City changes pot restriction language

In keeping with its decision to make the change at its meeting a month ago, the city of Grand Coulee revised its municipal code last week to strike out references to compliance with “federal law” for those seeking a business license.

With the “federal law” revision ,the city opened the way to issue a business license for a marijuana retail store if an application is made again.

Earlier this year, an application for a marijuana retail store was rejected by the city because the “federal law” reference was still in its municipal code.

But the passing of the new ordinance wasn’t without some difficulty.

Councilmember Paul Town- send, acting at the Oct. 20 meeting as mayor pro tem, had to cast the deciding vote to break a 2-2 tie among the other council members.

Voting for the new ordinance in addition to Townsend were council members David Tylor and Erin Nielsen, who attended the meeting by phone because he was out of town.

Voting against the revised ordinance were members Tom Poplawski and Tammara Byers, who felt the revision might create conflicts in other matters.

Jean Comstock applied for a business license earlier this year. At that time, the council left it up to the city clerk, Carol Boyce, to make the decision. She did so with respect for the reference to “federal law” and denied the application.