Page 10 - Georgia Forestry - Winter 2019

The Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission expects 400 trucks to come in and out of the plant every day, and they’re not just log trucks. The drivers and crews will need fuel and food.
wood. After all, the Stonecyphers are not the only land owners with trees to sell in central Georgia.
“The availability of the mills to handle the work promptly is an issue because they get swamped,” he said. “There is more doggone timber than they can handle. In the past they had a problem with the mill accepting loads of logs except on certain days. They would skip certain days because they were over- whelmed with logs.”
The logjam, if you will, is about to get broken up. That’s what many landowners expect. Local leaders also expect a good dose of green. Not trees, but money.
Dr. Wes Clarke of the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Gov- ernment said the saw mill will support 440 jobs, not just the 350 permanent posi- tions on site. There can be no doubt about the job production considering there will be 200 loads of logs coming into the mill each day. There are some convenience stores scattered along Highway 82 near the mill entrance, but there will likely be more entrepreneurs setting up shop and eager to capitalize on the traffic. The Albany-Dougherty Economic Develop- ment Commission expects 400 trucks to come in and out of the plant every day, and they’re not just log trucks. The drivers and crews will need fuel and food.
“I sell diesel fuel every day and I can’t wait until they get started” said Jeff Lanier, who owns a wholesale oil business and a string of convenience stores. “I love trucks. Trucking is a vital industry and plays a major role in the
economy here.”
The saw mill for Albany did not happen
by accident. It took some vision, which is another key ingredient to a thriving rural economy.
The Albany-Dougherty County indus- trial site where the mill will be built was originally supposed to be 14 different parcels. But when one large corporation after another scouted the region and kept expressing interest in larger sites with certain infrastructure requirements, Justin Strickland, the president of the Albany-Dougherty Economic Develop- ment Commission, said it made sense to market the entire property as one large parcel, or two medium-sized parcels.
The draw for GP was that the first 100 acres of the site had been graded when the wood giant came for a tour. A network of fiber optic cable was laid under the site. It is paved with fresh asphalt and
it is curbed. There is a cell phone tower standing in the middle of the property. Georgia-Pacific paid $2.3 million for the property, which comes with some tax abatement over 10 years. The total site is 226 acres, with a four-lane divided highway on the north side and a rail line
on the south side.
“Albany has some forward-think-
ing people,” Lanier said. “We’re really grateful GP is making the investment, and that happened because we have great leadership in this town. It is deci- sions like that, to get that site ready for development, that are paying off now.”
Half of the jobs at the new mill will be in engineering, according to Strick- land. If that is a younger set of workers, downtown living space should be in demand. A former senior living facil- ity was renovated downtown and lofts were leased within two months. It didn’t
8 | GEORGIA FORESTRY