Zanesville City Council Passes Resolution Opposing Issue Three

An effort to legalize marijuana statewide in Ohio elicited a response from Zanesville City Council Tuesday evening.

In a six to one vote, council passed a resolution taking a position against State Issue Three, a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana statewide. We spoke with Zanesville City Council President Dan Vincent about many of the concerns expressed by council members.

“The issue at hand is that it’s poorly written,” Vincent said. “That it takes away local control. It takes away zoning that we can do locally, that we can’t look out for our citizens, and make sure that we have zoning laws in place that are cautious about what goes in where. It takes that all away, and because it’s a constitutional amendment, we find out the mistakes later on. It’s not an easy fix. It’s next to impossible to fix. It’d have to come back, and there’d have to be another amendment to the constitution. Another big concern with that as far as taking away from our local zoning is — can they put one of these dispensaries near a school, near a daycare center? How easy is that going to make it for access to these drugs for our children?”

Another concern expressed by members of council was regarding provisions in State Issue Three that would establish what many consider to be a monopoly by a limited group of commercial marijuana growers.

We did reach out to Connie Norman, the sole council member to vote against the resolution, but she declined to comment.

In other council news, as we head further into the fall season, Public Service Director Jay Bennett urges Zanesville citizens to take a look at the 2015 Leaf Collection Schedule. Bennett also asks for the public’s help in keeping leaves out of the roadways, which presents larger problems for the street department.

2015 Leaf Collection Schedule

10/26 – 10/30 – Wards 5 and 6
11/2 – 11/6 – Wards 3 and 4
11/9 – 11/13 – Wards 1 and 2 (Veteran’s Day observed on 11/11)
11/16 – 11/20 – Wards 5 and 6
11/23 – 11/25 – Wards 1, 2 and 3 (Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday are observed holidays)
11/30 – 12/4 – Wards 4, 5 and 6
12/7 – 12/11 – FINAL WEEK – ALL WARDS

The first full week of December will be the final week for collection. Please DO NOT RAKE ANY ADDITIONAL LEAVES OUT AFTER DECEMBER 4th.

Please call the Street Division at (740)455-0626 if you have any questions.