Happy Thanksgiving!

As the most quintessentially recognized American Holiday, Thanksgiving has significantly evolved from its deeply religious roots of fasting, prayers and the gathering for a memorable repast. Although one common thread remains today – sharing a meal with family and friends while enjoying their all too infrequent visits. Preparations are always a lot of work. Do not allow stress to enter into your heart. We do have much to be thankful for, that this one day should be devoted to all our achievements and reflect upon all our blessings that are rarely realized, appreciated and that life is really short. Let us enrich ourselves with the abundance and goodwill within our DNA. After all, gratitude and giving are the most significant acts that we can express to one another.

 “Be thankful for what you have. Your life is someone else’s fantasy.” – Wale Ayeni 

 Thank you and enjoy Thanksgiving.

Thank you for your Comments!

Thank you all for your comments. Rest assured that I check with our Attorney before I post comments here. As far as zoning, I have been told that we currently have no zoning laws about MRTA in Gilbertsville and none of our current laws are applicable to it. I also want to let you know we are automatically opted in unless we opt out by a resolution (and we are our own entity, and what the Town does has no effect on Gilbertsville). This notice was just given to us, so we are sorry for the late notice. Here are some of the highlights, you should be aware of. On March 31, 2021, Governor Cuomo signed into law the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA). While the MRTA legalizes the possession and use of cannabis immediately, the actual sale of adult-use cannabis will be heavily regulated by the State and is not expected to begin until late 2022 or early 2023. Therefore, we need to know how the village feels. We don’t know what the regulation is going to like look. By Opting Out, we can wait to see what the state’s regulations are. Thank you again for your feedback. Mark

OPT IN OR OPT OUT OF CANNABIS DISPENSARY PERMISSIONS

Hello fellow residents, All towns, city and villages in NY must decide to “opt out” of the New York State law allowing cannabis dispensaries in their city or town, by Dec. 31, if they are going to do it at all. The dispensaries are legal in New York State as of Jan. 1. Opting out” would give our village time to enact local laws concerning zoning, location of stores, types of buildings, or even requirements that a dispensary owner go to the planning board for approval. Not opting out would allow “wide open” establishment of cannabis dispensaries in the village as soon as January 1, 2022, in keeping with the new New York State law allowing marijuana to be sold. It’s not if we “opt out” it means there will be no dispensaries in our town forever,. It just means we will have time to study the situation further, enact laws controlling them, and their locations, just as we do with other businesses. Our local laws, the way they are now, don’t even address cannabis dispensaries since they weren’t even legal before…we just haven’t been given much information from the state on this, and we’re expected to just decide, and enact a law opting in” or “opting out” within the next month, and that’s not that easy. But if we “opt out” we have time to make a plan for them; if we “opt in” by doing nothing further, then the dispensary could open any place in our village, and it would be too late to do any kind of local regulation concerning building requirements, location, etc.” Voters interested in commenting on what action their village board should take should, either attend a public hearing or put the comments in writing to the village board before they vote. The public hearing will be in mid announced. I will post the date and it will be in the Daily Star.