PAGE: LOCAL NEWS
Full house for Herb N Legend forum
By Ryan Brinks (March 04, 2010)
The approximately 60 chairs at Jackson City Hall were filled to overflowing Thursday night for a two-hour dialogue between community members and Terry Gray, co-owner of a proposed new Herb N Legend store in downtown Jackson.
The Luverne-based business expansion would offer a range of products, from incense and herbs to bamboo and hemp clothing, bubblers, pipes, oils, tobacco and related supplies, jewelry, tea, greeting cards, cigars and more, Gray said.
"We don't carry cigarettes. We're into more healthy herbal stuff and helping people quit smoking," he said.
But even the possibility that some of his products could be used inappropriately had many attendees opposed to the new business.
"Four years ago I would have been his No. 1 customer, his No. 1 advocate," said recovering drug addict Jennifer Holm. "I work so hard every day to stay sober and his coming to town is making it 10 times harder."
About 30 community members voiced comments about new opportunities, stories of personal tobacco-related tragedies, concern about the message the business would send to kids, questions over the business' investment back into the community, urgings to use proven smoking cessation methods, requests to look elsewhere and more.
"I cannot support a business coming to our town that's going to put our children in jeopardy," said teacher Dan Joyce.
All of the products that would be sold are legal in Minnesota; some would be impossible to use with illegal drugs while others could be used illegally, Gray said.
He clarified that no one in the Jackson business community recruited his business nor offered any financial incentives for a new business and that no board or council could prevent his opening up.
City councilman Fred Bern summed up the meeting as a public show of local opposition to the business' arrival.
"That's what we're doing here tonight," he said. "Exactly what we don't want to do is send the wrong signal to our youth."
Mayor Mitch Jasper, while not supporting the new business, did thank Gray for his openness in dialoguing with the community.
"We could have just bought a business and opened up, but we want to be part of the community," Gray said. "... I feel this was the way to do it, to do it right and get questions answered."
For more coverage of the meeting's comments and reactions, see the March 11 paper.
The Luverne-based business expansion would offer a range of products, from incense and herbs to bamboo and hemp clothing, bubblers, pipes, oils, tobacco and related supplies, jewelry, tea, greeting cards, cigars and more, Gray said.
"We don't carry cigarettes. We're into more healthy herbal stuff and helping people quit smoking," he said.
But even the possibility that some of his products could be used inappropriately had many attendees opposed to the new business.
"Four years ago I would have been his No. 1 customer, his No. 1 advocate," said recovering drug addict Jennifer Holm. "I work so hard every day to stay sober and his coming to town is making it 10 times harder."
About 30 community members voiced comments about new opportunities, stories of personal tobacco-related tragedies, concern about the message the business would send to kids, questions over the business' investment back into the community, urgings to use proven smoking cessation methods, requests to look elsewhere and more.
"I cannot support a business coming to our town that's going to put our children in jeopardy," said teacher Dan Joyce.
All of the products that would be sold are legal in Minnesota; some would be impossible to use with illegal drugs while others could be used illegally, Gray said.
He clarified that no one in the Jackson business community recruited his business nor offered any financial incentives for a new business and that no board or council could prevent his opening up.
City councilman Fred Bern summed up the meeting as a public show of local opposition to the business' arrival.
"That's what we're doing here tonight," he said. "Exactly what we don't want to do is send the wrong signal to our youth."
Mayor Mitch Jasper, while not supporting the new business, did thank Gray for his openness in dialoguing with the community.
"We could have just bought a business and opened up, but we want to be part of the community," Gray said. "... I feel this was the way to do it, to do it right and get questions answered."
For more coverage of the meeting's comments and reactions, see the March 11 paper.