JAY – During a brief meeting on August 9, the Board of Selectmen voted to add a marijuana business question to the ballot in November. The final wording of the question is yet to be determined and will require some work with the town’s attorney to make sure it is phrased correctly.
The selectboard agreed that they wanted to keep things as simple as possible. Rather than ask about all the potential variations the state allows: retail, cultivation, manufacturing, and testing of adult use and/or medical use, they decided to ask for the use approval requested by resident Mark Mancini.
Mancini is asking if the town will allow adult use cultivation and manufacturing facilities, and the ballot question will reflect that. Mancini and his business partner Eddie Orkney would like to expand his current medical marijuana caregiver operation, but require approval from the town to do so.
The ballot question is expected to include approval of the ordinance, which the town’s attorney can help put together. Wording of the ballot question must be approved sixty days before the November vote, but the ordinance does not have to be ready by that point. This allows time to create an ordinance without being rushed.
When the town voted down an article for marijuana businesses in 2019, it was a close vote with a small voter turn out. That question was put on the ballot because the majority of towns across the state were voting on the issue, not by specific request from an individual or organization. This time around, by adding the question to the November ballot, the board hopes to see more voters to accurately reflect the town’s views on the issue.
In other business, the board signed a public notice nominating Susan Theberge and Linda Flagg to the planning board. Both positions would be reappointments. The selectboard will vote on those appointments in the August 23 meeting.
