LIVERMORE FALLS — Wednesday morning, Aug. 14, Dana Cummings told the Livermore Falls Advertiser he would be appealing the Select Board’s Aug. 6 vote not to renew his medical marijuana licenses.

The license renewals were for Cummings’ DEAT medical marijuana retail store and cultivation facility doing business as Sugar Kush USA. The retail store is on Pleasant Street and the cultivation facility is behind it in the old Primary School building he owns on Baldwin Street.

Cummings told the Livermore Falls Advertiser on Aug. 13 he watched the livestream of the meeting provided by Mt. Blue Community Access TV. He was in California for shared parental custody, he noted.

“I don’t want misinformation, miscommunication,” he said. “My grow has been going. I’ve got a full crop. I have purposely left my storefront shut down because I’ve been working with code enforcement and the police chief to make sure whoever I had working for me there meets all their needs and wants. My store license is still in effect until October 1. I could open tomorrow and throw anybody in there, but I have chosen not to because of their request for me to have them be able to vet who I have in there.”

On Wednesday morning Code Enforcement Officer Roland Castonguay confirmed he was working with Cummings.

“I’ve just been trying to do everything to make everybody happy,” Cummings said Tuesday. “It backfired completely on me. I am the one losing money every day anyway. I just know that my competitors here in town, if I have to go through this process again they are going to do everything they can to fight me reopening.”

By a 3-2 vote, the Select Board voted Aug. 6 not to renew licenses for two medical marijuana facilities.

Chair William Kenniston and Selectman Jeffrey Bryant were in favor of renewing the licenses while Selectmen Jim Long, John Barbioni and Bruce Peary were opposed.

If the licenses had been renewed, the motion would have required Cummings to inform his employees of the Marijuana Ordinance’s strict rules. If it was determined the rules weren’t being followed, revoking the license was also part of the motion.

Town Manager Carrie Castonguay said the applications were complete, that required town officials had signed them. “I would recommend that you sign it with conditions,” she noted. “There have been complaints over the last year about some of his personnel.”

“I am sure you must be talking about the gentleman out front on the sidewalk because I heard that myself a few times,” Kenniston said.

Castonguay later told the Livermore Falls Advertiser complaints were about an employee who was medicating outside the store and people parking where prohibited in front of the store.

At the meeting Long said he has gone past the store, it has been closed the last six months. “I looked inside and there is essentially nothing in there,” he stated. He questioned giving a license to an empty storefront.

If the licenses aren’t renewed, the process has to begin again, Castonguay stated.

The ordinance doesn’t say the business has to be in operation to have a license granted, Long said. He was surprised Cummings wasn’t at the meeting to answer questions.

Castonguay said the code enforcement officer told her Cummings had a person in mind to help run the store, had not yet received requested information about that person.

“I would say [the grow facility] was in operation about five months ago,” Police Chief Abe Haroon replied to a question. “Then there was a fallout with the staff member and they think some of the equipment was dismantled, probably lost some of the harvest as a result.”

Castonguay noted Cummings is only in Livermore Falls part of the time. “It is kind of hard to run a business when you are not here,” she said. The code officer had mentioned he’s not around, the board has the authority to close places if things aren’t going according to the ordinance, she added.

Cummings is not in violation of the ordinance currently, Castonguay confirmed.

The original application states the store would operate 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., the renewal says there is no change, Long noted. “He hasn’t been operating for a long time, so he basically didn’t state it correctly,” he added.