Pubdate: Thu, 21 Aug 2014
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Page: 4A
Copyright: 2014 The Denver Post Corp
Contact:  http://www.denverpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/122
Author: Nancy Lofholm

DEBEQUE LOOKS TO POT TO BOOST ITS ECONOMY

DEBEQUE - Because state lawmakers aren't open to allowing gambling in
this struggling western Colorado town, officials here plan to go to
pot.

DeBeque has become the first municipality in Mesa County to approve
recreational marijuana. The town is now taking applications for pot
shops in anticipation of offering the first cannabis-for-fun sales in
the 117-mile stretch of Interstate 70 from Glenwood to the Utah border.

The pot push comes in the wake of a stymied effort to offer the only
casino gambling near the I-70 corridor outside of Black Hawk, Central
City and Cripple Creek. DeBeque officials earlier this year had
pressed the Colorado legislature to add this town to the list of
municipalities where gambling is allowed. But there was no support for
such an idea.

So DeBeque voters, in a 69-65 vote in April, decided to allow growers
and sellers of recreational pot to take up residence in this town of
501. Since the license applications became available Aug. 1, one
completed form already has been submitted and several other marijuana
entrepreneurs have expressed interest in moving into the pot void in
the northwest part of the state.

"DeBeque has been boom and bust for a long time," said new Mayor
Forest Matis, who turned 28 during last weekend's DeBeque Wild Horse
Days celebration. "Any movement forward to try to bring some money
into town is good."

In a place where Tuesday morning Bingo and Thursday evening quilting
are nearly the only events on the weekly calendar, drawing in new
people with recreational marijuana is controversial.

"I like it just the way it is here," said Stan Novinger, a
fifth-generation resident of DeBeque who was lounging in a rare patch
of shade at Wild Horse Days with other locals who are none too keen on
marijuana.

The four-day event lured about 200 people into town to shoot at
dynamite, fishtail their ATVs through a mud bog, vote for Little Miss
DeBeque and check out the mustangs penned in a downtown corral for the
occasion.

Some think oil and gas companies that drill in the nearby Piceance
Basin are going to avoid DeBeque if it becomes a cannabis mecca.
Locals say companies have warned workers that they will be fired if
their trucks are spotted outside pot shops.

"I am sure there will be some hesitation on the part of oil and gas,"
Matis said. But, he noted, one of the largest energy companies in the
area still gave the town a donation for Wild Horse Days.

Matis said that while the town moves ahead on marijuana, it is still
going to pursue gambling. Because the legislature refused to allow
gambling through a statutory change, the town will try to take the
issue to a statewide vote in 2016.

Lifetime DeBeque resident Dave Graham, who was taking in the small car
show at Wild Horse Days festivities, said he thinks gambling will be a
better fit for DeBeque than marijuana: It might even bring a seafood
buffet to a town that currently has no restaurant.

As for marijuana, he said, "It's a fad. It will pass." 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D