Village of Constantine wants public input on Sunday pot sales

Angie Birdsall
·3 min read
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Marijuana flower ready for sale in Michigan

CONSTANTINE — Constantine village council has set a public hearing for 7 p.m. Oct. 3 to get input for Sunday marijuana sales and consumption lounges.

At a Sept. 6 council meeting, the council heard a request from Dominic Iemma, founder of Prosper Cannabis Co., the largest cannabis provisioning center in southwest Michigan, to allow Sunday sales of marijuana. Prosper is a division of the Fawn River Cultivation Co. The two are located in the same building in the Industrial Park, creating a full seed-to-sale operation. Fawn River is a 60,000-square-foot facility with 20 growing rooms and processing areas.

Iemma told the council that all the other local businesses can operate on Sunday, and surrounding municipalities allow marijuana dispensaries to be open Sunday.

The village is also re-reviewing an application for a consumption lounge/event center at 230 N. Washington St. Village manager Mark Honeysett, referring to an application from Tranquility Fields, a state marijuana franchise, said village attorney Catherine Kaufman advised scheduling a public hearing to consider amending the adult use marijuana ordinance, prior to approving a consumption lounge.

Applications for marijuana licenses were received from two businesses at the Sept. 19 council meeting. Focus Enterprises, 190 N. Washington St., applied for an adult use permit, and Green Tree Relief, a recreational and medical marijuana retail facility at 130 Broad St. applied for a provisioning center/dispensary application. Grean Tea will offer marijuana flowers, edibles (candies and baked goods) and extracts (waxes, crystals, sauces and vape cartridges).

The council did not take action on the applications, but did decide to accept new applications.

"I think they will have to adjust the number of permits accepted by resolution,” Honeysett said. “Thankfully when the ordinance was originally adopted, they included a clause that says they can increase or decrease the number of permits by resolution, rather than to amend the ordinance. The window for submitting new applications will close on Oct. 31. I'm guessing that the council will act on any new applications at either the first or second meeting in October after they adopt an appropriate resolution. I'm not sure how we'll get the word out that applications will be reviewed for either consumption lounges or other adult use permits. I'll depend on Catherine Kaufman's counselor for that."

In other business

  • Honeysett said asbestos was found at a home that the village owns at 270 E. Water St. and that he was contacting several companies for quotes on asbestos removal. Earlier, at an Aug. 1 council meeting, council authorized him to take bids on demolition of the house, citing it as a hazard. The home was owned by Clare Hoffman (1875-1967) a congressman in Washington who served 14 consecutive terms from 1935-1962.

  • The village was not selected to receive grant funds from the American Rescue Plan Act Revitalization and Placemaking program. Funds would have been applied to fund a new fire station and pay for new village residents' electronic water meters. Honeysett said the village will apply for more grants, specifically one for water meters through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.

  • In March, the village submitted an application to the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, to construct a new sewer plant. The application was recently approved. Honeysett said that, out of a list of 38 tasks to be done before the village can close on a $13.4 million 40-year USDA rural development loan, most are completed. He said that hopefully the village will be ready to close on the loan in a few weeks, so Fleis & VandenBrink Engineering will begin bidding processes for contractors beginning in October or November.

  • The planning commission is reviewing a survey of villagers, to complete the goals and objectives to develop a new five-year master plan for the village.

This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Village of Constantine wants public input on Sunday marijuana sales