Our Story

While Classic City Arborists was “officially” born in 2014, our story actually begins ten years prior, as a little firewood company operating out of Bishop, Georgia.

In 2005, while working on his bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Education from the University of Georgia (go Dawgs!), our owner and Certified Arborist Scott Rushing starts working for a small business called Classic City Firewood. As the name suggests, this little operation provides firewood deliveries to the Watkinsville and Athens areas during the fall. They also provide firewood for some of the restaurants in the area during the off season.

For his entire tenure at UGA, Scott works with Classic City Firewood. He met his wife, Rebekah, in 2008, where they both attended the same college-age Sunday School class at Grace Fellowship. The connection was instant, and the courtship a whirlwind: they went on three dates over the course of the next week and were inseparable from that point on. After Scott graduates in May of 2009, Scott and Rebekah get engaged in June, and are married the following June in 2010.

In 2011, the owner of Classic City Firewood, an avid entrepreneur, had started branching out into other businesses, so Scott steps in to keep things going, growing the company’s client base, streamlining processes to be more efficient and effective, and generally devoting his time and effort trying to turn this side job into something more permanent.

He starts branching out (no pun intended) into other kinds of tree work besides just splitting and delivering firewood; with minimal equipment and help, he’s limited to simple, straightforward tree removals and basic pruning. All the tree work he does uses basic equipment that allows him to climb trees himself to get to what needs cutting.

​Despite the lack of elaborate equipment, this type of work becomes more and more frequent. To increase his knowledge and expertise, Scott decides it’s time to become a Certified Arborist. The training and testing are rigorous but worth it, and by 2012, Scott is certified and running nearly 100% of the business operations, only conferring with the owner when needed.

The next few years bring exponential growth. Scott purchases additional equipment and gear to allow him to perform more technical, difficult tree removals, and further expand the business’s capabilities. Peyton Mitchell, who has worked off and on with Classic City Firewood since its inception, becomes an invaluable member of the team and Scott’s right-hand man, helping with every job and supporting the vision Scott has for the company.

In 2014, the owner of Classic City Firewood starts a family and is ready to move on to other ventures. After countless discussions and lots of prayer, Scott and Rebekah decide to purchase the business Scott has invested so much of his time and effort into. With a few signatures and a grand leap of faith, Scott and Rebekah officially become small business owners, and come up with a new operational name: Classic City Arborists.

The first year as business owners is trying but rewarding. In 2015, Scott purchases what’s called a Miniature Skid-Steer; this bobcat-like vehicle is used to tote the remnants of trees and pruned limbs away from the job site all in one load, a process that used to be done by hand in many, many trips. It’s compact enough to fit through your front door, and uses tracks instead of four wheels to move around, meaning it can easily access back yards through fence gates and won’t destroy the ground in the process. 

All the time and effort this new machine saves allows Scott and his team to complete nearly twice as much work in the same amount of time, helping spur the business forward by leaps and bounds.

This addition to their arboreal arsenal is perfectly timed to coincide with December of 2015, when Rebekah and Scott welcome the fulfillment of endless prayers: Abigail Marie Rushing, born on December 15th.

Thanks to the increased operational capacity, Rebekah is able to stay at home with their adorable, red-headed troublemaker rather than working full-time and requiring childcare. Being a stay-at-home mom is as rewarding as it is exhausting, and while it takes up most of her time, Rebekah finds some spare hours when Abigail is napping to help run the administrative side of the business. 

As Abigail gets older, Rebekah begins to take over more and more of these responsibilities, until in 2017, she officially becomes the Operations Manager, handling everything from payroll to marketing to scheduling.

With the efficiency of the Miniature Skid-Steer, and with Rebekah as the Operations Manager,   Scott has more time to devote to giving estimates and working in the field. The workload has doubled, thus doubling the revenue. In 2017, Scott is able to purchase a Chipper and a Dump Truck.  Instead of taking load after load of limbs and logs to the dump, most everything can be run through the chipper at the job site. On many occasions, the customer will even choose to keep the wood chips, which saves time  hauling the chips away.

On September 6th, 2018, Scott and Rebekah welcome Elijah Donell into the world, another red-headed bundle of joy. Rebekah works from home 20 hours a week, juggling her newborn and her administrative responsibilities, while Abigail attends daycare.

​To give Scott more time at home with his babies and allow him to take some of the administrative load from Rebekah’s shoulders, Classic City Arborists purchases a 72' Arbor Pro Lift in 2019.

 A lift is similar to a bucket truck, in that it has an extendable arm with a bucket attached that, as the name suggests, lifts Scott directly to the point of interest on the tree. However, this lift is not part of a truck; it is a separate piece of equipment.  Just like the Miniature Skid Steer, the Lift runs on tracks is compact enough to fit through your front door, thus allowing Scott to easily access backyards and tight spots.

​​This not only allows him to perform more technical, targeted work (thereby expanding the business’s capabilities) but also saves the immense amount of time and effort it takes to climb a tree or rig it for remote pruning or removal. ​

And that brings us to 2020, where Classic City Arborists operates with a simple four-man team; Scott runs and performs the more technical jobs, but leaves Peyton, the official foreman and second-in-command, in charge while he travels around to perform free estimates for potential customers. Scott handles all the official documents, like estimates, invoices, and pricing. He orders equipment and replacement parts or maintenance supplies as needed and ensures all the tools for the job are in perfect working order.

In the mornings, when Scott leaves for work, Abigail has to have "a hug and a kiss, daddy" and Elijah blows him exaggerated kisses. In the evenings, Abigail races to get the first kiss while Elijah toddles behind her, happily calling out "it's da-da". Abigail tells "my daddy" all about her day while Elijah helps unload daddy's lunch box. 

With the rapid growth of the last few years, Rebekah now dedicates more of her time to the endless array of administrative and operational tasks. She wears many, many hats, including things like customer service (answering the phones, responding to emails, scheduling estimates), human resources (hiring employees, processing payroll), accounting (managing expenses, bills, keeping licensing and insurance up to date, accounts receivable and accounts payable), and marketing (designing and up-keeping the website, planning and executing marketing strategies).

What started as a side gig to help pay for college has turned into a life-long career. Scott and Rebekah are proud to own a small, local business, and can’t wait to see what God has planned for their family and for Classic City Arborists. No matter what the future holds, Classic City Arborists will always approach each job with the same integrity we’ve had since day one:

We believe in complete transparency with our customers, and don’t try to sell extra, unnecessary work just to make money.

We believe in educating our customers about proper tree care and maintenance, so they can get the most out of their relationship with the nature around them.

We believe in focusing on the customer’s goals, figuring out what needs to be done to achieve those goals, and then discussing how best to go about making those goals a reality, while remaining within their budget—even if that means no work for us.

We believe in protecting our customers and protecting the environment through training and dedication to safety.

And most of all, we believe in that age-old adage: “Leave it better than you found it.” Whether we’re talking about a job site, a customer’s mood, or our Earth as a whole, at Classic City Arborists, we are on a mission to do what we can to make a positive impact on the lives of everyone we encounter.

Author

Emily Casuccio is sister and sister-in-law to Rebekah and Scott Rushing, and has over half a decade of experience in copywriting, copyediting, proofreading, and developmental storyboarding. She's worked with both published and undiscovered authors on both fiction and nonfiction, and takes pride in supporting local businesses. Her passion lies in the written word and helping authors of all capacities realize their dreams and achieve their fullest potential. To learn more about her, read samples of her work, or contact her, visit her online portfolio.