City approves new marijuana codes

SIDNEY LOWRY Managing Editor | @sidney_lowry

Council members approved the change of municipal codes to be in regulation with Amendment 3 and recreational marijuana guidelines at the Feb. 13 meeting. Despite the changes throughout Missouri municipalities, law enforcement is still working out how codes will be interpreted.

City Manager Greg McDanel said that over the last few months, the city has been working on the codes to comply with the new state statutes set.

“... The city’s ability to regulate outside of Amendment 3 is very, very limited,” he said. “And so a lot of this is directly from Amendment 3 and has to be applied to municipalities throughout the state.”

Councilman John McBride asked how law enforcement is supposed to differentiate between possession of legal and illegal marijuana. McDanel said police throughout the state are going to have to work through that in the next couple of months.

Police Chief Ron Christian said this is brand new territory for law enforcement.

“It is going to be a lot of trial and error for a period of time until we get, kind of, comfortable,” Christian said. “We share the same concerns, but at the end of the day, the reality is that marijuana has been lowered in its importance as far as law enforcement action. What y’all voted on is they really just don’t want this to be an issue anymore. So that’s going to change

Crime Log

for the week of Feb. 16

Northwest Missouri State University

Police Department

Feb. 11

There is a closed investigation for a fire alarm in Millikan Hall. There is a closed investigation for a fire in the Administration Building.

Feb. 9 Sasank Sriniva Nadendlla 23, was in an accident on University Drive.

There is an open investigation for harassment in the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building. There is a closed investigation for an alcohol violation in Franken Hall.

Maryville Department of Public Safety

Feb. 9

A summons was issued to Skylar A. Rufenacht, 37, for driving while suspended, failure to register a motor vehicle and failure to maintain financial responsibility on the 100 block of South Main Street.

Feb. 8 the way we do things, and we’re still trying to figure those out.”

There was an accident between Jessica D. McCreary, 21, and Linda D. McClurg, 63, on North Main Street and East 16th Street.

Section One of the ordinance deletes three codes encompassing possession and unlawful use of drug paraphernalia and replaces it with more information on definitions, identification, possession and consumption on certain properties.

These changes reduce civil penalties for possession and use as well as growing marijuana. There is a civil penalty of $50 for possessing and growing without a permit. People are not able to walk down the streets smoking marijuana, and smoking and consumption is prohibited in certain areas like schools and daycares.

Restaurants who choose to serve food containing marijuana must register with the city in advance and provide public notices on front doors and menus.

Section Two of the ordinances directly address driving offenses. Driving while under the influence of marijuana is prohibited. McDanel said that consumption is also prohibited for passengers in these vehicles.

Section Three is a section for regulation of businesses and manufacturers. These codes are similar to what is found currently. These codes took out language for medical marijuana and replaced it with adult-use and recreational language. McDanel said the big change from the previous codes is that a dispensary is not permitted within 1,000 legally-walkable feet of a daycare, school or a church.

VOLUNTEER CONTINUED FROM A1

Linda Mattson, executive director of the North Star Advocacy Center, said there is a wide variety of things volunteers can do within the center to help it run efficiently.

“Over the course of a year, we get around 100 volunteers,” Mattson said. “Volunteering is huge, we couldn’t do all the things we do for clients without them.”

The demographics released by AmeriCorps show that in a formal volunteering organization, women volunteer, with a rate of 25.3% while men volunteer with a rate of 21%. Generation Z has a rate of 20.3%, millennials with 22.1%, Generation X with 27.2%, baby boomers with 23.7%, and silent generation or older with 18%.

“If anyone were ever interested in volunteering we urge you to come out and visit,” Alvarez said.

“It’s a rewarding experience.”

DINING CONTINUED FROM A1

Changes to the Bearcat Commons are also coming. The Mongolian Grill will become a UCook Kitchen. This change will allow students to prepare their own meals and attend cooking classes. Simple Servings will be in the dining hall regarding food aller-

He said that in this code, marijuana odors are considered a nuisance, so facilities can’t generate a smell past the property lines. McDanel said that for multi-family buildings, like apartments, odor detected inside of another unit is a violation of the code. The city is required to give a written warning to the offender first before a penalty is given.

Section Four outlines zoning ordinances which will go through the Planning and Zoning Commission March 8 and will be presented at the March to different projects in 2021.

$300,000 was given to fund Downtown Facade Grants.

Just a day short of when the Council approved the first round of funds, there is only $24,000 remaining in that budget. McDanel sparked a discussion about whether the Council would want to allocate more funds to the program as there are three more applicants totaling $70,000.

“There is $267,000 unallocated in the ARPA program, so this is a discussion for Council to determine if you see fit putting any additional funds toward that program,” McDanel said.

McDanel said the Council could choose during the discussion to appropriate more money to the program or table it until talking about the Fiscal Year 2024 budget in the fall. Councilmen Benjamin Lipiec and McBride had differing views on allocating more money to the grant program.

“I think on any college campus but certainly here at Northwest, where it is a little bit more of a rural area, … making sure that that sense of belonging is there for all of our students, and making sure that there’s an opportunity for individuals to see people who maybe look like them, see people who have similar backgrounds to them, working at the institution, as well is a way to diversify that aspect of the institution,” Godard said.

Godard said when looking at enrollment, he looks at retention rates in different groups of students. In that, historically underrepresented groups see a lower retention rate. In order to bridge that gap, he thinks having a community representative of all groups of students is key.

“There’s a gap there in terms of the number of students who retain who maybe don’t come from a historically underrepresented group and those that do,” he said. “And what we’ve been able to do as a result is close those gaps where there are not any anymore, and a lot of that is really being thoughtful about that sense of belonging, not only on the college campus but also throughout the community as well.”

Being in the provost position, Godard looks over the administrative side for departments and faculty, but focuses on quality connections between faculty, staff and students. He said the key to drawing more people to Northwest and having more support for the University comes from those bonds they build while on campus.

“It’s really building relationships with people in an authentic way and having that level of trust, so that we can be transparent with each other, to be able to have that innovative change in the effectiveness that we all want in terms of students to be able to certainly be successful, getting a degree from Northwest but most importantly, be successful in life and work once they leave here,” he said. “And again, that deals with the opportunities that are provided here, and how you create that culture, that atmosphere of belonging, that sense of community.”

13 City Council meeting. Downtown Facade Improvement Grants Maryville City Council approved the allocation of $46,000 to Downtown Facade Improvement Grants as the original funds start to dwindle.

Maryville received just over $2.3 million in ARPA funds and appropriated $1.7 million

McBride said he wanted to keep the unallocated ARPA funds and reevaluate during budget meetings in case the funds are needed for something else like the South Main Corridor Improvement Project. Lipiec said since it is only February and nearly all of the money has been awarded, the Council should give funds to the program to cover the remaining applicants.

After discussion, the Council unanimously approved the allocation of $46,000 from the unallocated ARPA funds to go toward more Downtown Facade

Being an avid supporter of having a sense of community at a university, Godard was asked in the general session Feb. 9 about what he would do if the community and the University were to be divided on a decision and how he would move past that.

“I would focus on the future and focus on building relationships with people, people here on campus, people in the community,” he said. “Make sure that the individuals are heard, but also thinking about solutions and strategies on how we move forward as an institution and as a community for the betterment of our students and the health and the viability of the entire region as well.” gies and safety with it.

Despite working at multiple universities in Missouri and throughout the midwest, Godard said he learned more about Northwest than he thought he could during his visit.

The Ministry Center looks for donations and volunteers to help provide food and clothing to those in need. On average, over 1.4 million Missouri residents contributed an average of $3.1 billion in economic value through volunteering.

“I know we’re going to have a rotating restaurant so I think that will be cool to kind of bring new things,” McCoy said. Not only will Sodexo provide changes in the dining hall, but it will be providing catering and vending services as well as the concessions at sporting events

The Starbucks located in the B.D. Owens Library and the Chick-

Fil-A on campus will remain open and will consider adding more menu items. The Chick-Fil-A will also now be serving breakfast.

Northwest’s contract with Aramark will be ending May 15. Those with meal plans will have to use all of the meal swipes and dining dollars before this date, otherwise they will just lose that money. Current Aramark employees have the opportunity to

“What I’ve really learned is the passion that’s here,” he said. “The true ethic of care that’s here that you have for the students, that you have for the community, that you certainly have for the University as a whole. … You should be proud of that. And that’s something that if I were fortunate to be the next president here, that I would continue to build upon. Make sure that we have those trusting relationships. Make sure that I’m transparent with you, and make sure that we look for solutions together to reach the outcomes that are necessary for Northwest to be successful.” transition their work to Sodexo.

“I think we need a change,” McCoy said. “I’m not too worried about it.”

Residential Life’s goal of lowering the cost of meal plans will be met. It is not known currently how much the price is going to be lowered. Board costs are estimated to go down by 17.2% based on the new dining contract.