FARMINGTON – Franklin County may have more than one facility for growing and selling medical marijuana, despite the state law that limits the number of dispensaries in Maine.

Luke Sirois, owner of Western Maine Electric & Excavation in Farmington, said he plans to organize a group of caregivers who would grow medical marijuana for all of their patients in one building.

Each caregiver would have an individual, locked growing space in the facility, he said, which would distinguish it from a dispensary.

He would still like to run a couple of the dispensaries, as well.

Sirois applied last month to run three of the state’s eight dispensaries, but he was not selected by a review panel from the Department of Health and Human Services.

On Friday, the DHHS identified three groups that will run six of the dispensaries. The panel didn’t select any applicant in two of the districts — York and Down East — because none earned the minimum score of 70 of 100 points.

The state immediately reopened application periods for those districts, and Sirois said he will apply for both.

Sirois initially applied for the central Maine, western Maine and York districts. He was beaten out by Northeast Patients Group and Tim and Jennifer Smale of Vienna, in the central and western districts, respectively.

With 65 points, Sirois’s application for the York County district received the highest score of the six groups that applied there. “We’re in the process of strengthening our application right now,” he said.

Sirois would like to open dispensaries in Sanford and Ellsworth. He originally planned to apply for the Down East district, but decided against it right before the applications were due.

Ellsworth and Sanford have moratoriums on dispensaries. Ellsworth City Planner Michele Gagnon said a committee has been working on a zoning ordinance to regulate dispensaries.

Sanford Town Manager Mike Green said he expects the town’s Planning Board to finish working on its ordinance regulating dispensaries in August. In April, town councilors enacted an emergency 90-day moratorium, which expires July 20. Green said it’s uncertain whether they will vote to extend it.

Applications for the York and Down East districts are due to the state on Aug. 20. Sirois said he expects the selection process to be just as competitive the second time, because so many groups that applied the first time weren’t selected.

The state received 29 applications from 17 groups.

Sirois will continue working on a plan to bring a group of caregivers together in one facility, possibly the vacant office building on Route 2 in Wilton where he had hoped to open a dispensary.

“There’s nothing in the law right now that prohibits that from happening,” said John Martins of the DHHS, about the caregivers’ group.

Martins said each caregiver would have to grow plants in a separate, secure area. A caregiver is allowed to grow as many as six marijuana plants and provide the drug for as many five patients, he said.

Sirois said he hopes to have about 15 caregivers in one facility, which he said could be operating in three to four months.