LIVERMORE — At the request of selectpersons, the Planning Board will develop a medical marijuana application at their Oct. 22 meeting.

A draft medical marijuana application, based on the Town of Farmington’s adult use and medical marijuana application, was shared with selectpersons Tuesday night, Oct. 13.

“I’d like to know what we’re asking of other businesses in town,” Selectperson Brett Deyling said. “We’re putting a pretty big onus on these medical marijuana stores just to operate in town. It seems counter productive to making our town a place where people want to work. They’ve got to submit pages of information in order to make a living.”

“It’s no different than an application for selling alcohol,” Selectperson Chairman Mark Chretien said. “It’s the same procedure.”

The ordinance was pretty specific in the fee structure, Selectperson Tracey Martin said.

The fees for medical marijuana businesses are more, board members said.

“Do we say that the application fee can be credited towards the license fee once it’s been approved,” Deyling asked. “You’re asking people to spend $3,000 before they can even put a shell on the ground to open a store and then do it every year after that. It never ends.”

“We used Farmington, Turner and a couple other towns’ to make the ordinance,” Martin said. “Farmington was adult use and medical marijuana, so it had more.”

“Have the Planning Board go over it, draft what they think, then we’ll go over it,” Selectperson Scott Richmond said. “They’re the ones that’ll have to deal with it, not us. We don’t want it overcomplicated.”

“Stick with the ordinance. If it’s not in there, don’t ask for it,” Deyling said. “Make it as basic as we can.”

Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller said he would put it on the Oct. 22 agenda for the Planning Board.

The Selectpersons would then review it at the Oct. 26 meeting, but not necessarily act on it.

The application should be approved by the end of the year, Deyling said.

In other business, Miller said the Center for Tech and Civic Life received a large grant from the Chan Zuckersberg Initiative to support the 2020 election. The town will be applying for a grant to help cover election costs.

Thursday morning, Town Clerk Renda Guild said in a phone interview that she had applied for a grant from the CTCL COVID-19 Response Rural Grant program.

“I’m really excited, it’s a really good grant. The grants are for a minimum of $5,000. I’ve applied for whatever they can provide,” she said. “There’s usually a 24 to 48 hour turn around.”

Grant moneys can be used for a variety of things, including voting booths, photocopiers, trailers to haul equipment, generators, providing more secure doors, signage, people to park during voting and education, Guild said.

“We had one election in July and two in August, funds are kind of depleted. This could also be a really good thing for our website,” she said. “We could promote learning about voting and the election process.”

Livermore will have enough ballot clerks for the Nov. 3 election with many people offering to help, Guild said. Voting by absentee ballot is up this year, she added.

“It’s overwhelming, we can’t keep up,” Guild said. “In 23 years, I’ve never seen it like this! I get more behind as the day goes on.”

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