WILTON — A Vienna couple have applied to the state to operate a medical marijuana dispensary in the Dexter building at 932 Route 2 East, the same site chosen by two other dispensary applicants.

Timothy and Jennifer Smale will present their plans to the town Planning Board at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 1, at the town office.

The Smales turned their application for the Franklin, Oxford and Androscoggin zone into the Department of Health and Human Services on Friday, the deadline for filing.  According to the DHHS website, 29 applications have been received to operate medical marijuana dispensaries in the eight designated zones of Maine. Results are expected to be announced on July 9.

Although they filed their application on deadline without first receiving the town’s permit approval, the process calls for having a building in mind, the landlord’s willingness to lease or sell the property and evidence from the town that they would support the facility, Timothy Smale said Monday. This is one of the properties being considered, he said, the couple is only applying within this local zone.

The town has approved an application from Lucas Sirois and Chad Crandall for Ahead Care at the same site.

Smale said he believes they bring experience and education to their plans. Timothy has an master’s degree in business administration and Jennifer has a business degree. After 30, they years decided to take a break from their careers. He then decided to make a commitment to helping patients attain medical cannabis at reasonable prices, he said.

Last summer the couple went to Oakland, Calif., working for CannBe, an offshoot of Harborside Health Center, one of the nation’s largest proponents of medical cannabis. It offers consultations, helping clients prepare business plans, financial plans and visiting medical cannabis sites.

Timothy said he was attracted to a model called medical cannabis collectives because they focus more on patient needs rather than the medicine, he said.

After Maine began action on last November’s vote on medical marijuana, the couple returned to Maine this spring with “the skills, talents and desire to serve patients,” he said.

“There’s a lot of misinformation and a lot of illegal players,” he said. “With half of the public struggling to accept it, leadership is needed. We have that leadership and desire.”

The Smales want to raise the level of professionalism in the industry, they said.

“A lot of mistakes were made in California but the application and license process found in Maine has been a good fix for some of those problems,” he said.

Whether Ahead Care or the Smales will ever operate a medical marijuana dispensary in Wilton is up to the DHHS.

The Smales permit application in Wilton is also contingent on whether Ahead Care is accepted or not, said Paul Montague, code enforcement officer.

abryant@sunjournal.com