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DOWAGIAC — The Dowagiac City Council moved to authorize a maximum of six marijuana retail establishments within city limits during Monday’s meeting.

The City began receiving applications for recreational marijuana facilities at 8:30 a.m. August 19th, according to city officials. Staff were presented with five applications at the start of business that day, four for retail establishments and one for a microbusiness. 

A marijuana microbusiness is an establishment that sells marijuana and marijuana products to patrons 21 and older for on-premise consumption.  A microbusiness is legally allowed to grow up to 150 marijuana plants and can then process plants, package products and sell to its patrons. A microbusiness cannot sell any product to other adult-use distributors or other businesses. The business can only use the products it creates to sell to its own customers. 

When adopting the ordinance allowing for marijuana establishments, a limit of three permits per category was established. Since four applications were received for retail, the Council discussed the merits of an amendment to the original resolution that would combine micro and retail categories when considering the total number of allowable permits. 

The resolution approved by the council on Monday combines the micro and retail categories together when calculating the total number of permits. Instead of three micro and three retail being the limit, the calculation would be six micro or retail. 

In other business, the annual downtown celebration, Under the Harvest Moon, will be coming up this fall on October 7th and 8th. Two new additions for the festival were approved; a 21+ event to be held in Beckwith Park with a DJ and beer and appetizers from Oak + Ash on the 7th, as well as the showing of a family-friendly Halloween movie at 7 p.m. on the Oct. 8 in Beckwith Park. The annual fly-in at the airport and the Dowagiac Fire Department Pancake Breakfast were also approved for Saturday Oct. 8. 

In further business:

• The Trick or Treat hours for Halloween 2022 were set for 6 to 7 p.m. on October 31st. 
• Council passes a resolution authorizing an agreement with Domestic and Sexual Abuse Services for services in support of the Department of Public Safety was approved. 
• Council approved a contract with Precision Concrete Cutting for $20,000 to address sidewalk trip hazards was accepted. 
• The City Treasurer was authorized to pay $184,794.30 to payroll and $544,857.15 to bills, totaling in $729,651.45.