Medical Marijuana Facility Not Expected on Council Agenda

Efforts are underway to boost support for a medical marijuana production plant in Effingham, but the mayor indicates the issue will not likely be reconsidered.

The Effingham City Council in recent weeks voted 3-2 against rezoning a parcel of property southwest of the city to allow the production plant to be built. Effingham Mayor Merv Gillenwater said he's had no one on the Council ask that the issue be revisited. The Council meets next Tuesday; the agenda for the meeting will go out on Thursday.

Attorney John Loevy has been representing Effingham Medicinal Farms in the effort to develop a site at Effingham. In an attempt to bolster support for the project, Loevy said the developers are pledging anywhere from half-a-million to a million dollars for Effingham schools if the project moves ahead here. He said the offer is on top of a pledge in their application to the State for a site that the developers would pledge half the profits seen by the plant toward education in Illinois.

Time is of the essence for the developers; next Tuesday's Council meeting is the last one scheduled before the State's deadline falls for applications to be submitted.

Under the State's plan, a production facility is to be sited in each of the State's 22 State Police districts. Flora and Centralia also are sites being considered, but by other interests, not by Loevy's group.

Some local officials are terming the offer of a share of the profits "a bribe" or an attempt to "grease palms". Loevy took issue with that, saying everything they're pledging is being done in an above board manner.