Fredonia Trustee Jon Espersen thinks the village should create a local law governing cannabis – but not until next year.

Espersen told fellow trustees at a workshop that at a recent meeting of the cannabis committee he founded, “we looked at the town of Pomfret’s local laws that they passed and we kind of balanced that against some of New York State’s laws. We talked about, instead of recreating the wheel, pick and choose some of those Pomfret laws that would pertain to us.

“But that would require getting an attorney involved, and I’m not sure at this point it would be worth the legal fees, especially for this year, to do that,” Espersen said. “That’s something that can wait probably until next year. A cannabis business that is already either operational, or has been granted a license, might be exempt from whatever we pass after we got there.”

Espersen was likely referring to Vince Lockett’s dispensary, Cannabliss. Lockett confirmed to the OBSERVER in July that he has received a dispensary license from the state Office of Cannabis Management.

Mayor Michael Ferguson said the village has received a letter from someone expressing interest in opening a second cannabis dispensary.

“Speaking as mayor… we need to have a grasp on who’s starting business in our community, how many businesses we have in our community, and how we want our community structured,” Ferguson said. “Right now, as you’ve heard…we have businesses coming in that we are unaware of until there’s a shingle, or until we get approval.”

Ferguson called for more formal oversight of the downtown business district, possibly including a licensing system.

“The point is, without control, we could very much end up with three or four dispensaries,” he said.