By a vote of 3-2, the City Council Monday approved a permit for a cannabis dispensary in the former Broken Chimney building at 618 Tenney St.
When the vote on the special use permit was taken, Councilmen Steve Faber and Tyrone Baker voted “no” and Councilmen Chris Colomer and Mike Komnick voted “yes.”
It was up to Mayor Gary Moore to break the tie.
“I have grandchildren who go to Wethersfield,” Moore said. “I trust their parents wholeheartedly to teach them right from wrong.” Then he voted “yes.”
Before the floor was opened to the audience members to comment on the special use permit, Councilman Baker said, “I don’t like the location of it.” He said he feels the Tenney Street location is too close to Wethersfield schools.
Faber said a number of Kewaneeans had spoken to him about the dispensary proposal, and “No one objected to it coming to town. They just didn’t want it where it’s at.”
Komnick said everyone he’s spoken to has favored the dispensary plan, especially since it will be in a prominent Tenney Street commercial building that has been vacant for years.
And Colomer said people who he had spoken to were on both sides of the issue. He said he once worked in Normal next door to a cannabis dispensary, and he “couldn’t tell it from any other business.”
Moore said he has spoken with government officials in other Illinois communities that have dispensaries, and they “overwhelmingly” said the dispensaries “had no negative impact on the school districts whatsoever.”
A key issue in the discussion was the distance between Wethersfield School District property and the dispensary site.
Representatives of HVN Capital, the company building the dispensary, have said the distance between the property line where the dispensary would be is nearly 300 feet. The city ordinance requires at least 250 feet between a dispensary and a school.
Doug Whitmer, however, said he had examined aerial maps of the neighborhood and it appeared that the dispensary would be within 250 feet of school property,
Chad Anderson, vice president of HVN Capital, said his company will rent the Broken Chimney building from MSI, owners of the property. Anderson said MSI is in the process of selling a vacant lot on College Street that is now the closest part of their property to school property.
Whitmer maintained that since that sale would change the legal description of the MSI property, the application for the special use permit would have to be refiled. But City Attorney Justin Raver said the council can make such changes “on the fly,” and in fact, does so all the time.
And Keith Edwards, the city’s community development officer, said nothing in the city zoning ordinance requires the refiling that Whitmer said would be needed.
At last week’s Wethersfield School Board meeting, Supt. Andrew Brooks called on Wethersfield school employees and parents to attend Monday’s council meeting to oppose the special use permit.
That call was heard, as the council chambers were nearly full for the meeting. A number of people spoke; some were against the dispensary idea altogether and some said they had nothing against a cannabis dispensary but it should be somewhere else.
Nicholas Welgat, who retired last year as police chief due to his battle with cancer, said he “totally” supports HVN Capital’s plans.
He said cannabis helped him as he suffered from cancer, and that “prescription drugs are much worse.”
Welgat, who spent nine years of his police career on a drug task force, noted that alcohol, tobacco and vape products are sold at the Beck’s convenience store across the street from Wethersfield School property.
“They have a bigger problem with alcohol and cigarettes than they’d ever have with cannabis,” he said.
