Ironwood to hold public hearing on marijuana establishments

By ZACHARY MARANO

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Ironwood — The Ironwood City Commission set a public hearing for 5:20 p.m. on June 13 on an amendment to the marijuana establishment ordinance. Director of Community Development Tom Bergman said the draft includes licenses for two additional retail marijuana establishments.

“I would just say this to the public: this would be their opportunity, then. This would be their opportunity to either talk about going forward or holding the course,” city commissioner Jim Mildren said about the public hearing.

Mildren said that about a year has passed since the city commission approved applications for retail marijuana establishment licenses in June 2021. They had agreed to wait a year before granting additional licenses to see the impact of the establishments on the city.

Just one establishment has opened so far: Higher Love on 842 E. Cloverland Drive. Mildren said that the city has been getting complaints from people who live near the establishment saying that Higher Love is attracting too many people, which they say is causing disruptions.

Bergman said there are other items in the amendment to the marijuana establishment ordinance, so there will be other things for the commission to address if they decide not to add the two retail marijuana establishments licenses because of comments during the public hearing.

One of the other items is the addition of the class A marijuana microbusiness license. Existing microbusinesses could switch to this business model to grow more plants and purchase materials from other processors. Bergman said this license will probably make these microbusinesses more competitive with standard retail marijuana establishments.

The draft also includes changes to the setback requirements for microbusinesses in downtown Ironwood, allowing them to have a zero-lot line on the front lot line, which would match the lot lines of other downtown businesses. The ordinance would also allow these establishments to use some free-standing signs, with graphical signs needing approval by the planning commission.

Bergman said that the public will be able to review the marijuana establishment ordinance draft in the Memorial Building or online at cityofironwood.org.

During their regular meeting on Monday, the city commission amended the retirement succession plan adopted on April 25 to authorize Mayor Kim Corcoran to enter in an executive search contract with the Michigan Municipal League in the amount of $17,000-19,000 to find a long-term replacement for the outgoing city manager, Scott Erickson.

Corcoran said that the first step in the process is to have the MML executive search team meet with the city commission and city staff separately to receive input on what they want to see from candidates for the position. The commission agreed to meet with MML staff at 5 p.m. on May 24. This meeting will be open to the public.

“We try to avoid adding anything to our agenda, but we don’t want this succession period to drag out. It’s already estimated to be 120 days, which is a long time,” commissioner Rick Semo said.

In his report to the board, Erickson said that they are interviewing applicants to help manage the city’s compost site on Ayer Street. He said they plan to open the site as soon they hire someone, which he said could be as early as the end of this week. Corcoran said they should advertise when they will be open because “people are probably champing at the bit” to use the site at this time of year.

Erickson said that the city received a permit for its water treatment plant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. Once they get approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, which he said will come in one to two weeks, the city can request bids on the project.

Erickson also said the Curry Park campground is scheduled to open on Saturday and the new reservation system will be online soon. He also reported that the Marquette-based firm Flowtrack Mountain Bike Trails LLC will start construction of a mountain bike trail in Miners Memorial Heritage Park next week.

The city commission also:

—Rescheduled their work session to discuss the fiscal year 2022-2023 budget from Monday to 5 p.m. on May 18.

—Approved the final pay application to Snow Country Contracting for the Miner’s Memorial Heritage Park mountain bike trailhead parking lots and connector project.

—Awarded a bid to Jake’s Excavating for the 2022 local water and sewer reconstruction project on Francis Street.