Submitted photoA Baker City couple plan to open three businesses, including a marijuana dispensary, in the Sumpter building that formerly housed the Sumpter Nugget restaurant.

Sumpter is joining Huntington as the only towns in Baker County where retail customers can buy marijuana.

In January, two recreational marijuana dispensaries are planning to open in Sumpter, population 205.

The town is about 28 miles southwest of Baker City.

Jenny and Justin Long, who own Long’s WaterWorks in Baker City, hope to open their marijuana dispensary — The Golden Nugget — during January. The exact date the business will open at 160 N. Mill St. is yet to be determined.

“We’re still doing demolition,” Jenny Long said. “It’ll depend on how long the remodeling takes.”

The Longs have applied for a retail recreational marijuana license through the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) and will have a preliminary site inspection by a representative of the agency Thursday.

The business will be in the building that last housed the Sumpter Nugget restaurant about a decade ago.

The marijuana dispensary is one of three businesses the Longs intend to open in that building, which is on the east side of Mill Street, Sumpter’s main thoroughfare.

Jenny Long said the couple will also move their general contracting business, Elkhorn Industries, which shares space at the WaterWorks business in Baker City, to the Sumpter building.

And they plan to open Huckleberry Junction Cafe there as well. The cafe will serve espresso, soft serve ice cream, soup and sandwiches.

The cafe and the marijuana dispensary will share a common lobby that will have an ATM machine and tourist information on display.

“We’re looking forward to bringing these businesses to Sumpter,” Long said.

Long said opening a cafe was an obvious complement to the marijuana dispensary. She said the cafe will employ at least three people and the dispensary will provide jobs for about six.

The Longs’ business isn’t the only marijuana dispensary readying for business in Sumpter.

The Coughie Pot Marijuana Dispensary is being opened by Cheryl Farnsworth and other business partners. Her son, Dennis Farnsworth, is assisting her in the opening of the business.

He said the business, at 363 Mill St., will have its final OLCC inspection on Thursday and he expects the dispensary to open by the middle of January pending approval by the city of Sumpter. Farnsworth said the dispensary will hire about four employees.

Besides providing jobs, he hopes the marijuana business will improve the economy in town.

“It may be the start of a great business flow in Sumpter,” Farnsworth said.

He hopes to see the same success selling marijuana legally in Sumpter that has been realized by Scott Matthews, who owns the 420Ville marijuana dispensary in Huntington. Matthews has had days in which more than 200 customers have patronized his business since it opened in February of this year.

See more in the Nov. 30, 2016, issue of the Baker City Herald.