Stevensville tables decision on marijuana

Village council deadlocks on retailer applications

By LOUISE WREGE

HP Staff Writer

STEVENSVILLE — Plans to allow marijuana shops to open in Stevensville were put on hold for at least a month Wednesday due to a lack of village trustees voting to approve the application process.

The proposed resolution called for marijuana retailers to submit applications between Feb. 1-28, with a public lottery to be held to determine which applicants received conditional approval.

In November, village trustees approved allowing up to two marijuana retailers to open in the village along Red Arrow Highway.

But before trustees could consider the application resolution, Trustee Carl Steinberger made a motion to rescind November’s resolution allowing marijuana shops so residents can vote on the matter.

After some back and forth about whether they could rescind a resolution without public notice, Steinberger amended his motion to tabling the application resolution.

His motion failed 3-3, with one person abstaining. Voting with Steinberger to table the matter were Trustees Turner Binkley and Bert Peters. Voting against tabling were President David Wenger, Vice President Chris Mason and Trustee Jessica Patterson. Trustee Holly Schewe abstained, giving no reason.

This was the first meeting for Binkley, Peters and Schewe, who were sworn into office at the beginning of the meeting.

Then, the vote on the application process failed 3-2, with Mason, Patterson and Wenger voting for it and Peters and Steinberger voting against it. Binkley and Schewe abstained, giving no reason.

After discussion on whether trustees can abstain without a reason, Village Manager Kacey Dominguez said she will report to trustees at their next meeting in January on what the rules are to abstain.

Earlier in the meeting, numerous people who lived in or had businesses in the village spoke out against letting marijuana be sold in the village during the public comments portion of the meeting. Many were members of Friends of Stevensville, a ballot question committee that was formed to lobby against marijuana shops opening in the village.

The group’s chairperson, Mary Jo Tomasini, said during a news conference earlier this week that the group turned in 119 signatures to the Lincoln Township clerk last week in an effort to put a proposal on the May or August ballot to remove the marijuana retailers ordinance and replace it with an ordinance that would prohibit marijuana establishments.

Minutes before the village meeting, Tomasini said she had received word from the group’s attorney that there were more than enough signatures to put their resolution on the May ballot.

Contact: lwrege@TheHP.com, 932-0361, Twitter: @HPWrege