Open house held to discuss Caroline area marijuana facility

More than 70 people attended the event, most open to the idea of the facility, but still with concerns to be addressed.

“I’m here specifically to support them and trying to get them to attract employees into the area,” says Reg Dean, President of the Caroline Chamber of Commerce. “Hopefully keep them on the north side of the river in Clearwater County and closer to Caroline.”

“[I’m] a little bit concerned about the amount of water that they’re going to use, where they’re going to get their power from and of course what kind of jobs are going to be available,” says Bryan Johnston, a landowner roughly two kilometers from the planned facility. “Mostly to the people that are from this area that have lost their jobs in the gas and oil industry.”

“How is our response time for ambulance and fire going to be?” says Judy Bysterveld, landowner roughly three kilometers from the facility. “I had a son in an accident approximately three weeks ago and he was an hour and a half getting to the hospital, and he was less than a mile from this facility.”

Element representatives attended a County Council meeting on July 24, where their land was rezoned from agricultural to light industrial. During the meeting, residents voiced some major concerns about the project, with an outburst after the rezoning was granted.

Brookman says the hearing was disappointing, and he hopes a better dialogue can be in place moving forward.

“At the beginning of that public hearing I gave three presentations, one as an overview, one about traffic and one about the water and environment,” says Brookman. “That all had new information that they chose to ignore, and that’s unfortunate because you heard the same comments over and over and that was misinformation.”

Brookman adds that the location was the best spot for the facility, with advantages to the County and Element.

“We have to go through a lot of hoops, do a lot of studies, and spend a lot of money. We’ve got that lower cost land with poor quality agriculture, close to natural gas. We can save a lot of money by generating our own electricity and heat and we can create jobs in the process.”

Brookman says construction should begin in October or November, and he hopes the first crop is growing at this time next year.

He encourages County residents to contact Element with any concerns, and visit their website at www.element-cg.com/qa/ for more information.

by Jessie Weisner (Twitter: @Jessie__Weisner)

Open house held to discuss Caroline area marijuana facility

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