Billerica panel revises sober living scholarship draft

BSAP · Meeting of September 15, 2026

Billerica's BSAP Sober Living Scholarship Subcommittee organized and reworked a draft policy for spending more than $2 million in opioid settlement funds. Members elected Chaz Boynton chair and Dina Favreau secretary by 3-0 roll-call votes, then revised eligibility, duration and conflict-of-interest language over roughly an hour. The group set a 30-day minimum scholarship award with a 90-day per-person annual cap, discussed a roughly $30 daily reimbursement rate, and struck a proposed sliding-scale copayment model as unworkable.

Member Dan Viola, who co-owns two Lowell sober homes, said "nobody ever gets a scholarship from BSAP to one of our houses" to avoid recusal disputes. Member Bobby Simmons favored a 45-day term with re-evaluation. The subcommittee removed a proposed appeals process and plans to finalize the framework before an October 29 follow-up meeting, ahead of a vote by the full BSAP board.

In the full story:

• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report — 1,738 words

Source: the BSAP meeting of September 15, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript. It was corrected where it differed.