Moundsville Council Discusses Possible Uses for Lipitor Settlement Funds
Emma Delk Trending
Moundsville council members are considering how to spend the $15,000 check the city received from the West Virginia Attorney General's Office for Lipitor lawsuit settlement funding.
Attorney General JB McCuskey announced in early May that his office is distributing nearly $3.5 million to cities and counties as part of a settlement agreement involving the cholesterol drug Lipitor. The lawsuit alleged Pfizer Inc. and Ranbaxy Inc. conspired to delay the introduction of a cheaper generic version of Lipitor for 20 months.
The amount each city and county received from the settlement depends on their population size, with cities receiving a total of $1,855,000. Moundsville Finance Subcommittee members began the initial discussion of how the city would distribute the $15,000 they are receiving from the settlement during an early May meeting.
City Manager Rick Healy informed council members that there are no unique restrictions for the funding. Municipalities must deposit the money into their General Fund so their councils can decide on the "best use of the money."
Finance Subcommittee member Vice Mayor Sara Wood-Shaw suggested leaving the money in the General Fund and doing "a little bit more thinking" for how the funding could be used. She noted that since Lipitor is a high-cholesterol medicine for healthy living, the funding could be used for the Parks & Recreation Department to "stay in the spirit of what the settlement was for."
Chamberlain agreed with Wood-Shaw's idea to use the funding to promote healthy lifestyles for residents in a "productive way."
Council member Don DeWitt said the funding could be used for exercise opportunities for residents, such as improving walking trails in the city. DeWitt said another recreational facility improvement could be adding additional flags at the 12th Street Boys Baseball fields.
"I noticed at the 12th Street boys' fields there's only one small American flag," DeWitt said. "We have three impressive flags at the river, and we could do something like that at the 12th Street park and incorporate the flags for the military there as well."
Wood-Shaw expanded on DeWitt's walking trail improvement idea, noting that "something as simple" as mile markers on the Riverfront Park trail and 12th Street trail would benefit residents.
"It is not clear whatsoever whether you're at a ¼, ½, or ¾ of a mile on those trails," Wood-Shaw said. "Adding mile markers would be an improvement that's an easy expense. I've been saying we should do that for a while."
Healy suggested adding exercise stations along the trail at the Park View Playground as another recreational facility improvement. He said these would be similar to the exercise pieces installed at the playground and would cost approximately $3,000 each.
"We could pick three of those exercise pieces and put them at the trail there in addition to some of the other improvements," Healy said.
Finance Subcommittee members agreed to discuss the Lipitor settlement funding again during their June meeting.
Chamberlain added they could also meet with Moundsville Parks & Recreation Director John White to learn what other recreation improvements are needed before the next subcommittee meeting.