By DEBRA HAIGHT
News came last week on several fronts, from the results of two municipal elections in the county and the awarding of bids for adult use marijuana businesses in Three Oaks to state redistricting efforts gaining both steam and controversy.
The cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph had municipal elections for city commission seats. Eight people ran for four open Benton Harbor City Commission seats-two at large and two representing wards-and six people ran for three seats on the St. Joseph City Commission. All seats were non-partisan.
In Benton Harbor, incumbent Juanita Henry faced Ronny Booker for the for the Third Ward seat and incumbent Ruthie Haralson faced challenger Ethel Clark-Griffin for the Fourth Ward seat. Incumbents Duane Seats and Ron Singleton faced off with challengers Ambie Bell and C.F. Jones for the two at-large commission seats.
In unofficial election results, three of four incumbents won re-election with only Fourth Ward Commissioner Ruthie Haralson losing her seat to Ethel Clark-Griffin. Winning re-election were Juanita Henry, Duane Seats and Ron Singleton. All seats were for four years.
Issues raised in that election included jobs and job training, the lead pipe water crisis, home ownership, home rehabilitation programs, programs for youth, becoming more business friendly and combatting crime.
In St. Joseph, incumbent Michele Turner Binkley and challengers Thomas Dean Jennings, Ben Rimes, Michael Sarola, Brook Thomas and Marc Williams ran for the three seats on the City Commission. The top two vote-getters would get the four year terms and the third place finisher would get the two year term.
Michele Turner Binkley had been appointed to the city commission last year and won one of the two four-year terms. Also winning election to the other four-year term on the commission was Mike Sarola. Brook Thomas was the third place finisher and got the two-year term.
Issues in that race included downtown parking, taxpayer dollars being spent efficiently, long term rentals in the city, keeping the city attractive to young people, mask mandates and city commissioner responsibilities.
In Three Oaks, the process that began last November with residents voting to allow a limited number of adult use marijuana businesses in the village culminated with Village Council members voting to award licenses to four companies in late October.
Village Clerk Cindi Moynihan reported that Council members awarded the two available retail licenses to Green Koi and Exclusive Healing doing business as Harbor Country Cannabis. A total of 10 companies had applied for the two retail licenses.
Both Green Koi and Harbor Country Cannabis will operate out of buildings on U.S. 12. Green Koi’s address will be 6934 W. U.S. 12, while Harbor Country Cannabis’ address will be 6761 W. U.S. 12.
Two other companies were awarded both grow and processing licenses. Those were Farnan Farms and Three Oaks Craft Dispensary. Farnan Farms will operate at 7200 W. U.S. 12, while Three Oaks Craft Dispensary will operate at 6952 W. U.S. 12, Moynihan said. Farnan had also applied for a retail license.
She reported that there is no talk of allowing any more adult use marijuana businesses at this time. She noted that the village ordinance would have to be amended which would require public hearings before council members even took it into consideration.
Village officials have worked over the last year to decide the specifics of what they wanted to see open plus the process to guide their decision making. They decided that marijuana businesses would be allowed in commercial and industrial zoning districts and accepted applications between July 19 and July 29.
Each applicant had to get a special land use permit in order to apply for a license. Planning commissioners considered a variety of factors with the applications including compliance with zoning ordinance criteria, approval from the village planning, engineering, fire and police departments and the submission of specific site plans.
Three Oaks has now joined a growing list of area communities allowing adult use marijuana businesses. Other municipalities giving approval to such businesses include Buchanan, Benton Harbor, Cassopolis, Eau Claire and Niles.
In redistricting news, members of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission have released proposed maps for congressional, state senate and state representative districts and are inviting public comment on them. The chosen maps could become official by the end of the year.
Voters approved establishing the commission in 2018. The goal was to take the partisan politics out of redistricting efforts and to keep the political party in power from drawing congressional, state senate and state house district lines to their advantage.
The proposed state senate may would likely change the area’s representation in Lansing. Current State Sen. Kim LaSata would be in the same district as State Sen. Aric Nesbitt if the new map is accepted. LaSata’s district now covers Berrien, Cass and St. Joseph counties, while Nesbitt’s covers Van Buren and Allegan Counties.
The proposed state senate map would split Berrien County in half between districts. The southern half of the county would be in a district that extends east to Hillsdale County while the northern half of the county would be part of a district including most but not all of Van Buren and Allegan counties.
The proposed state house map would create a separate district for lakeshore communities from New Buffalo on the south to Saugatuck on the north.
The current 78th state house district would lose the shoreline communities and add in more of Cass County. The current 79th state house district would also lose shoreline communities and have just a small part of northern Berrien County along with most of Van Buren County and some of Allegan County.
Area political leaders have spoken out against the proposed district maps, noting that the county and the region’s political power would be diluted. According to published reports, the proposed maps have met with criticism from people in other parts of the state.
Those wanting to see the latest news about redistricting can visit the commission’s website at https://www.michigan.gov/micrc.
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