The large piles of wood debris seen along the widening of U.S. 441 north of Eatonton could soon be heading to a new business here instead of a landfill.
At its mid-month meeting last week, the Putnam County Board of Commissioners approved the industrial/ manufacturing (I-M) rezoning of five lots totaling 12.4 acres on Sammons Industrial Parkway for the purpose of operating a wood lot.
Logging operations take the commercial parts of trees but leave behind considerable amounts of limbs and roots as so-called “green waste.” The idea is to take this green waste from construction projects or lot clean-ups and turn it into landscaping mulch or fuel, Precision Landworks owner Brian Key explained.
Key told the commissioners his business would accept no metals, trash, or construction debris and there would “absolutely be no burning.”
Commissioners asked several questions about equipment (“seven figures”) and noise (no night operations), but ended up praising the project.
Commissioner Jeff Wooten called it a “good plan,” and incoming commission chairman Bill Sharp, “a great project.”
The commission also approved a second rezoning request, heard citizen requests to put Jimmy Davis Park on the commission agenda, and rejected Magistrate Court Judge Dorothy Adams’ request to add a second full-time magistrate to help handle the 24/7 demand for warrants.
The second rezoning request had come from Vernon Clark, asking for a shift from a residential (R-2) zoning to agricultural (AG) for a 32-acre tract at 1261 Crooked Creek Road. The approval came with several conditions on uses for the property.