Dec 18, 2017 6 min read

NEMACOLIN – After AGRiMED Industries broke ground in October for its medical marijuana growing and processing plant in Cumberland Township, company officials said they expected to be operating by the end of the year.

The company is required to have its plant in compliance with all state regulations and be ready to begin growing marijuana by Wednesday, six months to the day after the state Department of Health granted its application for a permit. Only a dozen facilities were approved across the state from 177 applications, and four of those have been inspected and given the green light to grow.

AGRiMED’s facility at 280 Thomas Road near Nemacolin is still awaiting that final approval from the state.

Mark Kaminski, the company’s chief marketing officer, called the Dec. 20 deadline a “wish list” and said they expect the Department of Health will inspect the facility later this month. But until that’s been done, they cannot begin growing and cannot let visitors into the facility. Kaminski said the state is “booked solid” with inspections of the other remaining facilities.

“The initial facility will be mostly complete upon passing the DOH inspection. (AGRiMED) will build out some interior infrastructure that corresponds to the harvest cycle as the first crop gets to market,” Kaminski said in an email.

According to a release from Gov. Tom Wolf’s office, the state is continuing “to work with permittees to ensure they will be operational within six months” and expects the program to be completely implemented by 2018.

So far, only four facilities are operational. They are Cresco Yeltrah in Jefferson County; Standard Farms, LLC, in Luzerne County; Terrapin Investment Fund 1, LLC, in Clinton County; and, most recently, Ilera Healthcare, LLC, in Fulton County. Approval began in mid-October and has continued through December.

On Thursday afternoon, construction trucks could be seen driving onto the property, and workers were nearby. Ann Bargerstock, Cumberland Township’s zoning and code enforcement officer, said her municipal inspector was inside the AGRiMED facility early Thursday and they were very near completion.

“They will be ready for their conditional occupancy approval,” she said of the permit that will come from the township.

That certification should come within days, she said, with the building code inspector only noting a few minor changes that needed to be made. She was confident they would get the needed changes addressed in time to make the deadline.

April Hutchenson, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said she couldn’t speak to where any one facility was in the process for approval, but could discuss the approval process in general.

“The rest of them are all working to come online,” she said of the remaining eight facilities.

She added that in the next week, she expected to see more grower/processors begin operating, but could not give a specific number. Each was working to be compliant, and she said that as of Thursday, no one had filed for an extension for their inspection.

There are many steps companies need to take before they’re able to grow medical marijuana. DOH has a checklist that outlines the needed tasks on its medical marijuana website, which is 54 pages long.

This document outlines that the grower/processor needs to notify the department that it is ready to operate within six months of the initial permit being issued. At this point, the department will conduct an inspection of the facility. If a grower does not meet that operational deadline, the department would notify the facility of deficiencies. This sets forth a correction plan, which cannot take longer than 90 days to complete.

Hutchenson said this approval process is very fluid, although the department hopes that all of the facilities will approved before the new year, “as soon as we can in a way that we can make sure they are following all the requirements set forth by the law.”

Each facility is at different stages in the approval process, and some companies have the advantage of already having operations in other states.

“Six months to upright a business that’s growing a product is a very aggressive timeline,” Hutchenson said.

Two grower permits were given to each of six regions in the state. Out of the 12 permits granted, AGRiMED received the top application score. Interested companies were rated in areas such as diversity, security and surveillance, diversion prevention, community impact and employee qualifications.

Employing local workers was a big selling point of the facility when it broke ground in October. Local officials and company representatives both said the plant would help an area hurt by the decline of the coal industry. Greene County Commissioner Blair Zimmerman and state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, touted the economic impact for the region.

“AGRiMED currently employs approximately 25 including contractors. This number increases significantly if you consider the construction workers on site at the facility,” Kaminski said.

He added additional positions will become available after the facility is operational. AGRiMED is hoping for about 50 to 60 full-time employees in the future, but Kaminski said the company wants to make sure there’s a market for the supply before it expands operations.

“We receive a multitude of local, high-quality applicants daily and we are humbled that there has been such support and interest in AGRiMED. We are currently hiring and new positions will be opening up as operations commence,” Kaminski said.

One of AGRiMED’s employees appears to be Snyder’s daughter, Joy Eggleston, who recently left her job as director of operations at WHS-Greene hospital in Waynesburg.

Eggleston posted a public photo on her Facebook page Dec. 6 with a graphic of AGRiMED’s logo encouraging those interested in working for the company to apply. Eggleston shared another “now hiring” post from AGRiMED on Nov. 1.

“She recently made the decision to leave the organization to pursue other professional interests and left on good terms,” Washington Health System spokeswoman Stephanie Wagoner said. “Any additional information regarding her employment or departure should be a question you ask her personally.”

AGRiMED declined to confirm if Eggleston is an employee or what her position is.

“AGRiMED values our employees, their privacy, and their safety. With the exception of disclosure requirements by the Pennsylvania DOH, the company philosophy is to safeguard personal employee information,” Kaminski said.

When contacted by phone Thursday, Eggleston also declined to discuss her status with AGRiMED, saying only that she “needed to talk” to someone before commenting.