West Newbury Select Board Adds Cannabis Prohibition to May Ballot

WEST NEWBURY — March 19, 2026 — West Newbury Select Board votes to place cannabis prohibition on May 4 ballot, reopening warrant to add article. Acting on a same-night deadline, Chair Wendy Reed and members Barry Fogel and Christopher Wile voted unanimously Thursday to add a single ballot question asking voters to prohibit all three forms of recreational cannabis establishments — retail, processing, and cultivation — in town. Town counsel had advised that because West Newbury voted yes on the 2016 statewide legalization referendum, both a ballot vote and a town meeting vote are needed to ban cannabis uses; the board reopened and reclosed the annual warrant in the same session to add the companion article. The board also voted to hire Community Paradigm Associates over higher-priced competitor Capital Strategic Solutions to conduct a municipal organizational assessment, within a $35,000 budget, and set the planning department's budget at $87,310 pending the assessment's findings. The Whittier vocational assessment came in at just over $240,000, about $15,000 below the $255,000 budgeted, while health insurance costs are projected to climb roughly $80,000 over current estimates.