The town of Houlton approved a marijuana ordinance Tuesday night and many are excited about what this could mean for the community.

The town held a public hearing last night about adding recreational marijuana facilities to their zoning ordinance. The facilities would be in the town's industrial park.

According to town manager Butch Asselin, there was about an hour and a half of discussion before the council voted.

Folks on both sides spoke, and the council vote went unanimously in favor of the ordinance.

Asselin says the ordinance includes retail marijuana cultivation facilities, retail marijuana products manufacturing, retail marijuana establishments, social clubs, and testing facilities.

He says the town being an agricultural community with low power rates gives it huge potential.

"The council's approval last night proclaimed houlton's acceptance to engage in commercial retail marijuana facilities and other establishments -- we are the first if not one of the first towns to do this. Most of the towns are voting on moratoriums and we've taken the opposite view and are being proactive," said Asselin.

Asselin says there are several investors in our state looking at towns and seeing where it might be feasible to establish a business and he wants Houlton to be one of the first communities they look at.

He adds that there's still plenty of work to do and the town plans to hold a number of workshops beginning in March.

We spoke with folks on both sides of this issue and will have a full story on a future edition of News Source 8.