CANTON — A special town meeting for residents to vote on whether to approve a medical marijuana store or dispensary will be delayed until June due to the pandemic, the Board of Selectmen decided at its Wednesday meeting.

In October the board approved holding a special town meeting on the issue, but selectmen this week agreed that now is not the time.

“With COVID happening right now we talked last night about unless something is an emergency, we’re hopefully going to postpone all (town meeting) votes until next June,” Chairman Russell Adams said on Thursday.

In other matters, the town will charge “late permit fees” to those who start to build structures without a permit for building, Adams said. Residents should apply for a permit application at the town office for building projects, he said.

“So, we want to try to curb that, so people will come to us and get a permit first (before building). If someone starts building prior to permitting getting awarded, instead of a $15 permit fee it’s going to be a $30 permit fee.

“We’re trying to encourage people to come and get the permit rather than starting to build just so we can make sure we don’t end up having to take something down and move it prior to the permit,” Adams said.

Selectmen also discussed the audio for the their meeting on Wednesday, which was mostly indecipherable because of a poor internet connection, Adams said on Thursday. The selectmen met in person at the town office meeting room but due to rising COVID-19 cases in the county, they requested that the public join them via a Zoom conference link or view the meeting on the town’s Facebook page. By Thursday the town expected an internet upgrade in order to resolve the situation.

In other news, selectmen are planning to award the Boston Post Cane to the town’s oldest citizen who currently resides at Pinnacle Health and Rehab, Adams said. Benjamin Copeland, who was the town’s prior Boston Post Cane recipient, passed away in September at age 96.

Also, following Wednesday’s meeting the selectmen completed evaluations for five of the six town employees, Adams said. The selectmen try to complete the evaluations yearly for the six employees who work in the town office, highway department, transfer station or sewer department, and they also complete their own self-evaluation, he said.

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