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May 11, 2023
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Weekly news coverage for Charlotte and Hinesburg
LIBERTY DARR STAFF WRITER
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The CVU softball team walloped MMU, defeating them 19-2 to break a two-game losing streak.
Hinesburg pauses renovations to town hall, fire station building Hinesburg is pausing planned renovations to the town hall and to its fire station — expensive projects in their own right — after getting bids back for its wastewater treatment facility project, state mandated work that the town is uncertain
how to pay for. Initial designs for the two projects — one to rehabilitate the historic town hall, and another to either renovate or relocate the fire station — were presented to the selectboard last month. Both projects would cost at least $12 million or as much as $16 million, according to a presentation of
the proposals. But at last week’s selectboard meeting, town manager Todd Odit cited the wastewater treatment facility project, bids for which came in at well over $15 million, as “the most immediate need” See RENOVATIONS on page 16
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Smoldering conflict roils Charlotte cannabis operation
The wind up
COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
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A licensed cannabis-growing operation on a rural dirt road in Charlotte is raising the ire of surrounding neighbors — a chaotic situation the cultivator has likened to a new wave of “reefer madness.” John Stern has been growing marijuana in Charlotte under a Tier 1 outdoor operation, Red Clover Canopies, since August. The budding business has been the recipient of a slew of resident-led backlash that started just months after cultivation got underway and at one point prompted residents to make Stern a buyout offer. Issues arose last November when residents and town officials reached out to the state Cannabis Control Board regarding the issuance of Stern’s Tier 1 license — which, per Act 158, is exempt from local permitting since it is an outdoor grow operation of 1,000 square feet or less. The operation, which is set on a 3-acre plot of land is “bounded by trees on both sides of the road,” Stern said. “In the summertime, once the leaves are on, nobody can see us.” The original concerns came because of lights emanating from a covered hoop house where the bud grows, which Stern told The Citizen was needed mostly because
they began growing at an inopportune time of year, in part because “the town and (neighbors) had stood in the way and created problems for us on our licensing when we got started.” “We wound up having a grow at a time of year we never wanted to be growing, and so it was like, ‘Look, I’m just trying to finish this thing and that requires lights. I will turn the lights off by 6 p.m.,’’’ said Stern. “We talked and everybody agreed: OK, turn them off at 6 p.m.” Keith Oborne, the town’s former zoning administrator, emailed Stern on Nov. 2, solidifying this agreement. “I have informed the concerned parties that the lighting associated with the operation will be extinguished at 7:30 p.m. every night moving forward and will not be turned on until 7:30 a.m. the following morning,” he wrote. “Let’s keep the lines of communication open as I suspect this will not land gently with the concerned individuals.” He ended the email wishing Stern “success with (his) operation.” Trouble came just two days later, when Stern admits he mistakenly left the grow lights on past the mutually agreed upon time, sparkSee CANNABIS on page 12
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