Concerns raised from business owners about county setbacks in small communities

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

New York Mills will continue to utilize the county’s cannabis ordinance—at least for the time being.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Tuesday night, the NY Mills City Council failed to approve a motion to call for a public hearing to develop its own cannabis ordinance. The motion failed by a vote of 4-1 with mayor Latham Hetland casting to lone vote in favor of calling for a public hearing. 

Prior to casting the roll call vote, councilman Jerry Nesland said he was concerned about the additional staff time that would be necessary to implement and enforce the ordinance, while Eric Hammond said he was OK with leaving the county in charge of the cannabis registration at this time.

The topic of a cannabis ordinance came to the forefront last month after Matt and Lindsay Wedde approached the city council on the topic after their application to open a cannabis dispensary in downtown NY Mills was denied by the county, 

In September the Wedde’s said the business was to be located at 20 N Main Avenue in the downtown area. Matt said the county measured from the corner of their property line to the corner of the New York Mills School property line, which was 70 feet less than the minimum of 1,000 feet from a school property. He said if they measured from the corner of the building to the corner of the school property the business would have likely been outside of the 1,000 foot buffer zone.

Since the city council approved having the county be in charge of licensing dispensaries within the city limits any changes the city made would result in it developing and enforcing its own ordinance. Since the 1,000 foot buffer zone from parks and schools set forth in the county’s ordinance was not very conducive to smaller communities like NY Mills, the city asked county representatives if there would be a potential for a hybrid version of the cannabis ordinance in order to allow smaller communities to have such businesses without such a large setback from parks and schools.

“The county does not plan on doing any hybrid. Their (ordinance) is their (ordinance) and if we don’t want to follow theirs we just have to repeal our resolution,” said city clerk Julie Roberts. 

After doing quite a bit of research on the topic, Roberts said her biggest concern revolved around the compliance issues and checks with the dispensaries. Since cannabis dispensaries were just recently approved at the state level, there is not a lot of information available to smaller cities and communities across the state.

“My bigger concern with this is the compliance stuff, which no one seems to be able to provide me with,” said Roberts. 

Due to a number of questions on the topic the cannabis ordinance the council ultimately voted down a motion to call for a public hearing regarding changing the NY Mills cannabis ordinance. The hearing would be the first step for the city to rescind and adopt a new ordinance for cannabis licenses and enforcement. 

As a result, cannabis licenses and registrations will continue to be handled by Otter Tail County.

In other news

• Heard the monthly liquor store report that showed the combined gross sales for the month were down one percent from the prior year and net revenues are up 1.49 percent as a percentage of sales from the prior year. So far this year the off sale net sales before transfers have lost $4,773.45 and the on sale net sales before transfers have generated a profit of $13,984.51. The council also approved the hiring of Corey Anderson. 

• Heard the monthly report from the New York Mills Police Department that showed 177 calls for service with six citations, 22 warnings and three arrests. The council also heard officer Timothy Schaefer submitted his resignation. 

• Heard the utilities department report that stated the city recently met with an arborist to discuss the Emerald Ash Borer infestation that has been found in the Deer Creek and Wadena areas. The city is also planning to utilize auto read for the first time at the end of the month to read utility meters. 

• Heard a request from Perham EMS for a contribution of $10,800, based on the city’s share of service area pollination and number of EMS responses historically provided in the community, to help cover a projected operating deficit of $360,000 for the ambulance service. The Perham EMS responded to 36 emergency calls within the city limits last year. The council said it will reach out to the Perham EMS to get more information regarding the donation and services the city receives. 

• Acknowledged the following donations: $300 from Perham Masonic Lodge for the DARE program and Minnesota Masonic Charities for the DARE program.