SUPES CONSIDER BAN ON MEDICAL POT SHOPS

Kings County supervisors will consider Tuesday whether to impose a
temporary ban on medical marijuana dispensaries. The county has
received several inquiries from dispensaries wanting to locate here,
county documents state. Currently there is only one dispensary here --
Gray Sky Alternative Medicine Collective on East Lacey Boulevard in
Hanford.

County staff want a 45-day ban on new medical marijuana dispensaries
to study whether to regulate or ban such facilities, which have been
associated with crime, safety and other issues where they are common
in Fresno.

If dispensaries are eventually banned by county ordinance, Gray Sky
would have to shut down, said Larry Spikes, county administrative officer.

In other business, supervisors will consider approving a contract to
design a new county morgue. The existing county morgue, located in the
basement of an old county hospital building on Lacey Boulevard, is
considered outdated and inadequate.

Design work on the new facility would take approximately seven months.
Building the facility is expected to cost between $1.5 million and $2
million, county documents state.

Supervisors are also expected to introduce Bill Lynch as the new Kings
County fire chief. Lynch, formerly deputy fire chief for Hanford,
replaces Jim Kilner, who retired this month.

Supervisors meet at 9 a.m. in board chambers at the Kings County
Government Center.