Selectmen meet Tuesday to discuss state and potential local rules for recreational marijuana, now that its use has been legalized in Maine.
Selectmen are also scheduled to discuss mold issues which parents have expressed concern about at Manchester Elementary School.
With the passage of a referendum question in November, recreational use of marijuana became legal in Maine. Selectmen are scheduled to get an update about possible state legislation related to marijuana from state Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, and Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester.
Selectmen are also scheduled to discuss adopting a local moratorium on marijuana-related businesses in town, though Town Manager E. Patrick Gilbert said no formal proposal for a moratorium is currently on the table.
Gilbert said the Manchester Planning Board is currently considering an ordinance to regulate marijuana social clubs, which are allowed under the recently changed state law. State law allows municipalities to regulate, and even ban, such businesses.
Selectmen, at the request of Paula Thomas, chairwoman of the selectmen, are also scheduled to discuss air quality and concerns about mold issues at Regional School Unit 38’s Manchester Elementary School.
“Even though we do not have jurisdiction over the school, I thought it was important to be available if residents wanted to talk with us about it,” Thomas said by email Monday.
Parents of students at the school have expressed concerns at meetings with school officials about air quality at the school after mold was discovered within it late last year.
And selectmen are expected to discuss safety issues at the town’s sand and salt shed, where residents are now allowed to come and fill up to two five-gallon buckets per storm.
Gilbert said the sand and salt shed can become so busy, between residents picking up sand and public works trucks needing to be filled to sand roads, it has become unsafe. He said town officials want to continue to offer residents sand but to do so in a safer manner, possibly in a new space away from the town crew’s work area.
“It has become so congested there it is too much of a free-for-all,” Gilbert said. “We want to continue to provide the service. We just need to find a different way to do it, so folks can still get to the sand and not be tripping over each other. We’ll work with the Road Committee to come up with an alternative.”
Selectmen are scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Manchester Town Office.
They are also scheduled to:
• discuss a road-naming policy to help address resident requests to make changes to established road names;
• select a bidder for lawn mowing and landscaping;
• discuss a forest management plan;
• discuss, with Fire Chief Mickey “Bug” Cram, hooking up a radio repeater system for the Lakes Region Mutual Fire Aid Group.
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
Twitter: @kedwardskj
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story