Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Ironwood Township — Ironwood Township became the latest Gogebic County community to ban recreational marijuana businesses after the board of trustees passed Ordinance 57 Monday.
“This does not … permanently shut the door (to future commercial businesses),” Clerk Mary Segalin said. “This (discussion) could be reopened after the state comes and gives us their full rules and regulations. But, from here until then, this is prohibiting recreational establishments from opening doors.
“This does not mean the township is saying, ‘Forever and always we’re not going to support marijuana.’”
“We can always amend (the ordinance),” added trustee Bev Michaels.
Township officials previously said the ordinance only prohibits recreational commercial businesses; and won’t impact legal medical marijuana operations, residents growing the legally allowed number of plants for personal use or consuming marijuana recreationally that was purchased elsewhere.
The issue of recreational marijuana largely came to the forefront after voters approved a referendum legalizing recreational marijuana statewide in the November election, although local voters were split on the issue. In Gogebic County, 3,163 voted in favor of legalization, while 3,377 voters opposed it.
Since the referendum’s passage, the cities of Ironwood, Bessemer, Wakefield, Wakefield Township and Watersmeet Township are among the communities that have either passed or are in the process of passing measures banning or restricting marijuana. Marenisco Township voted to allow marijuana businesses that meet the state’s licensing requirements last month.
The state did put out emergency rules regarding the regulation of recreational marijuana Wednesday, giving the first glimpse at how it plans to handle the process going forward. These rules are set to expire in six months, with the possibility of them being extended up to another six months after that.
In other action:
—The board approved purchasing four flashing stop signs, at $1,386 each, to be installed on Jackson Road and Airport Road at the Lake Road intersections in an attempt to reduce the number of traffic accidents taking place in the area.
—The board authorized township officials to sign the annual summer tax collection agreement with the Ironwood Area Schools to allow the township to collect taxes on the school district’s behalf.