Free service offer to Town small biz, non-profits: Paradise Tree

Farragut, Hardin Valley and other Knox County area businesses have blessed Benton Castor, co-owner of Paradise Tree Service and Property Maintenance, 2912 W. Highway 11E in Strawberry Plains, so he wants to pay it forward.

With the company heading into its 25th year in January 2022, Castor said he is reaching out to help small businesses and non-profit organizations by providing once-a-month free service for 2021.

“I’m looking for one small business or non-profit each and every month in the Knox and surrounding county areas,” he said. “We know that 2020 was really hard on a lot of small businesses. It was also hard on non-profits because they rely on funding and things of that nature.

“We just know the importance, being a small business ourselves, that plays as far as the economics of a community, so we just wanted to offer our services, and we’re giving a day’s worth of free work one time a month to just help alleviate some costs or some needs that these businesses or non-profits may have.

“The Knox and surrounding counties have been great to us,” Castor added. Although he has seen businesses and nonprofits struggling through COVID, he said Paradise was “very fortunate, very blessed, so I just want to return that.

“I’m really just trying to get the word out there and spread it out to be able to reach people that may need the help,” Castor said. “My goal and intention is to do it every month for the year 2021.

“But honestly, I’m already starting to receive some good feedback,” so he may extend the service into 2022.

To check out the free service, businesses and non-profits can go to the link on its website, paradisetreeserviceandpropertymaintenance.com.

Castor said he is looking for eight more entities and will select one local business or non-profit each month.

, providing landscaping, hardscaping tree trimming and tree removal.

Paradise Tree Service is a full-scale tree service company that provides trimming, removal, stump grinding and more.

“We have bucket trucks, Bobcats, chippers, dump trucks, everything that you need, and we do property maintenance,” he said. That also includes mulching, fencing, hardscapes, mowing and weed eating.

“We really encompass everything outdoors,” Castor said, adding the one-day-a-month service would depend on the entity’s needs.

“I could come in, look at (the property) and say ‘this is what I can do in a day’ or I could do the whole project,” he said.

The company services everywhere from Morristown to Loudon County and everywhere in between, including Farragut and Hardin Valley, Castor said.

“We service all these areas,” he said. “We’re just trying to give back to the places that have given us (business). We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for our customers that give us the work.”

The business will celebrate 25 years in January 2022.

“My partner (Clint Pratt) started the business, mowing grass at Beaty Chevrolet, and it’s just grown and developed from that ever since,” Castor said. “It’s all about serving people, giving back and helping.

“We do everything from routine mowing and weed-eating to (repairing) extensive storm damage and tree removal,” he said. “There really is no job that is too big or too small to be able to handle.”