Emotions thick over RX pot

A packed house came out to revisit the Hill City Common Council medical marijuana dispensary resolution 2022-0 5.

About 35 people packed into the conference room at city hall March 14 to air their opposition to having more than one dispensary in Hill City.

Ben Larsen began the conversation outlining three requests. He asked that the new resolution be changed to allow for only one dispensary license and no additional licenses.

“I do a lot of work with youth in this town and I see a dispensary as an easy access point for those youth in this town,” he said.

He also asked that the council make it more difficult  for someone to want to obtain a license in town by having higher license fees.  He also wanted to make certain that any dispensary would be as far away from the school as state law allowed.

He concluded his statement with “we brag about our community so much, so I just hope our statement to our community and our kids is ‘we value you more than some potential profit.’”

Larsen’s poignant plea was met with a resounding round of applause. And he was not the only one.

David Grover, a well-respected resident of Hill City, shared his personal story of drug and alcohol abuse that began with marijuana in Vietnam.

“Within a short time of coming back I was addicted to every other drug there was on the market,” he said. 

Clean and sober for 45 years, he stated bluntly, “marijauna was where I started and I know that marijuana starts with a lot of kids.”

Tears rolled down his face as he admitted his shame for selling drugs to another dealer who then sold drugs to high school children.

“I can’t change that now but all I know is that marijunana leads to other stuff,” he said. “Do not allow anything else other than what you have to do by law, because it’s addictive.”

Person after person spoke up all with the same message of letting the other towns have the money and let Hill City remain a community and family destination. 

Jeff Liddell painted a grim picture of how Hill City could turn into small town Colorado.

“Instead of having families vacation here we will have potheads vacationing  here,” he said.

Andrew Schock asked, “what price do you put on a kid, on a parent, on a  family?”

For nearly an hour the aldermen heard from nearly every person in the room, and they were visibly moved. Alderman Carl Doaty began his response to the public by saying, “I’ve become a real politician. I put dollars in front of my morals.”

Alderman Gary Auch had tears in his eyes  when he addressed the public.

“This town needs to be a little more active prior to an ordinance coming up. We need to hear it from you,” he said.

Jason Gillespie who was the alderman in favor of competition and having  more than one dispensary in town admitted “this is kind of my fault,” before he made a motion to repeal the ordinance and approve one that would instead offer only one dispensary only, which is what state codified law forces all municipalities to offer.

The aldermen will also revisit the fee structure. It was evident from those present that Hill City residents want the dispensary license fee to be as large as legally possible. This will be discussed at the next meeting.

Aldermen, along with the residents in attendance at the meeting, decided on the name of the new community center. The Hill City Center will feature the heart logo usually associated with the chamber of commerce. That name will be attached to the building while a smaller detached sign will read “home of” and list the names of the organizations that use the space.

Common council members approved a request accepting the right of way and public improvements for the Bull Run subdivision. This begins a two-year warranty for the  infrastructure associated with the project.

Finance officer Stacia Tallon gave a total  of $1,320 for the Allen Gulch Road special meeting cost. 

Despite opposition from the medical clinic in Hill City the common council approved the Wine Brew & BBQ application submitted by Emily Wheeler,  WEM, Inc. A letter read by council president Dale Householder from a representative at Hill City Medical Clinic addressed some concerns about parking and timely event clean up. The letter read that on Monday, “everything was still  set up  and parking was extremely difficult as patients were trying to park next to the building and crews were trying to tear down the festival.”

It referred to a “dangerous” situation for patients and staff. 

Wheeler denied the accusation  that the festival was still being cleaned up on Monday, but admitted, “we could do a better job of making sure they have parking on Thursday.”

She refers to this as a “communication issue” that she would address.

The next Hill City common council meeting takes place March 28 at 5:30 p.m.