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THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, November 13, 2020 Page 11 GBL votes unanimously to accept Lynn English and Lynn Classical as new members Schools requested to leave Northeastern Conference and join GBL in time for next fall season By Steve Freker Massachusetts.” At a meeting of NEC athletT he Greater Boston League (GBL) could go from “out of business” to expanding and thriving in the span of just 18 months. Yesterday the GBL board voted unanimously, 6-0, to accept Lynn English High School and Lynn Classical High School as members for the 2021-2022 season next fall, pending their release from the Northeastern Conference (NEC). “It was an easy decision and we are thrilled as a league that Lynn English and Lynn Classical wanted to become part of the Greater Boston League,” said Malden High School Principal and GBL President Chris Mastrangelo. “We will become a stronger, eight-team league with these two great additions,” Mastrangelo added. “Moving forward, we believe the GBL will be the premier, urban-based league in MARIJUANA | FROM PAGE 1 retail establishment at 323 Commercial St. The hearing included spirited debate for and against the petition, with continual questions and concerns raised over traffi c projections and concerns over the site, which will be located less than 150 feet from one of Malden’s busiest intersections, Commercial and Medford Streets. A few weeks later, the City Council held an over threehour, “mini”-marathon hearing before granting Cannabis East a special permit to site a retail marijuana establishment at 5 Linehurst Rd., which will sit adjacent to the Kappy’s Fine Wine & Spirits store on Bennett Highway (Route 1 North) on the Malden-Revere-Saugus line. That vote was unanimous, 11-0, to grant the petition to a group which also owns the Kappy’s store, grandsons of its founder, the late Ralph Kaplan. Resolution called for a “pause” in cannabis sales applications The resolution on the Council docket Tuesday night read: Resolve: That the City of Malden Cannabis Licensing Commission pause on soliciting additional applications for retail marijuana ic directors last Thursday, Lynn Classical and Lynn English informed the NEC they wish to leave the league in time to join the GBL for September 2021. The GBL was reformed at the end of the 2019-2020 school year when the NEC essentially voted out the four local schools, Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville, after a brief, twoyear trial run as members of the NEC. Those four schools were quickly joined by Revere, an NEC school that had a long history in the GBL in the past, which opted to leave the NEC and got a swift bon voyage from that league. The GBL will soon increase to six members when Chelsea High joins the fold for the 2021-22 season next September. Representatives of Lynn English and Lynn Classical, according to reports, told the NEC athletic directors that there have licenses so that the city can solicit voter feedback in the next municipal election on limits to the number of establishments allowed in the City of Malden. The original sponsors were Councillor-at-Large Craig Spadafora, Ward 5 Councillor Barbara Murphy, Ward 8 Councillor Jadeane Sica (City Council President), Ward 2 Councillor Paul Condon, Councillor-at-Large Deborah DeMaria and Ward 7 Councillor Neal Anderson. Councillor DeMaria, in comments during the meeting, said she had a change in her opinion and had removed her name as a cosponsor of the paper. Ultimately, after a nearly hour-long discussion on the issue, the resolution passed by the narrowest of margins, 6-5, with Anderson, Condon, Ward 3 Councillor Amanda Linehan, Murphy, Spadafora and Sica voting in favor and Ward 1 Councillor Peg Crowe, Ward 6 Councillor David Camell, DeMaria, Ward 4 Councillor Ryan O’Malley and Councillor-at-Large Steve Winslow voting against the resolution. Technically, the resolution is in no manner a binding one, in that the City Council is not empowered to dictate policy by means of resolution to the city’s Cannabis Licensing and Enbeen discussions with the GBL reps for the past two months and they were told they’d be welcomed “with open arms.” If the two Lynn schools became fi rst-time “GBLers,” it would create an eight-team league, which would quickly be recognized as perhaps the premier urban-based league in the state. “We’ve been talking to the Greater Boston League for two months,” Lynn English Athletic Director Dick Newton said in a published report. “Many of the schools in that league are dealing with the same issues that we are dealing with here. I just feel like the Greater Boston League is a league where we belong now and in the future.” The GBL was one of the top leagues in Massachusetts, in all sports, for many years since its inception in 1959, before schools began leaving for other leagues. A number of schools, including charter members Arforcement Commission (CLEC), which was established and is governed by city ordinance. The City Council even went to Assistant City Solicitor Ken Rossetti to clarify this status on two occasions during the discussion. Several Councillors, including Sica, Winslow, O’Malley and Camell, specifi cally noted the same in their remarks. Intent of resolution to “take a timeout,” some backers said But the intent of the resolution, according to several of its sponsors, was more of a move to “take a timeout” from the extensive, lengthy hearings and subsequent debate on the issue, to assess where the permit-granting process with its relation to the number allowed, and desired by the City Council on behalf of the community, is right now, and where it may go in the future. City Council President Sica confi rmed this sentiment and the status of the resolution. “Whether this passes or not, this resolve means nothing to [the CLEC],” Sica said. “I support this resolve because I wanted to pause to review everything we have done and have some open, honest dialogue on how lington and Revere, as well as Peabody, Waltham and Cambridge, all left, leaving the GBL with just Everett, Malden, Medford and Somerville. Those four schools joined the NEC on a trial basis in 2017, but were voted out in 2019, with schools including Beverly and Marblehead leading the way. The GBL was reestablished in 2019 as of the winter season. Lynn Classical Athletic Director Bill Devin strongly supported the so-called GBL team remaining in the NEC and was one of the votes in favor. “For the short time they were in the league, we had tremendous games and competition with the GBL,” Devin said in a published report. “I looked at all the sports and I thought they belonged in the league. I’ve been thinking about this ever since they left the league. The GBL is more of where we should be now.” One reason is that offi cials and we should proceed moving forward.” “I am not anti-marijuana; I am pro-marijuana on this issue; that’s how I have always voted,” the City Council President added. She also noted there are as many as four additional applications for new marijuana sales establishments waiting “in the pipeline.” “We cannot just stop the process in its tracks. We do have applicants that are preparing bids and have spent a lot of money in research and other costs, tens of thousands in some cases.” “I would really look forward to discussing the whole issue and reviewing where we are at, in the Ordinance Committee,” she said. “We have to clarify where we stand. We – the Council – made these zones for retail marijuana, but now [in the fi rst hearing] we are saying the locations are no good. We really need to get this [process] right. We could have lawsuits [coming at us] before we know it.” State will allow for as many as fi ve cannabis sales outlets in Malden At present there are two special permits awarded. According to the legalization of marijuana coaches from Classical and English were reportedly not happy when other schools in the NEC changed course and decided to go forward with their fall sports seasons after the NEC principals had voted to move the entire season to “Fall 2” due to the Coronavirus. The two Lynn teams could not compete since that community was designated in the “Red,” high-risk category and not allowed to compete according to state and Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association protocols – all GBL schools stood as one and canceled their fall seasons. legislation passed at the state level in a referendum in 2016 (and passed by Malden voters by a slim margin, 51-46 percent), the number of legal marijuana sales establishments allowed in Malden is fi ve, according to the part of the law stating the number is tied to 20 percent of the liquor sales licenses in the city, which is approximately 25. The issue of the number of establishments (five) allowed by state statute in Malden was brought up by Condon in the fi rst public hearing, where he opposed that petition and where he suggested a potential ballot question in the upcoming 2021 municipal election on potentially limiting the number of cannabis permits. “It wouldn’t hurt to put it on the ballot [in 2021],” Condon said. “My particular ward didn’t vote for [five marijuana permits]. They thought it was just for decriminalizing marijuana so we are not destroying young lives for possessing it.” “If we don’t limit the number, we might see us having to expand the areas we allow [marijuana sales] to places like Maplewood Square or Highland AveMARIJUANA | SEE PAGE 14

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