SOUTH DEERFIELD — Two businesses are vying to be Deerfield’s lone legal pot shop, and town officials are struggling through the process of deciding between them.
Arizona-based Harvest Inc., run by Joe Kachuroi, and Deerfield Naturals, LCC, run by Deerfield businessman Mark Valone both want to sell retail marijuana in Deerfield, but the town, based on its zoning bylaws, can only support one retail marijuana shop. This sets the scene for a tough decision for the Select Board.
That’s made for a careful and somewhat cumbersome process for the town. The state’s Open Meeting Law requires all discussions around the decision to take place in public.
“This board doesn’t have the luxury of sitting around, talking about different things,” Selectman Henry “Kip” Komosa said during a public hearing on pot last week. “We have to do it right here. Sometimes we have to ask questions. If it seems like we’re just stumbling through it, it’s because it is new to us.”
Local officials want to make sure the town makes money off of marijuana and complies with the new state laws without moving so slowly that it misses an opportunity to have any marijuana business in town.
This is what in part is prompting the Select Board to hold a special meeting today, Aug. 1, to go over the specifics as it crafts a master host agreement for businesses wanting to run a marijuana cultivation site.
For the two businesses, however, the retail rather than the cultivation side of things is likely to be the hang up. Although the host agreements for cultivation and retail are separate forms and processes, it’s likely an all-or-nothing deal for the two businesses.
Komosa said the Open Meeting Law has made it more difficult for the members to work through the process faster, and has held up the businesses vying for the ability to sell marijuana in town. Open meeting law requires the three-person board to have dialogue amongst members in front of the public.
Town Administrator Wendy Foxmyn had reached out to the state’s Cannabis Control Commission looking for help, as she tries to guide the board. In an email sent about a month ago, she wrote the state: “We are the boots on the ground and are scrambling to implement your regulations. I know you are scrambling, as well.”
Select Board members know that time is of the essence. Host agreements for cultivation might be ready to go by its Aug. 8 meeting, or at the least, the board might have a working draft.
“I think it’s very important to move ahead, and commit, because we’re just dragging our feet and people obviously have interests,” the Select Board’s Carolyn Shores Ness said about cultivation host agreements toward the end of the second public hearing last week with Valone. “We should be able to look at all of these examples and compile everything we want.”
She added that it’s “not fair to hold it up,” and that the town needs to be cognizant of its farmers and business people who are trying to move forward on the industry.
A possible additional complication for Deerfield could involve neighboring Whately. Harvest Inc. has proposed running its pot shop just next door, but across the town line at the Sugarloaf Shops.