CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Sunset Hills Medical is waiting for approval from the state for a medical marijuana grow permit to open a facility in Clarion.
(Pictured above: Sunset Hills Medical Team-Front (left to right) Phil Plant, Colleen Ekas, Kurt Baumgartel, Lorri Lankiewicz. and Danielle Blewitt. Back row, Dan Allen, Joe Jeffries, Katherine Remmerde, Milissa Bauer. Tyson Hilovsky, Sue Carothers, David Feller, David Cornish, and Chris Clay.)
“Imagine this,” said Colleen Ekas, Chief Executive Officer of Sunset Hills Medical, at a Wednesday night meeting of community leaders and media.
“Fifteen years ago to the date I was graduating from Clarion University, and I found myself standing in front of a classroom presenting a business plan with my partners. It was for medical cannabis. To say that moment was surreal is probably an understatement. Everything that has happened over my personal and professional life feels like it has bought me back here.”
Sunset Hills has proposed a medical grow facility in Clarion Borough on the site of the former Owens Illinois Glass Plan, now being developed by the Miles Brothers as a business park.
It wasn’t by accident that Clarion was picked as the location with so many employees involved with leadership also Clarion University graduates.
The company is one of 15 applicants for licenses for medical marijuana grow facilities in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Chief Operating Officer Kurt M. Baugmartel said a decision is hoped for by the end of July.
“In Region Six which is the northwest, there are 15 grower processor applicants, we’re one of 15,” said Baugmartel.
“Please understand that it is competitive, and they should issue two additional grower processor permits in Region Six. We’re in competition with Farrell, Erie, Greenville, and others. I think the governor’s office and the legislature know that Clarion County and Clarion Borough need help, need jobs, but we’ve done everything that we can, so the more voices that they hear from the community itself will differentiate us.”
Kurt Baugmartel
Letters of support from the Clarion area are welcome, and for more information go to sunsethillsmedical.com.
A decision on dispensary licenses will come later, but in anticipation, Sunset Hills already purchased the old Clarion Clipper on Route 68. If approved, the company would open two other dispensaries.
The economic impact on Clarion County would be dramatic and includes the following:
• Over 100 construction jobs;
• Employ over 52 people in Year One;
• Up to 80 people in Year Three;
• More than 120 people by Year Five;
• A 10-year estimated economic impact to local communities of $700 million; and
• The company would invest $8 million into building out and equipping the facility, using local labor and suppliers.
The economic impact is one part of the Sunset Hills mission statement.
“Our mission is to build a thriving and healthy community by improving quality of life and treatment options for our neighbors, friends, and family through medical marijuana.”
Personal impact
Ekas brings to the position of CEO a first-hand knowledge of the benefits of medical marijuana.
“In 2008 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, and when I was diagnosed, it really shook me to my core, but for many years, I didn’t talk about it,” Ekas said.”I started talking about it because I believe in patient education and I believe that a patient has to be their own advocates for their own therapy and treatment. I also believe that patients have to have options for treatment whether its eastern or western medicine. This opportunity gives patients that option. No one’s journey with diseases like Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and others is the same. Each patient needs that option.”
Why Clarion?
Clarion has this resiliency and hard work baked into it, and I think that gives us a leg up as we roll out our program,” continued Ekas. “When you think of hard work and resilience, there’s no better example than what the Miles Brothers are doing with Glassworks, and that’s why we chose it as our location for our grow processor facility and will be between 30,000 and 50,000 square feet. The Clarion Clipper is the first of three dispensaries that we will open. If we can’t get the permit, we are at least in the real estate business in Clarion.”
“If we get our permit next week, all fingers crossed, we should be able to hit the ground running immediately, so hopefully by end of year, our facility would be open and our dispensary would open early 2019.”
Ekas earned a Bachelor of Science in Management and Industrial Relations. She received her Masters in Business Administration from DePaul University in Chicago, IL, in 2013.
Just a plant
“It’s just a plant, and what it does to our bodies and why it has so much benefit for our bodies is a message I try to get out,” said Dr. Lori Lankiewicz,
Patient and Community Outreach Director, who also leads education and patient engagement efforts. Her degree is in physical therapy and owns a private practice in Butler.
“In 2012, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto hypothyroidism autoimmune disease, The last five or six years have been kind of rough feeling down and out, weight gain, aching pains waking up every day, and many other things. The energy and lack of stamina were really getting me. I own two companies, but I would still get up and go, but I was dragging the weight along with me.”
“In April of 2017, I was introduced to CBD, (a chemical compound extracted from hemp plants) in Colorado. I started taking it in May, and within a month, I was feeling a little better and that continued. Metabolically, I was seeing a weight loss. In August, blood work showed it has shifted to the positive. I thought we are really seeing something here, and this is only one little part. This is only one part of this vast plant. We’re seeing everything from reduction of headaches to improved sleep to decreased pains.”
“For my entire career, the question has been how can you change the face of health care. I truly believe this plant, its called cannabis, will be a huge factor in helping change some of those chronic illnesses that we can’t get to. Medications can help, but they do something else, and there are side effects.”
How the project was attracted to Clarion, a day to remember
State Representative Donna Oberlander, also a Clarion University graduate and trustee, spoke of her support despite an initial negative view of medical marijuana.
“It was in 2015 when the subject of medical marijuana really started to get some legs under it,” said Oberlander. “I will tell you from a personal standpoint, I was a ‘no.’ I absolutely was a “no.” I was concerned for what that meant to our state, and I was concerned for what that meant later on down the road in terms of legalizing marijuana. It really came down to a two-year-old, a toddler, who helped change my mind. This little man has a seizure disorder, and his mother is a terrific advocate. He came in, and he talked to me about the challenges he had, and then they started going to Harrisburg and making visits with other people having the same disorder and the changed legislators’ minds. There were hearings, and in 2016, we did approve medical marijuana and over the next year, the Department of Health promulgated those regulations. They went through the first phase and are now in the second phase of applications.”
“I got a phone call from my good friend Milissa (Bauer, also a Clarion graduate and trustee) about two months ago, and she let me know we had a potential company that was interested in applying for a license to grow medical marijuana and for a dispensary in Clarion County. Asked could I be there right now? I was actually in Pittsburgh at the Hillman Center for Cancer for a program, but I said I could be there by 1:30 p.m. I was able to meet them in Zelienople in their ‘war room,’ and I met at least six of the ten principals.”
“What this does for Clarion County is tremendous. It’s the job creation, it’s the investment in the community, and these individuals have shown their passion, their compassion. They are professional, and they are invested. Most of them have Clarion roots, they graduated from Clarion University, and you’re going to hear throughout this presentation how important is going to be for the university, the community, my toddler that became an advocate, how important it is to our senior citizens, and all those who may benefit from this medical marijuana.”
Baugmartel also remembers the day everything came together for the project and the cooperation, input, and potential aligned and a change in direction for Sunset Hills.
“The impact that we want to have on your and our community is tremendous,” Baumgartel said. “We drove to Clarion just to see what me might do here we met with Milissa at 9:00 a.m., and then we met with Todd (Bauer, Melissa’s husband) at his office, and he said let’s go meet with the Miles Brothers over at the Glassworks, and within two hours, we drove back to Zelienople to meet with Donna. It was at that moment we changed our strategy and said we want to be in Clarion.”
“We want to be here.”
