News

No hemp processing in Windsor in near future

By JEFF EPSTEIN
[email protected]
WINDSOR, Vt.—While it has been announced by VTDigger.com and other sources, Town Manager Tom Marsh confirmed at Tuesday’s select board meeting that the offer to take over the former state prison farm property for use as a hemp processing plant has been rescinded.

Although Marsh never identified the potential lessee, VTDigger.com has quoted state officials saying that David Muller was the man interested in using the site to take the hemp grown from others and process it into CBD materials that could be sold as retail products. 

But Muller and the state were never able to come to terms, although Muller reportedly tried to negotiate a settlement. Marsh told the board that his understanding was that the state was not willing to sell off the property, and could not lease it without legislative approval.

Select board members speculated that state officials may have thought that Muller’s interest in the property — and the incipient growth the CBD products market that prompted that interest — was indicative of a market; thus the state could patiently wait for additional offer.

But it may be a long wait. The state’s own report earlier this year indicated most buildings on the property are in poor condition. Nothing indicates the property could be easily rehabilitated into new housing for prisoners or drug addicts, or used by social service agencies.

No state agencies have expressed real interest in the site. Yet the state still must maintain the property, spending thousands of dollars each year to plow the road in the winter and keep the buildings heated enough to to run water. “The property really doesn’t have any value,” said Marsh. 

Referring to the dormitory building on the site, board member Paul Belaski said “I’m not sure what you could use it for … [there are] only a couple of buildings that have potential.”

It may be, Belaski added, that the state is just reluctant to let its property go, perhaps fearing that the moment it is gone some agency or legislator will then complain that it could been put to public use.

However, nobody, at least around town hall, knows of any other prospective lessee or purchaser.

Avatar photo

As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.