WINDHAM — The Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday to delay until May a public comment and council vote on the two marijuana ordinances that have been held up in discussions since February.

The delay comes as a result of Gov. Janet Mills’ March 18 executive order barring public gatherings of 10 or more people. The executive order is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

“Right now, we can’t have people; (the council is) still in the public hearing portion and the Planning Board needed to meet as well. But because of the current situation, those things can’t happen,” Council Chairman Jarrod Maxfield said on Wednesday morning.

Councilors and Town Manager Barry Tibbetts met virtually over the video conferencing platform Zoom on Tuesday night. Prior to the meeting, they advertised that members of the public could submit comments via email.

This is the third time the vote on the licensing and land use ordinances have been delayed. The council vote was first delayed in February and then again March 10 after discussions at those meetings went on for hours.

The vote that was supposed to take place at Tuesday night’s meeting is now scheduled for May 12. The agenda originally set the delay for the April 14 meeting, but the councilors voted unanimously to push it back to May after Councilor Tim Nangle brought up the possibility that they would likely still be unable to convene a public meeting on that date.

Councilors also voted to adopt an ordinance to extend the existing moratorium on marijuana cultivation facilities that was set to end April 3. To align with the delay to the two other ordinances, the moratorium was extended until June 23.

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