Residents in Palestine turned out to have their say about allowing a marijuana dispensary within the village limits.
The board voted during their June meeting in favor of the dispensary but due a typing error on the posted copy at Palestine Village Hall, the board had to vacate the votes Thursday. Many of the guests at Thursday’s meeting were against a dispensary in the village limits.
Anyone that wanted to address the board were given a three to five minute time limit to tell the board their views on the proposal.
Steve McGahey asked an important question to Eric Erickson and Cliff McBenge who are wanting to open the dispensary.
They informed the group that recreational marijuana would be first and medical marijuana would come into the dispensary second.
McGahey asked what the tax rate the village would receive from sales. The rate would be 3.5% to Palestine. The county and state would also get a percentage.
Since Palestine would be the smallest community in Illinois to have a dispensary, estimates of sales has not been predicted.
In Effingham, the dispensary brings in $30,000 to $50,000 a month and $500,000 last year.
It was made known that if a dispensary