Two Sumpter officials tell of their support for new marijuana law

“I would opt in if we had the opportunity,” said Sumpter Township Trustee Sheena Barnes at the Nov. 28 board meeting, referring to the new Michigan Marijuana Facilities Licensing Act that goes into effect in December.
She started off her comments during the Board Response portion of the agenda.
Trustee Barnes said she wanted to comment on the letter to the editor by Mary Ban published in a recent edition of the Belleville-Area Independent.
“I am the newest appointed member of the board … and I’m really trying to do the best I can,” Barnes began, indicating she felt Ban was referring to her in the letter.
Ban tried to encourage her from the audience, but Supervisor John Morgan shushed Ban’s comments.
Barnes referred to Ban’s letter that said people are calling Sumpter, “Skunkster” because of the smell of the marijuana.
“When you say ‘Skunkster,'” Barnes continued, “We have two landfills and I’ve been smelling Skunkster for 40 years… I just want our town to be the best it can be. Just bring in 20 jobs.
“I live across the street from a medical marijuana farm. It is pungent… It’s unfortunate,” Barnes said, noting that while she is new on the township board, she is not a newcomer to the township. “I’ve been out here 58 years.
“I’m here to be your voice,” Barnes said, noting the farm across the street sold for $175,000 and now it is worth $495,000.
She said when she passes somebody’s marijuana farm she thinks of the first chapter of Genesis about God creating every herb-bearing seed.
“This is God’s plant,” Barnes said, adding she wished no disrespect to Ban.
“The early bird get the worm and the late bird gets the turd,” Barnes concluded, referring to opting into the MMFLA.
Treasurer Peggy Morgan took up the comments, saying she, too, was “up to here” with it.
She said if it takes 10 minutes to say everything she wanted to say, she would take the time.
“The residents sign my checks to do a job and that’s what I’m doing … Rumors are flying around the township.”
She said after caring for her family, she’s staying up until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning studying the marijuana issue.
Treasurer Morgan said she came to Sumpter in March 1985, the night she was married.
She said the board members were forewarned months and months ago to educate themselves because MMFLA asked all townships, villages and cities to opt in, opt out, or do nothing at all.
“Every board member said I wonder what people in the township think,” Morgan continued, adding 63% of the voters in Sumpter voted to legalize medical marijuana.
She said Clerk Esther Hurst put on the board’s agenda a request to have a town hall meeting with experts and it was put off.
“We didn’t do that,” Morgan continued. “Instead we formed a committee.” She said Supervisor Morgan and Trustee Matthew Oddy set it up, but she thinks it was mainly Oddy.
She said they needed fact finding and to hear the people, but the committee meetings are one hour and 45 minutes long and just the last 15 minutes is left for the people to have time to talk.
Morgan said people are walking around spreading rumors that are not the truth.
She said she got an unsigned letter against opting in and read it. She asked the writer to sign it next time.
She said the rumor is that acres and acres of the township will be devoted to marijuana, but that is not the case. The law is for growing inside.
She was hoping to have a town hall meeting so that everything could be discussed.
She said the paper said a judge is going to order the township to opt in, but that’s not true and Mr. Po will have to follow rules under the caregiver ordinance.
She said the Independent always asked the police chief for comments and, “This time he sent three different emails. She asked if she could print them and the chief said, ‘I would appreciate it,’ but she didn’t print them… Wherever she got the information from wasn’t correct.”
Morgan said there is an election in 2018 to elect the three that were appointed to their positions: her, Barnes, and Hurst.
“You voted me into office to make these decisions,” Morgan said, waving around a copy of Ban’s letter in the Independent.
Supervisor Morgan chastized Treasurer Morgan for using Ban’s name. He said she shouldn’t be using people’s names.
“I will be on this board as long as people want me,” Treasurer Morgan continued.
Treasurer Morgan said the landfill revenue in 2004 was $5 million and it went down to $1.2 million in 2004. Now in 2017 it’s at $2.6 million, “Quite a difference from the $5 million we were getting and this is an opportunity to bring revenue in. This will bring in more revenue. It’s a business proposition for the township.”
Treasurer Morgan said a marijuana trimmer, the lowest position, gets from $12 to $18 an hour, but a great trimmer makes up to $30 an hour. She said you can take college courses in this.
Treasurer Morgan said 29 states already have medical marijuana, plus Washington, D.C., and she believes the federal law will change. She said other states are looking at what Michigan is doing.
She said people break the laws every day and there will be laws that will be enforced. When recreational marijuana passes, there will be rules.
“Let’s benefit with the business coming to Sumpter Township and keep country living at it’s finest,” Morgan concluded to applause.
Trustee Oddy stated that there could be outside growing. And, he took “a little offense” to Morgan calling the marijuana committee “invalid.”
“I didn’t say it’s invalid,” Morgan replied. [The Independent didn’t hear her use that term.] “Yes, you did,” Oddy replied “It’s not any less valid than the Van Buren Township committee that came up with the facts.
Then, Ken Kunka, head of the Water and Sewer Department addressed the meeting with a report on fire hydrants. He said every township hydrant is inspected yearly and all caps removed and oiled, and checked for leaks.
He said this year they used green ribbons to mark those hydrants checked. He said at the last township where he worked they used tags that got wet and deteriorated and made a mess.
He said they flush every third or fourth hydrant.
Kunka said his department has six full-time employees with over 100 total years of experience.
He said it takes about a month in the fall to get the hydrants done. He said in this rural area, hydrants can become overgrown with vegetation, so they spray 1/3 to 1/2 of the township hydrants to kill the vegetation.
Kunka said they get the spray from Tractor Supply in Monroe. He said he checked with the state and the spray was safe. He said two hydrants were repaired this year and all the hydrants are operational.
“It’s hard to compete with lies and people trying to attack your credibility,” Supervisor Morgan said.
“Allen Bates and I were not lying,” Treasurer Morgan stated.
Oddy said he read in the paper that they are not doing their jobs and, “I am 100% behind them.”
At the end of the meeting, when the public was able to speak, Mary Ban stepped forward to address the comments of Barnes and Morgan.
“I’ll address Ms. Barnes, since she took such umbrage to my letter,” Ban began. She said Barnes showed her Genesis 1 in her smart phone after the last meeting. Ban read from Genesis and said God made poison ivy, cactus, and other plants and an alterative word for marijuana is “weed.”
Ban said to Treasurer Morgan that the cost in crime, police protection, and enforcement is to be considered. She said while medical marijuana may be fine, the state wants recreational marijuana.
“Skunkster is what I mean,” Ban said, stating she is entitled to have an opinion.
“Thank God for the First Amendment and that we can write to the paper,” she said. “I’m glad you paid attention to what I wrote. That’s why I wrote it.”
Andre Watson rose to applaud Barnes and Morgan for their ideas, saying poison ivy is good for some animals and he’s eaten cactus and it’s good.
“This is the fastest growing industry in America and a Republican Governor actually offers it,” Watson said.
Then, Mary Herring rose to speak against opting into the new law.
“If we go with medical marijuana, it’s the foot in the door,” she began. “Recreational marijuana is right behind. I suspect it will be voted in … People are looking for something to calm themselves.”
Herring listed short-term effects of marijuana use, including panic, anxiety, and lowered reaction time. She said the long-term effects include reduced resistance, growth disorders, injuries to the lung and brain, makes men infertile, reduced ability to learn, and inability to think clearly.
“We need to have instant relief,” Herring charged. “Grow up, America … Grow up, World. I’m doing just fine without it.
“It worries me … I don’t want to have it in Sumpter Township … It’s in your hands,” she said addressing the board. “You better be thinking about it … I know we don’t have jobs, but is something better than nothing? No. I’m worried about the next generation. Let’s grow up,” she concluded to a round of applause from the audience.
At the very end of the meeting Sumpter Township Police Chief Eric Luke came to address the board and audience. He said he had a correction concerning statements made about the Independent. He said, “I never asked her to print something and she refused. We had a dispute about the information she printed and we emailed back and forth. She didn’t turn me down.”

update