Optimist-Outlook 11/20/08

By Don Jones
Marianna Optimist Club Activities
"Bottled Spring Water, It Was Only A Matter of Time"

TJ East is the Plant Manager of the newly opened Spring Water Bottling Plant, located in the previously vacated, Russell’s Warehouse, and Distribution Center Building, at Marianna’s Airport Industrial Park, as seen below. He and his family hail from a small community of less than five hundred residence known as Earlington, Kentucky. TJ and his Wife now reside in Marianna and have two boys aged seventeen and twenty-two.
As many know, ecology is a very important consideration when it comes to conserving the areas resources. The owners, Mr. Jamie and Sandy Godd who are farmers from a small town near Toronto, Canada and, therefore, also understand the importance of conservation. They are sole owners of the Marianna plant, as well as four water bottling plants in Canada, and two other plants in the United States. As sole owners, the company is not controlled by shareholders, who normally just look for a big return on their investment, not ecology. Additionally, another little known fact is that it takes 8 Gallons of water to produce just one can of Coke a Cola but only takes an equal parts of spring water to make an equal amount of bottled spring water. Keep in mind that spring water is Mother Nature’s original thirst quencher, not Coke.
With assistance from Melvin Engineering, the owners are working closely with the County Board of Commissioners, and State Environmental Protection Agency, to create safety, and conservation guidelines to follow; there are none at this time. They also would like to pay a fee to Jackson County, rather than pay a private property owner, as they are doing in Bay County, now. Currently, the Ice River Springs, bottling plant has twelve employees, however, when fully staffed; they will employ approximately 100 employees. The average wages for these employees is estimated at $32,000.00 per year.