SOUTH DEERFIELD — With worry that a pot shop will never get off the ground, local businessman Mark Valone repeatedly urged the Selectboard to handle cultivation and retail at the same pace.
It was not completely clear by the end of a special meeting at Town Hall Wednesday why Valone pressed, at times somewhat combatively, the board members to shift its plans to handle cultivation before dispensaries.
The Selectboard that evening continued drafting a final general host agreement for those interested in growing pot in town. A host agreement is intended to be a working contract with potential businesses on particulars such as what percentage of sales will go back to the town to pay for items like additional education and policing.
Following up, Valone, who hopes to move a seed-to-sale pot business into the Deerfield Plastics buildings he owns, said he thought the retail business was going to be delayed by the board.
He said not doing host agreements for cultivation and retail concurrently is a “disaster.” Valone added after the meeting, “If anything, the dispensary should be first.”
Trying to clear the record afterward, Chairwoman Carolyn Shores Ness said, “In my opinion, cultivation is pretty straightforward and has the least impact.” She said dispensaries are a “little more complex” and require more time to study the literature available.
Additionally, Ness said, she has always viewed the town as looking out for the local farmer and the agricultural character of the town, which is part of the reason why it’s important to handle cultivation swiftly.
Valone mentioned the town had already drafted a host agreement regarding dispensaries about three years ago, but that one was about medical marijuana. Given the way the industry has changed, now governed by the state’s Cannabis Control Commission and not the Department of Public Health, Ness said afterward that that agreement was no longer relevant.
Nonetheless, Ness told Valone she will make sure the board can move forward on a dispensary and manufacturing host agreement as quickly as it can.
In the meantime, a draft of the host agreement for cultivation was finished and will now be sent to the town’s lawyer for review. The board is hoping to have the final product at its next Selectboard meeting Aug. 8.
During the meeting, Valone asked the board why a dispensary host agreement, in his eyes, has taken a backseat.
“I’m not ready yet,” Selectboard member Trevor McDaniel said. “This is my second job. I have one night every week to put something together.”
Valone then questioned if it was political in nature.
“It’s not political,” McDaniel said. “It’s a timing issue.”
After a bit of back-and-forth, Valone then asked McDaniel, “You stand on the record you don’t have an answer?”
“I gave you an answer,” McDaniel said.
Valone later asked, “It’s not the intention of the board to delay the host agreement?”
“No,” McDaniel said.
“The reason is simple: We don’t have enough time,” member Henry “Kip” Komosa said. “We just happened to choose cultivation. Then, we’ll look into the retail part of it.”
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Joshua Solomon at:
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