By ANTHONY DOLCE

adolce@observertoday.com

SILVER CREEK — On Monday evening, Village Board held their scheduled public hearing related to allowing cannabis dispensaries and smoking dens within the village limits. Hoping to hear a variety of opinions from the village residents, instead the public hearing went without anyone speaking up one way or another.

While Mayor Jeff Hornburg is himself opposed to having either facility within the village limits, the purpose of the public hearing was to get a better feel for what the community wanted. Hornburg said there were a lot of comments circulating on social media, but nothing forwarded or given to the board. He added that there was ample notice for the public hearing, so people would have known to come if they had wanted to.

“There were a lot of comments on Facebook and social media,” Hornburg said. “It was well received there. But there was nothing forwarded directly to the board.”

Opting out before the Dec. 31 deadline also serves another purpose, in that they are allowed to opt back in at any time in the future if they see fit. Should they have opted in to allowing dispensaries, the Village Board would have never had the opportunity to opt out again.

“If we take no steps at all, we’re opting in,” Hornburg said. “Then we’re stuck and can’t make any changes at the end of the year. We wanted the opportunity to hold a public hearing.”

The guidance from New York state also isn’t exactly set in stone yet, which is another reason the board believes that opting out is the proper call, though the decision to opt out was not made at Monday’s meeting.

Silver Creek joins other municipalities such as the village of Cassadaga and the town of Hanover in moving to opt out of cannabis dispensaries and smoking dens. In addition, the village of Brocton appears to also be joining that list. During their last meeting, the village moved to introduce similar legislation to opt out of both facilities. Brocton’s public hearing is scheduled to take place before their next meeting on Oct. 20.