After a 2.5 hour meeting, the Greenville City Council voted to approve the option to sell 24 acres of land in the Wolf Industrial Park to RFP, LLC for a possible medical marijuana cultivation facility.
Scott Hawkins and Mike Donnewald, with RFP and Donnewald Distributing, were on hand to answer questions about the proposed facility and the process for state approval, which is far from a certainty.
Hawkins presented the basics of the proposed facility to those in attendance. The building would be 50,000 square feet, surrounded by a perimeter fence, staffed with security personnel 24 hours a day, and have a live video feed to both the Illinois State Police and local Greenville Police. Hawkins also said it’s their plan to hire 30-40 employees the first year and up to 70 employees by the time the facility is fully staffed.
Mike Donnewald said the building would be used to manufacture medical marijuana and would not be a dispensary for patients. Donnewald also said the approval process by the state was going to be very competitive and the facility is far from a certainty. The Illinois Department of Agriculture will license one cultivation facility for each Illinois State Police district. Greenville is in District 11, as is much of the Metro East. Applications to the state can be submitted starting on September 8 and the window to submit will close in late September. Right now there is no time frame for when the state will decide which cultivation facilities will be licensed. If the cultivation facility in Greenville is not approved by the state, Donnewald will not exercise the option to purchase the land in the industrial park.
Some residents expressed their desire the facility not be built in Greenville. Other residents said they want the facility, the jobs, and the medicine to be created in Greenville.
Hawkins also said no smell or scent will come from the facility and there will be no visibility from the outside of the building to the growing areas inside.
