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Catskill voters to decide about cannabis lounges; Cairo citizens won't get their say
Residents of the town of Catskill will get a vote on cannabis lounges, while citizens in Cairo will not get to decide if the newly legal drug is sold there. Roger Hannigan Gilson reports in the Times Union that in Catskill residents gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on the whether to allow cannabis lounges. The town board voted last year to allow cannabis sales, but to bar consumption lounges. But that decision will be overturned if a majority of voters disagree with their town board. In the village of Catskill, both sales and lounges will be allowed, and village voters will also get their say in the Nov. 8 vote on whether to allow lounges in the town. "We just want the other parts of the town of Catskill to have the ability to benefit from the revenue, to be able to benefit from having another option for tourism," said Sara Pickens Verdon, one of the folks gathering signatures there to get the measure on the ballot. If the vote does not pass, the town of Catskill will not get any tax revenue from the lounges in the village. Meanwhile in Cairo, Melanie Lekocevic repports for Capital Region Independent Media that voters in Cairo will not get a say in whether their town allows cannabis sales. Town attorney Tal Rappleyea says a referendum is not allowed unless local residents gathered enough signatures within 30 days of a decision. “If we did put it out to a vote, we would be violating New York state law,” Rappleyea said. “We would not have the authority to do that. It’s a great idea and I think it would be great if we could have a specific say on a vote from folks, whether they want it or not, but the time for that has come and gone.”