WOODSTOCK — At their December 1 meeting, selectmen suggested having the town’s marijuana committee begin creating a recreational marijuana ordinance that would permit growing and wholesale selling. Resident Chandler Simpkins attended the meeting and asked the board to consider developing the ordinance. Simpkins has a small marijuana farm of his own and would like to now grow marijuana as a crop. According to the minutes, Simpkins explained that selling marijuana would “complement his maple syrup, firewood/lumber and vegetable sales.
Simpkins will now have to find wording for a warrant article and come up with details for the ordinance.
The marijuana committee is currently coming up with an ordinance for medical marijuana retail stores. Residents will vote on the ordinance at the annual town meeting in March.
According to the minutes, Simpkin’s request for a recreational marijuana ordinance is the first town officials have gotten.
In other news, selectmen discussed adopting the Maine Uniform Building and Energy Code (MUBEC).
They started by weighing the positives and negatives that would come with approving MUBEC. The code would make inspection regulations standard and possibly help with insurance premiums, according to the minutes. On the flip side, though, the code could add time to the building process due to more inspections. Another con would be cost, which would become higher because of more frequent visits from the Code Enforcement Officer.
According to the minutes, other arguments made against MUBEC were for homeowners, who town officials believe would have to do more work than necessary under the code. The planning board would also have a workload increase, selectmen thought.
Woodstock Fire Chief Kyle Hopps spoke in favor of MUBEC, acknowledging that not all builders follow code. Hopps mentioned that fire alarms have not been hard-wired in certain homes and others had no alarms at all. Hopp’s added that insurance companies do not believe Maine does a good job of holding contractors accountable when it comes to building to code, according to the minutes.
Resident Bob McQueeney, a former contractor, thought Hopps’ words were on the right track.
“Due to time and labor constraints many shortcuts are taken which dilute quality control,” McQueeney said. “Often the only recourse some owners have is small claims court.”
CEO Kingston Brown supports adopting MUBEC, also.
In the minutes it stated Selectmen did not oppose MUBEC, but believed many residents would be against it. Also in the minutes, someone said the extra costs from MUBEC could be paid for by increasing building fees. Selectman Jeff Campbell Jr. wondered what some benefits would be for increased inspection costs. Discussion wrapped up with Selectman Ron Deegan saying that a list should be made for all building permits issued, by category, over the last five years. This could help provide insight on what might be collected by having increased fees, according to the minutes.
Municipalities with a population of more than 4,000 people are required to enforce MUBEC. Towns under 4,000 people have the choice of adopting MUBEC.
Also at the meeting, Resident Joe Gaidis proposed a trade to officials, asking if the town would swap the Grange Hall for the former Stowell’s Mills storage building lot near Lakeside Cemetery. Selectmen declined, saying the town is still exploring different uses for the building.
The fire department received a $2,000 grant that will be used to buy air tanks for firefighters.
Selectmen looked over the 2021 state valuation for Woodstock, which is $224,000,000, according to the minutes.
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