SHERIDAN — Disappointed by the Town Board’s decision to opt out on cannabis, resident Susan Bigler took matters into her own hands.

“The point was to do this democratically,” she said. “People just wanted to have a say and it evolved into this. They wanted to know what was going on and wanted to be able to say yes or no, whether it’s approved or not. The opt out may still be held up but now everyone gets to see it.”

Sheridan voted on its cannabis opt out law on Dec. 29, meaning Bigler had until Feb. 11 to get the petition filed to have the law put on the general ballot for the upcoming election cycle. She was able to do so on Feb. 9, meaning the town has 30 days after that to make a decision on the petition. Sheridan Town Supervisor John Walker said he believes there’s nothing wrong with the process.

“This is something Ms. Bigler feels strongly about, and she went out and got the signatures,” he said. “I think, most likely that everything will be proven correct and once they’re proven correct, then the town would accept the petition and discuss it with the Board of Elections. It’s just a process we’re moving through, and most likely if there’s any extra part for the Town to do, it would be done at our next meeting.”

To make this process work, Bigler had to get verifiable signatures from town residents, equal to 10 percent of the voter turnout for the last Sheridan election. In November, 1,119 voters turned out, and after her door-to-door efforts, Bigler ended with 127 signatures she could verify, meaning she surpassed that requirement. Bigler said she tried her best to get the best cross section of residents that she could get.

“I got Democrats, Republicans, and non-affiliated voters, all registered in town,” she said. “I got younger people, older people, people who live in the center of town and then I got rural people who live out on the edges of town toward Forestville and Dunkirk.”

Bigler’s motivations came from wanting as many people to get a voice in the matter as possible. While it originally started for her to help Sheridan business owner Kathy Green run a smoke shop within the town, it evolved into so much more than that.

“It’s an exercise in democracy,” said Bigler. “When there’s an issue that’s big enough to affect people in town, they’d like to have a vote on it. … I thought I’d do it as an experiment to see how people in town felt about it and see how many knew what was going on.”

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Sheridan

Bigler said that people had many different reasons for signing the petition, including those who were pro cannabis, those who felt the town could use the revenue, and those who said the town should keep up with the times for modernization, but the general consensus of people was wanting to be heard.

“A lot of people didn’t even know what was going on,” said Bigler. “One thing people feel they need is to be more informed and to have input as to what goes on in town. They don’t feel like they’re heard or represented and I got that from quite a few people I spoke to.”

While the Town Board meetings were there for residents to be informed and make their voice heard, they were sparsely attended. Regardless of what the public thinks, the issue hitting the general election ballot would give the most people the chance to have their voice heard.

“I don’t know the whole read of the whole town,” Walker said. “She’s talked to some in favor and I’ve talked to some who aren’t. I guess it boils down to the people having to figure out if the town board made the right decision.”