This story by John Lippman was first published in the Valley News on August 27.
SHARON — A Chelsea cannabis grower wants to bring pot, pizza and creamies to Sharon by taking over a once-popular roadside diner along Route 14 near recreational spots on the White River.
Sean Trombly, operator of Trombly House of Cannabis in Chelsea, has submitted a petition to the Sharon Selectboard for a ballot vote on whether the town should allow retail cannabis sales.
The town under state law has 60 days to get out the ballots for Australian voting.
Trombly said he has a signed purchase agreement to buy the property occupied by Sandy’s, a long popular diner and ice cream destination on Route 14 between Sharon and South Royalton that never reopened after a fire in the summer of 2022.
The property has been listed for sale for $299,000.
“My father and I have been talking about Sandy’s for years and just had our eye on it, thinking, ‘man, this would make a great location for a dispensary.’ It finally came to fruition and they accepted our offer,” Trombly told the Valley News on Monday.
Trombly said he collected 67 verified signatures — slightly more than the five percent threshold of the town’s registered voters — during Sharon’s Old Home Day on Aug. 17, informed Selectboard members at the board’s regular Monday evening meeting on Aug. 19 and submitted the petition to the town clerk the next day.
Vermont state law requires that a valid petition in regard to permitting retail cannabis sales must be held by the town through Australian ballot vote within 60 days, Sharon Selectboard assistant Nicola Shipman confirmed via email.
On Tuesday, the Sharon selectboard set Monday, Oct. 7, for the public informational meeting about the petition.
How town voters will look at the proposal is anyone’s guess, especially given the idea of co-locating a cannabis store with a family-friendly food and ice cream spot. Sandy’s also is located only 1.2 miles from the entrance to Sharon Academy, although a similar distance between cannabis retailer The Tea House and Hartford High School in White River Junction — a more densely populated area — did not receive much push back from residents.
To that point, Trombly said that the cannabis store and ice cream and food sales would be “completely separated” and that although the retail store and ice cream window would be “under the same roof” nonetheless there would be “no access” between the two spaces.
“To get into the cannabis side you have to have your ID checked at the door. You can’t have windows looking in or things on display,” Trombly said of regulations governing cannabis retail outlets.
He described the Route 14 location as offering a convenient option for White River Valley commuters “on their way home or on way into work” who otherwise would have to make side trips to cannabis stores in White River Junction, Bethel or Randolph.
Trombly House of Cannabis grows cannabis for wholesale distribution to dispensaries in Vermont. The Sharon dispensary would be its first venture into retail, Trombly said.
“It’s great (Sandy’s) being on the main route like that, both on the business side of things and not disturbing neighbors,” Trombly said, adding — a critical consideration — “there’s plenty of parking.”
Trombly is also looking to utilize space behind the building that was formerly occupied by a mobile home and has utility hookups to host a food truck.
“We’re hoping down the road to have a rotation of food trucks out there on the weekend, Trombly said. “It could be wood-fired pizza one weekend, barbecue the next, events and live music on Saturday night, some corn hole.”
“We want to make it like a community hub,” he said.
“Everybody wants food and ice cream back in town and we want to provide that,” Trombly said, noting, however, that is not enough.
“The whole operation hinges on the dispensary, The selling point we’re pitching to people is everybody wants food and ice cream but $2.00 creamies isn’t going to pay the mortgage,” Trombly said.
“Getting a dispensary there to operate year-round will offset the seasonal impact,” Trombly said, when outdoor food, ice cream and the entertainment element is closed for the winter.
Trombly promises the store will sell cannabis products from a wide variety of Vermont cultivators, not solely from his own farm in Chelsea.
“We’re all about supporting small, local family farmers,” he said.
If Sharon voters approve having a cannabis store in town, the next step will be to apply for a retail sales license from the state.
“And if it passes, we’d hope to be open sometime in early 2025,” Trombly said.
