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Groton Daily Independent
Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 102 ~ 27 of 63
the property but the tribe’s main priority is housing. The tribe bought the property, which spans more than 110 acres, for $4.4 million in 2015.
The tribe is asking the U.S. Department of the Interior to put the land into the Land Trust Program, which would make development immune to local land use and zoning ordinances.
West Lakeland Township of cials say cheaper land could be used for housing and that the area the tribe is seeking is better suited for commercial use.
“I have talked with a lot of people, and not one of them said they want a casino to go in there,” said John McPherson, the township’s former supervisor.
The tribe owns the Treasure Island Resort and Casino in Red Wing, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of West Lakeland Township. Tribe members said building another casino is unlikely, but the idea hasn’t been completely ruled out.
Tribal spokesman Eric Pehle noted that building a casino requires a separate permitting process, so constructing a casino would take years,.
“It’s like path A and path B,” said Pehle. “It’s a very long, very hard process. They would have to go back and start from zero.”
Pehle also noted that the tribe recently built an assisted-care facility on a piece of property near Hast- ings, about 18 miles (29 kilometers) south of the township, to provide more housing options. He said housing is the tribe’s priority.
The town board is taking comments on the proposal until Nov. 1. ___
Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com
Blazes light up California pot farms ahead of legalization By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press
GLEN ELLEN, Calif. (AP) — Desperate to see if wild res had damaged his farm, Marcos Morales gunned his four-wheel-drive station wagon along the hidden dirt roads that crisscross Sonoma County vineyards. After evading police roadblocks and passing vintners’ well-tended pools and houses, he nally arrived to a disheartening sight: Scores of his marijuana plants had been destroyed, and a barn that held 1,600
pounds of ready-for-market pot was a smoldering ruin.
The same res that destroyed Northern California wineries and threatened to taint grapes still on the
vine also took a toll on the region’s marijuana farms, which were about to begin an important harvest less than three months before the nation’s largest recreational pot market opens for business in January. Morales and the workers who made it around the roadblocks Sunday worked to cut down 2,500 smoke-
damaged plants, which will be worth far less than the top dollar he had hoped to get for premium bud. “It’s not good,” he said Sunday. “But we’ll be OK.”
His operation in Glenn Ellen and other pot farms nearby were still in a re zone that was off limits to all
but emergency personnel a week after ames tore through the area.
At least 31 marijuana farms were destroyed and many more damaged, according to the pot industry’s
California Growers Association. That number is expected to rise signi cantly once evacuation orders are lifted and farmers are allowed back to their property.
Unlike neighboring wineries, marijuana farmers do not have crop insurance because the plant is still listed as an illegal drug under federal law. That keeps nancial institutions out of the industry.
The estimated losses do not count indoor grows, backyard greenhouses and converted garages lost to the re in hard-hit Santa Rosa, the center of Sonoma County’s blossoming marijuana industry.
The gure also does not account for illegal growers who want no part of legalization and operate as far undercover as possible even in a region where toking up on the sidewalk is as socially acceptable as popping a bottle of red in a park.
In Santa Rosa’s devastated Coffey Park neighborhood, a half-dozen destroyed houses with obvious indoor operations were clearly visible in the ashen ruins. The smell of fresh bud overwhelmed the ever-present