TURNER — Planning Board Chairman Tom Perkins is recommending a public hearing on a marijuana moratorium and approval of $6,000 to revise the Turner Comprehensive Plan.

His recommendations were included in separate letters presented to the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday night by Town Manager Kurt Schaub.

Perkins said the Maine Municipal Association recommends the town adopt a moratorium ordinance banning marijuana retail stores and shops while regulations to govern them are written and approved.

Maine voters last November approved legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for those 21 years and older, and instituting a 10 percent tax on its sale. The state has allowed medical marijuana since 1999.

The MMA advised, according to Perkins’ letter, that though the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry will license cultivation and retail marijuana facilities, some form of local approval will come into play. The MMA recommends that towns that may want to allow but regulate such facilities take a preemptive approach.

“To prevent unwanted developments in the meantime, we recommend adopting a moratorium ordinance,” the letter said.

“The Planning Board would be able to review zoning provisions and develop new ordinance standards, if needed, for retail marijuana establishments,” if the moratorium is approved, Perkins wrote, and a public hearing would be held.

Regarding the Comprehensive Plan, voters last year rejected a request for $25,000 to draft a new plan. Perkins is recommending spending $6,000 to revise the plan.

“The ‘do nothing’ option . . . does not represent Turner’s best interests or its mission to operate as a fully functional town eager and ready to propagate business, commerce and growth,” he wrote.

Selectmen will discuss his recommendations with him at a future meeting.

In other business, the board was notified:

• The bridge over Martin Stream on Mill Hill Road in North Turner will be repaired in April or May. The state project is expected to take three weeks. 

• The bridge on Route 219 over the Androscoggin River in North Turner will be repaired in May or June and is expected to take four weeks.

• The bridge on Route 117 over the Nezinscot River will be replaced in the summer of 2018.

• The cost of workers’ compensation fell from $39,600 in 2016 to just over $34,000 in 2017 because fewer claims were filed.