ONTARIO — A medical marijuana facility won’t be coming to Ontario now or anytime soon based on the discussion Wednesday prior to its City Council meeting.
In late May, 4Front Ventures addressed Ontario Council and community members with the proposal of setting up a medical marijuana cultivation facility directly across from where a General Motors plant once operated.
The topic was discussed during the Ontario caucus meeting, but no motion was made to put it on the evening’s agenda.
“I asked if anyone wanted to make a motion,” said Mark Weidemyre, 3rd Ward Councilman. “But no one would even make a motion to put the legislation on the agenda. So, for lack of a motion, the issue is dead.”
Later in the evening, council unanimously approved the second reading of an ordinance imposing a six-month moratorium on “acceptance, consideration and/or granting of any applications for local licensing approval, cultivators, processors or retail dispensaries on medical marijuana within the City of Ontario.” This will be read for a third time at the June 21 meeting.
Tim Reardon, partner with HVV Mission Ohio was in attendance to represent 4Front Ventures. He left feeling disappointed.
“We came here because of the story we were going to be able to tell the state about the GM plant pulling out,” he said. “The sites we were going to use were right across the street from the concrete mess that’s left.”
Reardon and other 4Front Ventures representatives began talking with Council members more than a month ago.
“The first time there were four of us (representing 4Front), and we met with all those guys…(with one exception),” he said. “And they didn’t voice what you heard tonight, which if they had any guts they would’ve said it and saved us a lot of money and a lot of time.”
If 4Front had come to Ontario, the facility would have employed 43 people with a $1.7 million payroll, he said.
Reardon wishes that Council would have put it to a vote.
“So the people knew who voted against it,” Reardon said.
Weidemyre also expressed that he wanted to see it come to a vote.
“He spent several weeks in our community, and I wanted to give him a yes-or-no answer, but I guess he got a no by default,” Weidemyre said.
Other council members expressed concerns about making the decision too hastily.
“I think the situation is that the gentlemen needed to have an answer tonight,” said Larry Arnold, At Large. “We were not comfortablec…. We are down a member.
“I wanted to be fair to this gentleman, and say, ‘look, if you need it now, you’re probably not going to get it. You don’t have enough.’”
While 4Front Ventures won’t be starting an Ontario location, the company still plans to submit two applications for medical marijuana licenses to Ohio. The company has sites selected in Columbus or Coshocton, Ohio.
But Reardon admitted that he liked the Ontario option.
“We thought this would be the easiest,” he said. “And you wouldn’t even know we were there. It just looks like a warehouse, a very secure warehouse.”
