Saugus board bans marijuana dispensaries

SAUGUS – Saugus selectmen voted to ban marijuana dispensaries in town, three weeks after medical marijuana was passed in Massachusetts.Selectman Vice Chairman Steve Castinetti made the motion at the end of the meeting and after the meeting said he didn’t want to “open Pandora’s Box.””I don’t want it here and I don’t want it anywhere near here,” he said. “With today’s medicine, there are so many ways to deal with pain I don’t see why we’d have to use marijuana.”Castinetti noted that the state could still overrule the vote.The board also voted to approve payment plans for a pair of local restaurants that owe outstanding taxes to the town.Out of Asia, which owes more than $10,000 in taxes, and Ristorante Donatello, which owes more than $14,000 after recently making a $5,000 payment, were put on payment plans while the board continued hearings for several other businesses that still owe money to the town.Those businesses include Domino’s Pizza, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Crossfit Route 1, the Hammersmith Restaurant, Angela’s Coal Fired Pizza, L & D Liquor and Convenience, and Santoro’s Sub Villa.Selectmen approved a gift from Wheelabrator: a new $16,000 scoreboard for the Saugus High School gym.The School Committee voted last week to unanimously accept the gift and needed the board’s approval to finalize it.Selectman Debra Panetta said while she would approve the gift, it doesn’t mean she condones the “environmental practices that went on there.””I don’t see this as a gift,” she said. “I see this as mitigation”The board also voted unanimously to reappoint Steve Braga and James Catizone as sworn weighers for the Wheelabrator plant.In other business, the board transferred a class II auto dealers license from Boston Auto Trade on Route 1 to Route 1 Auto Group, approved a special permit to allow automotive work for a new National Tire and Battery location at 564 Broadway, and approved a parking ban from the curb cut at 344 Central St. to the fence by the rail trail crossing.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].