A Board of Selectmen meeting on Monday saw the host community agreement between the town and BASK pass with a unanimous vote. (Charles Murphy abstained from the vote, citing conflict of interest.)

The agreement will last for a duration of five years, and will see the town receive three percent of the gross revenue of recreational sales from BASK.

Three percent is the max amount that towns can charge under the current Massachusetts state statutes.

At the meeting, Town Counsel Tom Crotty noted recent Standard-Times reporting about other marijuana industry businesses alleging extortion from other Massachusetts towns, and wanted to clarify that there would be no additional payments mandated from Fairhaven.

“You may have read in the papers that other towns have frankly extorted money from the developers of the facilities to try and squeeze them for a little bit more here and there.”

Crotty pointed to the possibility of the Cannabis Control Commission becoming more involved in the host community agreement process, but said he believes this won’t affect Fairhaven due to the nature of the agreement, and the fact that the deal is likely to be done prior to official language from the state level.

As for BASK and CEO Chapman Dickerson, the host community agreement is merely a stepping stone to getting doors open.

Or, in his words, “we’re ready to go.”

Dickerson guessed that the rest of the process will take at least six months, so although BASK won’t open their doors to recreational clients tomorrow, those doors will open.