it,” said Goodwin following the meeting. “I’m glad that the rest of council is highly supportive of it. I’ll be attending a funeral for another drug overdose that occurred in this community; these things hit really hard because they’re very personal, happening right here at home.”

Ward 2 Councilperson Brian Wolf recommended forwarding the resolution to the governor, state attorney general and Ohio’s two U.S. senators.

“I felt that if we can get some state support from our governor and state general attorney and also get help from our senators and our house of representatives, we can get this passed and show that this city really supports this bill, because we’ve had a lot of problems with fentanyl,” Wolf said after the meeting. “We’ve had a number of local families that have been affected by it; we had a good friend who passed away from it recently.”

In other action, council approved:

• An agreement with Ken Ganley Ford for the purchase of a 2024 Ford Explorer for the police department at a cost of $49,345.
• An agreement with North Royalton Power Equipment for the purchase of a Scag Mower for the city service department at a cost of $13,046.
• An agreement with Ohio Power Tool for the purchase of a core cut saw for the city service department at a cost of $17,390.
• An agreement with Hinckley Township for resurfacing of Boston Road from Broadview Road to the western corporation line. Broadview Heights will be responsible for 50% of construction costs, while Medina County and Hinckley Township will cover engineering and administrative costs associated with the project..
• A resolution declaring the necessity of the renewal of a tax levy to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot for the purpose of providing funds for payment of salaries of permanent police personnel in the city’s police department. ∞