No Marijuana Sales Until After March 2020 Referendum plus New Fees for Class C Vehicles in Cicero
By April Alonso
The Town Board meeting took place Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM on December 10th, 2019 for the final board meeting of 2019. Seven Board of Trustees were present, along with the Town Clerk and President Larry Dominick. The board meeting lasted about 20-25 minutes, several ordinances and resolutions were adopted, all without any discussion.
New Class C Designation for Vehicles
Cicero residents can now apply to register Class C vehicles in the Town. An ordinance was adopted to create license fees for vehicles (Class C) that weigh 8,001 - 10,000 pounds. The license fee will now be $105 for each Class C vehicle. For passenger vehicles, the first four vehicles registered to a single household will continue to be $50 each vehicle. For households with more than four vehicles, the license fees continue to be as follows:
The 5th vehicle: $155
The 6th vehicle: $205
The 7th vehicle: $255
The 8th vehicle: $305
The 9th vehicle: $355
The 10th vehicle: $405
Get to Know Who is in the Town’s Committees
At this meeting, a resolution appointing officials to specific committees within the Town was approved. There are 24 boards and committees that people were appointed to. Some members hold multiple positions. Joe Virruso, for example, is appointed as chair to four committees and Fran Reitz to three committees. Here’s a full list of the committees and the appointed members.
Property Taxes
The Town Board approved the tax levy, for the fiscal year beginning January 1st, 2019 and ending December 30th, 2019, this ordinance was a topic discussed at the November 12th meeting. No discussion took place. Tax levies affect the amount of property taxes homeowners in Cicero will have to pay.
Marijuana Sales in Cicero
During the public comments section, two residents took the opportunity to speak. One had parking issues on her block and the other resident was Marie Pikul who has lived in Cicero since 1967.
Pikul, who expressed being opposed to allowing sales of recreational marijuana in the Town, recommended that to include the word “marijuana” in the wording of the referendum set for the March 17th ballot when referring to cannabis in case, “someone would not understand what they are voting for.” To that President Larry Dominick responded, “We’ll put it in parenthesis.”
Pikul also proposed the Town make a motion to postpone issuing business licenses to establishments that want to apply to sell recreational marajuana.
“The Town is doing nothing until the referendum results which means we are [already] prohibited from giving licences,” explained Michael Del Galdo, the Town’s attorney. “The Town either has to opt in and create regulation or opt out. We did neither, we put it up for the voters to decide, which means it is prohibited here until the Town Board acts.”
