SERVPRO of The Mountains

Don & Terri Collins have owned & operated SERVPRO of the Mountains since 1995.

Don is a graduate of Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs. His time spent in Franklin county gave him a love for beautiful Northeast Georgia and its people.    After finishing his degree at the University of Georgia, Don went to work for SERVPRO of Athens. When in 1988, an opportunity came to purchase the SERVPRO office that served Stephens, Hart, Franklin and Elbert counties, Don jumped at the chance to return to the area. The first “office” was in fact a desk located on the back porch of a friend’s home. Our rural nature, large territory and smaller populations present challenges to any stand alone service franchise. But our incredible neighbors and local businesses have supported their hometown SERVPRO and we have flourished here.

In 1995, the existing SERVPRO franchise was purchased including the counties of Habersham, Rabun, White, and Banks. The Collins family had successfully served the Toccoa to Elberton areas for 7 years and felt that the time was right for expansion. In those early years, Terri worked another job to keep steady cash coming in to support the family. Eventually, she was able to join the company full time and took over managing the office and administrative functions. Family business makes its demands on all members including son Justin who labored as a teen and college student doing at one time or another every type of field job. In 2009, he returned to the business and developed our marketing department. Justin then worked his way thru the office and administrative teams growing and improving those departments as well. Currently, he serves as our General Manager. 

Over the past 3 decades, SERVPRO has been blessed with several hundred amazing employees. A service business succeeds only on the caliber of its people and we have always been given the best. So many of our staff have also matured into managers, leaders and even business owners. Not only are our staff trained and certified to industry standards, they are chosen for their character and compassion as well. Our people are caring and professional at times when our customers are at their most stressed dealing with unexpected fire or water damage.   

In October 1995, our first mountains location was opened in Mt Airy, Ga. The company had expanded into fire and water cleanup by that time and 24-hour service had become a necessity. Many a late night was spent extracting and drying many local homes, churches, schools and businesses. In the subsequent years this office out grew its space and relocated to several different locations. Today, our permanent home is in Clarkesville on the Hollywood Highway. This gives us a great central location to quickly reach our customers in all parts of our service area. The company continues to grow in size and its technical acumen to meet the ever-changing needs of the restoration industry. Due to many customer requests, today we also provide full reconstruction services as well.

The joys of living and working here are many. Certainly, no one has a more stunning commute to work each day. We are indeed privileged to serve the wonderful people of the mountains community.

We thank God for the blessings of our exceptional staff, loyal customers and the local business community that has enabled our success these many years.  Don & Terri, their children and grandchildren all continue to make their homes here in beautiful Northeast Georgia.