FREWSBURG — The Carroll Town Board is looking for residents to provide input on whether marijuana dispensaries and consumption locations should be allowed to operate inside its borders.

The board discussed last week the local law to opt out of allowing pot dispensaries and consumption locations in the town. Prior to a vote on a local law to opt out, the board first needs to host a public hearing, which will take place at 6:45 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 11, at the Fireman’s Blue Building, 25 Hazzard St.

Kenneth Dahlgren, town councilman, said if the board passes a local law to opt out of allowing dispensaries and consumption locations, residents in the town are allowed to circulate a petition to have a permissive referendum to overturn the decision. He said the board could also request to have a permissive referendum to allow Carroll residents to make the decision. He added that the town should save residents the hassle of collecting signatures and request to have a permissive referendum vote.

“I’m in favor of letting people speak on this,” he said.

Dahlgren said if the town did make the request, he doesn’t know when the permissive referendum vote would happen. He said most likely it wouldn’t take place during the November general election because Aug. 2 is the deadline for items to be on the ballot.

As far as the opt out law, Dahlgren said the town needs to make a decision by Dec. 31 if it wants to not allow dispensaries and consumption locations. He said at the start of next year, the option to opt out will no longer be available. He said, however, that if the town opts out before Dec. 31, the town could in the future opt back in.

Dahlgren said no matter what the town decides, it will be at least two years before dispensaries and consumption locations are allowed, according to the state law.

In other business:

¯ Dahlgren announced that the case against Sealand Waste LLC. to be heard in state Supreme Court Fourth Division Appellate Court in Rochester has been postponed because of the untimely illness of Paul Webb Jr., town attorney. Dahlgren said the case was scheduled to be heard in October, but has been delayed to April 2022.

“We are looking at another nine months out before the appellate case will be heard,” he said.

The case against Sealand Waste has been an ongoing feud for the last16 years. Sealand Waste wants to expand the Jones-Carroll Landfill into a construction and demolition landfill and is opposed to the town law passed in 2007, which prohibits any new landfills in the town.

The landfill is currently closed.

¯ Dahlgren announced the town will be receiving $304,047 in federal funding from the American Recovery Plan. He said the payments will be split, with the town receiving its first allocation in August, with the second in August of 2022. He added the town has to spend the funding toward infrastructure or expenses or loses because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t think we will have trouble figuring out what to do with (the funding) because we’ve probably lost a decent amount of money (because of the pandemic),” he said.