Your friendly curmudgeon is back

OK, I'm back in this space. It doesn't feel comfortable yet, but hopefully it will soon enough. The good news is that if I see something that I've written that I don't like tomorrow, I can change it. That's the beauty of digital. You can't do that in print.

Sadly, however, there were a lot of readers of my column who enjoyed reading it on paper. I haven't figured out that part yet, but when I do, you'll be the first to know.

If someone you know, wants to read this stuff, tell him/her to send a Facebook request to me. As long as they seem to have a legitimate interest, I'll friend them back. I'm that kind of guy.

***

What forced me to write sooner rather than later was news that our councils in Dover and New Philadelphia appear to have permanently banned the sale of medical marijuana in their communities. (The source of  that information is our local daily newspaper, which I trust is reporting accurately. If for some reason, it is not, my apologies to the councils and a curse on the paper.)

As I'm reading between the lines, it appears the councils are concerned their communities will turn into Colorado-type, drug-infested havens for evil and long-haired hippies.

Ohio's law, aimed at providing relief to people who are suffering from various serious medical conditions, has no provision to sell recreational marijuana. Nope. You have to have a note from your doctor (read: prescription) and suffer from one of the following conditions:

HIV/AIDS; Alzheimer's disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); cancer; chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE); Crohn's disease; epilepsy or another seizure disorder; fibromyalgia; glaucoma; hepatitis C; inflammatory bowel disease; multiple sclerosis; pain that is chronic, severe, and intractable; Parkinson's disease; post traumatic stress disorder; sickle cell anemia; spinal cord disease or injury; Tourette's syndrome; traumatic brain injury; and ulcerative colitis.

With one swipe of their legislative pen, the councils told such members of their communities to look somewhere else for relief.

Cleveland.com offers a primer of sorts on the new law, which will take two years to fully implement. And at least one lawmaker is urging communities to hold off banning medical marijuana until the details get ironed out.

It's too bad the communties couldn't act as quickly with a program to synchronize their traffic signals as they did with their medical marijuana bans.

***

Speaking of Dover City Council, it will meet in regular session on Monday night.

Will this be the meeting that council members, with the exception of Bob Mueller who can't afford it, finally endorse the new high school building proposal?

If they don't, I'm hoping that Mayor Richard Homrighausen stands on top of the table and delivers the kind of a speech a far-sighted leader would give on behalf of his community's children. That's called leadership. And guts.

***

Rumor has it that the Atwood Resort and Conference Center sale -- for $1.1 million -- has fallen through. My sources report that the Youngstown buyer, who supposedly was acting as an agent for the DeBartolo family which has multiple real estate interests, will lose $75,000 in earnest money.

Presumably the sale process will begin anew.