Florida sawmill nearly folds, but finds new life

Mary J. Gore Contributor What was once a closed sawmill without prospects has become a flourishing business again in Live Oak. More than 100 employees are working there, a mix of both former and new employees. That number is up from zero at the time the mill was shuttered in 2020. Today, binderholz Live Oak, owned by the binderholz lumber company in Austria, is paying about 10 percent of all property taxes for Suwannee County, $2.1 million out of a total budget of about $20 million, says Suwannee County Economic Development Director Jimmy Norris. At its peak performance, Norris says, “the mill was operational for 24 hours a day, six days a week, with about 200 truckloads of wood per