BROOKVILLE, Pa. (EYT) — Trent Hartley — founder and principal owner of the medical marijuana company opening a grow facility in Brookville — was the featured speaker at the Jefferson County Development Council’s 19th Annual Corporation Meeting Program Thursday at Pinecrest Country Club.

Hartley discussed his company, his family, and how Cresco Yeltrah plans to help Pennsylvanians use medical marijuana to treat or help conditions that run the gamut from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) to terminal illnesses.

Hartley has three children with autoimmune diseases that are treated with medical marijuana.

Hartley grew up in Butler County and has been involved in many of his family’s businesses, including Standard Bent Glass and Coastal Glass Distributors. He helped build this business in 2011, which now has 60 employees and over $18 million in annual sales.

In addition, Hartley helped to found Palmetto Synergistic Research, a CBD (cannabidiol) company that produces medicated oils, topicals, and suppositories. This start-up was profitable after only five months and now has distribution to more than 20 retail locations.

Hartley, like the rest of his family, has extensive experience in business development, but his passion for the healing powers of cannabis and this proposed project are very personal to him.

Hartley spoke of what he feels the benefits of the medical marijuana law that was created in 2016.

“We know there is an opioid/heroin problem in western Pennsylvania, as there are the surrounding states and we know there is medical data from the National Institute of Health that any state that has had a medical marijuana program up and running within the last three years has had at least a 25 percent decrease in the opioid script writing and so are the overdoses,” Hartley said.

“So, it was very important to put the severe chronic pain, as well as the PTSD, into this program.”

The new medical marijuana cultivation facility in Brookville will be located in the industrial park on Service Center Road next to the Jefferson County Jail.

In June, Cresco Yeltrah announced it was beginning work at a 46,000 square foot grow center in Brookville after being awarded a medical marijuana cultivation license on Tuesday as part of the Pennsylvania Compassionate Medical Cannabis Program.

The facility will open no later than December 20, 2017. State regulations require the facility has to be operational six months from the date of approval, which was June 20, 2017.

Hartley said there will be about 20 employees working at the facility in the first six to nine months, then 80 by the second year.

Hartley also announced the company would be donating one percent of its net profits to the Brookville community.

Hartley explained the complexities and security necessary in operating a grow facility.

“The front door will be guarded, employees will use key cards to gain access, and not all employees will have access to all areas of the buildings,” Hartley said. “The state will know when the trucks leave a facility when they make deliveries, it’s all very regulated.”

“We are more regulated than the pharmaceutical industry,” he added.

JCDC Executive Director Brad Lashinsky, who worked with area leaders to bring Cresco Yeltrah to the county, also talked of other business successes that the council helped create in 2017.

Through its revolving loan program, JCDC helped businesses build more cabins in Cook Forest, a metal milling facility in Falls Creek, an expansion project at a metal injection molding company.

“That work helped create or maintain 40 jobs,” Lashinsky said.

He also spoke of the 400-acre business park in Ringgold Township that will be the home to CNG, LNG facilities as well as a water treatment plant and a co-gen station.

“Once it’s fully funded, it will create more than 100 jobs,” Lashinsky said.

In Falls Creek, JCDC helped the borough clean up the former Jackson China site, which the council plans to market to prospective businesses.

The brownfield site is 16 acres and has rail line access.

JCDC also helped bring Legacy Trucking to the former Days Inn site, located off Allegheny Boulevard.

The company – which already has locations in Shippenville, DuBois, Altoona, Erie, Bedford, Milesburg, New Stanton, Somerset, and Harrisburg, is a Mack and Volvo dealer.

They plan on building a 35,000-square foot facility, starting off with about 20 to 25 employees and growing to around 35 to 40 in 12 to 18 months.