Select board “not interested” in opting-in on medical marijuana retail store

by The Town Line staff

At the January 17 meeting of the Windsor Select Board, Devin Noonan appeared before the board to see if he could be the first applicant to sign up to be a Medical Marijuana Retail Store. He was informed that the select board refused to honor the petition that was presented because it does not contain the “precise article” that would need to be put on the next warrant issued for the voters to decide. When Noonan asked what happens next, the board said they have no interest to “opt in” at this time. Much discussion followed.

Town Manager Theresa Haskell informed the board that the town had received an invitation for two officials from Windsor to attend a meeting with the County EMA and administration in Augusta. The purpose of the meeting would be to discuss current endeavors and issues that are facing the towns and cities in Kennebec County, and to find ways they could assist or augment what the communities are doing. They unanimously decided to send no one at this time.

In other business, Haskell reported the last storm was mostly ice, and took many hours and product to manage. Select board member William Appel Jr. asked if the roads are plowed between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., when there isn’t much traffic. He suggested it would be a good time to hold off on plowing so the public works employees could get rest. Both Haskell and Public Works Driver/Laborer Timothy Corson said it all depended on the type of storm. The equipment fared well during the recent clean up effort.

Haskell reported receiving a call from Regional Rubbish, of Damariscotta, asking if they could bring MSW they pick up weekly on Wednesday from individual households and dump this at the Windsor Transfer Station. They currently take the trash to West Bath. Many quesions followed:

• From how many Windsor residents do they pick up?
• At the 10-cents per pound charge, that would not cover the actual cost of the transfer station expenses.
• The town of Windsor taxpayers pay half the incurred expenses through the lcoal taxes and the other half is collected at the transfer station.
• More would have to be charged to businesses like that to cover cost of disposal.
• It also needs to be determined if they can actually dump the MSW into the hopper with no issues.

The select board instructed Haskell and Sean Teekema, transfer station supervisor, to investigate further to determine if such a move would be beneficial to Windsor.

The next meeting was scheduled for January 31.