The City of Soldotna will not see commercial marijuana until 2018 based on an ordinance passed by city council members at Wednesday night’s meeting.
Local lawyer Eric Derleth was one of the many community members to comment in opposition to the moratorium but says he expected the decision.
Derleth: “I think the City of Soldotna just lost 100 good jobs. Although there’s probably not a huge tax revenue from it at first, it’s going to get taxed to death but you might not think 50-100 jobs is a big deal unless you were one of those 50 to 100 people.”
Former Soldotna council candidate Fred Sturman also testified in opposition, saying the state has legalized it and the city may as well make some money off of it.
Newly appointed council member Tim Cashman voted yes on the ordinance, citing that Soldotna residents voted no on Ballot Proposition 2 in 2014.
Cashman: “My feeling on the council is they really, it is a wait and see, and they want to see how it’s affecting other communities and see whether it’s a fit for Soldotna or not.”
Meggean Bos-Marquez was one of the two council votes against creating the moratorium…
Bos-Marquez: “As a community, we don’t mind approving licenses for alcohol yet we don’t want to even visit and look at licenses for manufacturing or distributing of marijuana. To me that just seems very hypocritical.”
She offered an amendment to the ordinance making the moratorium only one year but that failed.
Councillor Keith Baxter was the other no vote, saying the legality of marijuana has been dealt with at a state level and he was not comfortable temporarily banning an industry that wants to deal with a legal product.
The moratorium on commercial marijuana passed by a 4-2 vote.