The stigma about cannabis is changing, and “we can make the town some good money,” Damon LaPorte told the Hennessey Board of Trustees at their Tuesday night meeting.

He said his family wants to invest in an indoor growing operation and dispensary at 422 E. Jack Choate Ave. That property is on about two acres between Bennett Paw Place and the Mini Storage Building on State Highway 51.

It was home many years ago to M&W Gas Co.

Board members told LaPorte they are waiting on their attorney to update their marijuana ordinance which would allow such an operation inside the town limits.

“The town is not going to throw up barriers for such an operation,” said Trustee Wes Hardin. “Even if we wanted to do that, the state has made it impossible.”

The current ordinance they are changing doesn’t allow a retail marijuana store within 1,000 feet of a school or 300 feet from any park, church or residence.

Board members said even if they had the ordinance from their attorney, they couldn’t take action because the item wasn’t on their agenda.

The new ordinance will be about the same as Kingfi sher’s.

The retail marijuana conversation was started by LaPorte under citizens’ comments.

LaPorte said the family business will operate as BGD Enterprises. His stepfather, Brian G. Dell, lives on the property, but was not at the meeting.

LaPorte said the business would be “upscale” and wouldn’t have marijuana leaves plastered all over it the way some businesses have done.

At earlier town meetings there had been discussion about the marijuana odor from growing facilities and LaPorte said that is not a problem with proper venting.

By growing their own plants ,they will have more control over their product, he said.

“We’ll also have 24-hour security,” he said.

LaPorte told the board he is a cancer survivor and knew some who’d used marijuana during their cancer treatments.

Hennessey is home to him, he said, because he grew up there. He started his elementary schooling in Hennessey through some high school.

Then he and his father, Roe LaPorte, moved to Crescent, then Kansas where Roe LaPorte went to medical school. Roe LaPorte, a 1964 Lacy High School graduate, now lives in Durant.

Damon LaPorte is a wrestling coach and lives in North Carolina where he has a wife and two children. He will return there once his work is fi nished in Hennessey, and Dell will be on-site at the Hennessey operation, he said.

His family had looked at putting an operation in Norman, but said they decided to start in Hennessey since they already own land there.

The property is zoned industrial, said Town Administrator Tiffany Tillman, and that designation would allow for their operation.

She said her offi ce has had a handful of others interested in having marijuana retail stores in Hennessey.

LaPorte said he understood a marijuana business would soon be going in at Dover.

There was some discussion about marijuana stores located in Kingfi sher.

All board members attended the meeting: Mayor Bert Gritz, Vice Mayor Clif Vogt, Keith Meek and Richard Simunek.

Meek was late for the meeting, but there for the marijuana discussion. Gritz had to leave about five minutes into the meeting and returned after the discussion.