Quitman Board of Aldermen vote on rezoning property for Bar & Pole Piling

QUITMAN, Miss. (WTOK) - The city of Quitman’s Board of Aldermen met Tuesday night to take a vote on whether they would rezone property in the city for a new pole mill business.

The board voted 4 to 1 to start the process of rezoning the former Hankins Lumber Company and former Bazor Lumber Company property from commercial/residential back to light industrial.

Mayor Steve Watkins said this will allow Bar Pole and Piling to invest approximately $10 million in purchasing the entire property and building a pole mill. Watkins said this will bring 10 to 20 jobs to the city and over 100 for the county in the timber business.

“Without the zoning taking place, they would have never been permitted to come in. So the board accomplished two things tonight. We rezoned that property to all light industrial, and then two, we had nothing in our zoning orders that would accommodate anything in the timber industry. Even though the timber industry had been important to Quitman all these years. So we rectified that by including that as an improved use for light industrial to bring the timber business back into Quitman. And I’m just delighted we got all of this accomplished,” said Mayor Watkins.

“We’ll be peeling poles for the utility companies and using telephone poles, so coming to Quitman with the infrastructure they have here and the timber industry and the raw materials and resources we have here, we hope it will be a great location for us,” said Bar Pole and Piling owner, Wade Rolison.

Rolison said the plan is to start construction in late summer and be operating by December of this year.

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