Plum Creek Hires Workers to Install Legal Notice Signage as Part of Land-Use Application to Alachua County
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Delivering on requests from the community that the company target local workers for employment opportunities arising from Envision Alachua, Plum Creek has hired 10 Alachua County residents to install road signs as public notice of the company’s pending land-use-change application to Alachua County.
This week, Plum Creek submitted the long-term master plan application to amend the Alachua County Comprehensive Plan resulting from Envision Alachua, a community planning process that began in 2011 to create a future vision for the 65,000 acres of land the company owns in Alachua County.
In accordance with legal requirements of the land-use application, Plum Creek is posting approximately 420 signs on public roads adjacent to the company’s holdings that are subject to the change in use. Over a four-day period, the workers will install the bright orange notices along 85 miles of road frontage on SR 20, SR 26, SR 121, CR 234, CR 325, CR 346, CR 1474, CR 2082 and SE 22nd Drive.
“Even though this is short-term work, Plum Creek believes it’s important to provide that local opportunity – whether temporary or full-time – demonstrating our commitment to the community’s desire to have jobs from the GED to the Ph.D.,” said Rose Fagler, community manager for Plum Creek in Florida.
Training was held on Thursday at the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department pavilion during which workers learned how to post signs and measure off the legal distance and toured the lands where the signs will be posted. They are erecting the notices today, Monday and Tuesday.
Partnering with Causseaux, Hewett, & Walpole, Inc. (CHW), a local civil engineering firm, and Florida Works, Plum Creek received assistance with hiring the contracted labor, training, supervising and assuring quality control of the sign-posting effort. Florida Works assisted in posting the job opening and screening the applicants to the final candidate pool. CHW is also providing support in long-term maintenance and removal of the signs after the Alachua County Commission’s vote on the land-use application, which is expected in August 2014.
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Plum Creek is among the largest private landowners in the nation, with approximately 6.4 million acres of timberlands in the United States. The company’s core business is timber, but it also manages some of its land for conservation, recreation, natural resources and community development. The company owns 448,000 acres in 21 counties in Florida. Nearly 95,000 acres of those lands are permanently conserved. In Alachua County, Plum Creek is the largest private landowner with 65,000 acres. Nearly 24,000 of those acres are permanently conserved. The company’s holdings are located throughout northern and eastern Alachua County. For more information about Plum Creek in Florida, visit www.plumcreek.com/florida