candgnews.com
Park voters to decide whether to permit recreational marijuana businesses in city
INSIDE SECTION B CHECK OUT THE LATEST COMMUNITY CALENDAR
Police investigate burning of church’s Progress Pride flag BY K. MICHELLE MORAN kmoran@candgnews.com
BY K. MICHELLE MORAN kmoran@candgnews.com
PARK — One of the issues Grosse Pointe Park voters will be deciding when they cast their ballots for the November general election is whether they want to permit businesses that sell marijuana to adults inside city limits. Two different proposals that, if approved, would allow retail marijuana businesses to operate in the Park will be on the Nov. 7 ballot. City Attorney Morgan McAtamney explained during a Sept. 11 City Council meeting that two recreational marijuana business petitions met the requirements to be placed on the ballot. “Our former (city) clerk did an exhaustive review of those petitions,” McAtamney said. She said the city’s ordinances currently block such businesses from the Park. One of the proposals, the City Cannabis Licensing Charter Amendment, would alter the city’s charter to allow up to two recreational marijuana facilities within the city, require local licensing and fees, and allow officials to “set application or selection criteria, and regulate” their operation, according to the ballot language. The other, the City Open Stores Ordinance, would change the city’s ordinances to allow up to two recreational marijuana businesses to open in the Park. See BUSINESSES on page 9A
Photo provided by Shannon Byrne
Christ Church Grosse Pointe Director of Music Scott Hanoian and the Rev. Andrew “Drew” Van Culin look at the new Progress Pride flag flying at the church after the previous flag was burned by an unknown person last week.
FARMS — An “act of violence.” That’s how the Rev. Andrew “Drew” Van Culin, pastor of Christ Church Grosse Pointe, is describing the decision of an unknown person to destroy the church’s Progress Pride flag by lighting it on fire last week. “It was all a shock to us, of course,” Van Culin said. Van Culin added the Progress Pride flag to a flagpole in front of the church several years ago to let people know that all were welcome. It isn’t known exactly when it was destroyed, but sometime between the afternoon of Sept. 10 and noon Sept. 13, someone set the flag ablaze as it hung from the pole. It wasn’t known if the suspect needed a ladder to reach the flag — which was the lowest one on the pole — or if the person was tall enough to reach up and set it on fire. Van Culin said the flag was most likely destroyed the evening before it was discovered. He said a parishioner on a walk Sept. 13 noticed that the flag wasn’t there and then saw the burned remnants at the bottom of the pole and contacted the church. Grosse Pointe Farms Detective Derek Lazarski, who has been assigned to the case, said the flag was See FLAG on page 6A
2024 Trax LS
229/mo.*
$
0279-2328 0136-2338
Photographer’s work captures African diaspora and societal changes in Ghana/15A
0175-2338
SEPTEMBER 21, 2023 Vol. 42, No. 20
24 mo./$1995 down
26125 Van Dyke • Center Line (Just south of 696 on Van Dyke) (586) 754-7000 • www.edrinke.com
STOCK# 540426 *$1,995 down with Lease Conquest. 24 month lease. 10,000 miles per year, plus tax, title, plate. Pricing is based on select model vehicles while supplies last. See Salesperson for details. Expires 9/30/2023.