B y Dan King

Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff may have just established his own mini-holiday.

With a little help from Granville Supervisor Matt Hicks and Argyle Supervisor Bob Henke, Haff held his own “hemp appreciation day” at the Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting last Friday.

Hicks purchased a bottle of flavored hemp water as a novelty for Haff, and Henke did the same with hemp shoelaces and cereal.

“I had to go all the way to Vermont to get that for you,” Hicks jested.

Haff – long an advocate for industrial hemp – came to the meeting wearing his hemp necktie and the hemp shoelaces that Henke bought him, and he drank the hemp water that Hicks bought him, and he brought the box of hemp cereal that Henke bought him, saying he ate it for breakfast.

“It’s delicious and durable,” Haff said with a chuckle after the meeting.

“It’s funny,” Haff added, as his fellow supervisors laughed. “When I first started advocating for hemp, Matt and Bob were the biggest critics, and now they’re my biggest suppliers.”

How did Haff celebrate his mini-holiday? In typical Haff fashion, by voting against resolutions that he thought were either too expensive or government overreach.

He was the lone supervisor to vote against an increased appropriation for the county tourism budget.

“I know we’re talking about what we’re going to do (to bring tourists in), but I kind of support the ‘keep it simple, stupid’ approach,” he said.

He was also the only supervisor to vote against increased appropriations for the district attorney office’s “crime forfeiture spending plan.”

“This resolution contains my least favorite f-word – forfeiture,” Haff said. “They don’t want to use ‘seizure’ because it violates the Fourth Amendment. What about the Fifth? What about innocent until proven guilty? Seems like guilty until proven innocent.”

Lastly, Haff was joined in a “no” vote by Salem Supervisor Seth Pitts on a resolution that amended the title and pay scale of the county director of planning position.

All three resolutions passed.

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