 We can start in, and we posted this in free public places, right? And on the website, an emailed interested party. So we're following the open meeting law. Welcome, Mrs. March 27, 2023. And first, we are starting with a special town meeting to discuss the town of Rochester voting whether or not to authorize cannabis retailers. And integrated licenses, and this is vote will be on May 2nd. And we're here to sign the warning on that and ask any questions if anybody has any comments or just to put it out there that this we've had a request to authorize someone to have a retail establishment. And the first step of that is for the town to vote whether or not it wants to host that or not. So, any comments, and Nancy? Depending on how the vote goes, if it goes yes or no, does it start the process immediately? Or are there regulations that retail establishment can be? Well, if it's no, then it's just a non-starter. If it's yes, then it goes to the planning board to see if the location that has been suggested is going to work or not. It can't be near a school, either. No, it's law. And the state, the process of the state, which I said four months or something? Yeah, so this is the first hurdle. And as they approached the planning board about this and said, well, the first step since the town has not had this issue come up and had a determination on it, this is the first step. Are there any other surrounding towns that you know of that have Randolph, Pankock, Campbell Pass? Randolph passed it to, I think they all passed. Yeah, Randolph's up and running. Yeah, Randolph up and running. Okay, yeah. Martha has a question. Hi, my question is now, obviously, I heard just heard somebody say it obviously can't be near a school. That makes sense. But you said that they have to go to the planning board to see if their location that they're suggesting will work. Do you, can you say anything about where the location is? Is it in the village or is it in another part of town like North Hollow? Or can you say that? It's not in the village and it's, I think that we just go with this first step just to have the discussion whether or not the town will approve it or not. Yeah. Okay, so am I correct that it's going to go on the issue is going to go on the same ballot as the school vote, right? No, it's a separate ballot, but at the same time. In time, excuse me. Okay, excuse me. At the same time, you'll get two ballots when you come to vote. And now are they voting on the school vote by Australian ballot? Is that why I'm, am I understanding that correctly? We're going to talk about that a little bit. We're going to talk about that later. Okay. Okay, excuse me. And okay, so if it's approved, then they go to the planning board to see if the location will work and then it goes from there. Yeah, yeah. Okay, thank you. Sorry to bother you. But does it go back to the state? Does the state have to go through this? I haven't even been to the state yet. This is, this is the first step for them. Yeah, the first hurdle, yeah. Is there a license involved like a liquor license? Yes. Through the state. It's a lengthy process for getting their state license. Right, so it would come up every year like you do a, you have your license. Do we do that? Is it a town or is it just the state? It might be just through the state. It's through the cannabis control board, but there is like a fee that the town does receive. We currently receive for a different type of license. This is an opt-in. So there's only out of like six different licenses that you can apply for. Two of them require this opt-in vote. The rest of them can just go through the cannabis control board through the state. And they, and because of that, the town will receive $100 for each license in our town. Can you say who it is? Is it somebody local? You can get them, you can look online because they're under different names. So I don't, I wouldn't know. No, just who's ever asking? They're, yeah, they, yeah, they do live in town. Okay. Yeah. And it should also be noted while we're having this discussion that there was a point in time when some of the tax generated from retail sales was going to be distributed back to the towns. But we understand that did not happen. So the town will not be receiving any of the tax dollars from the cannabis, it's a 14% cannabis tax. And then they'll also have to charge the 6% sales tax, so it's a 20% tax. It all goes to the state and we get $100 from the fee. Is there something about federal, the federal government being involved in this too, that the banks can't accept money from this? It's not legal on a federal basis. So you, that's true. You know, if it's, if the bank is FDIC insured, they can't do things that are still considered illegal. You also would not, you're not supposed to go on to the Forest Service land and smoke pot. So you do have to pay attention to federal guidelines. Interesting. Martha, can you not hear Pat when she speaks? Okay, maybe we can move that closer to you. I don't know, but it seems like, whoa, and you're on. How was that? How does this sound, Martha? Could you say something? Do you have a question, Martha? She's on, now you're on mute, Martha. We can't hear you. This is fun. I could hear everybody else fine. I just couldn't hear Pat. I'm sorry. I'm sorry too, with this ongoing problem we're having. You're still very, very faint. I can barely, I can't, I can barely hear you. If that thing gets any closer. I'm not kidding. It's weird. You're fine. Everybody else is fine. I can hear Nancy fine. She's behind you, but I can't hear Pat. Well, she's has a soft voice. She just has this dandy voice, I guess. So, okay, on a federal basis, cannabis pot is not legal. Therefore, banks can't take money for retail sales because it would be considered an illegal activity. When you go into the forest, the national forest, that's federal land, so you can't go out there and smoke a pot, those are the things that I was saying. On a federal basis, cannabis is not legal. It's only legal on the state basis. And the state issued, as far as I know, I understand that the state has a 14% cannabis tax that they charge, and then they charge the 6% state sales tax. So, when you buy cannabis, you're paying 20% tax, and none of that comes back to the town. I just think the town should know that when they go to the voting booth. She's nodding. I do believe she heard some of that. Anybody else have any questions, comments? Sounds like a lot of hoops. A lot of hoops. And if it comes up for a license every year and you can deny it, no brainer to me. No. But does the town have to approve the license, or is it the cannabis board? We don't know. You've got a lot of data there, but I don't know if. We have a lot of data there, but I don't know if it covers that part. But we could look into it. I think that's wise, because if you have the control over it, the select board has control over it. The initial thing is like, it's just another business. Well, the town could vote, again, to repeal that permission in the future, just because you decide to allow it doesn't mean that's forever allowed, if it doesn't seem. So the liquor license thing is in the town? Yes. They still have to satisfy state. Per view. OK. Yeah, state requirements. But yeah, just clarifying it. We have a lot of learning to do. Yeah. And is that it? To start this conversation, I think, we'll just put it out there on the radar so people know that this vote is coming up and what it's about, and if there's no more comments on Zoom or in the room, I'd move to close this special town meeting.