STURGIS, S.D. – The Sturgis City Council met last night and had a busy agenda, with medical cannabis licenses, a lakeside Park presentation and re-districting being discussed.
On the medical cannabis issue, the council held it’s lottery to award its two available licenses to those who applied.
Sturgis City Attorney Mark Marshall says they received 18 applications total with four not complete. Of the 14 that made the cut, Puffy’s L.L.C. and Northern Hills Alternative Health were drawn from the lottery for the two available licenses.
The two licenses will be become conditional as per state approval once all requirements according to the city’s ordinance are met.
No sales are anticipated until the state sets its rules and regulations.
The council also heard from Fennell Design as they presented three concepts for the Sturgis Lakeside Adventure Park, being proposed for the fairgrounds property.
One concept includes a lake and new, improved ballfields. Another concept includes a housing development that wraps around the park and another concept locates housing to the south and the lake and park to the north.
Concept 1 is the most expensive, around $14 million dollars, because it contains new ballfields at a cost of around $5 million. Concept 2 has a total of $5.6 million and concept 3 has an approximate total of around $4.6 million dollars.
No action was taken last night and the city council will hold a joint meeting with the Outdoor Aquatics Committee on January 10 to discuss.
And, the council approved first reading of its updated redistricting plan.
The city is going with Option 6 (pictured below).
Re-districting is required following the release of the latest census, which shows Sturgis has grown to 7,020 people.
Sturgis City Manager Daniel Ainslie says Sturgis will still have four wards. He says using the population of 7,020, each ward should have approximately 1,755 citizens.
Second, and final reading, is expected at the first January meeting.
