• CHW is thrilled to announce the purchase of a new corporate headquarters building in Tower Hill. The building is currently under extensive design and renovation to better serve the needs of our 40 employees and our valued customers. This much anticipated move will occur in mid-May and we will keep everyone posted on all the exciting details.

• Christopher Polhill was recently hired to join CHW's Survey Division as a Senior Survey Technician. Chris is a graduate of the University of North Florida where he earned a B.A. in Political Science. His surveying knowledge and experience were obtained through employment with 151, Inc. and most recently B.V. & Associates. Chris brings a broad range of knowledge and experience to our team in having provided both municipal and private entities with surveying services. His primary role at CHW is data reduction, manipulation, and mapping production. In addition to Chris's drafting responsibility, he will also serve our GPS office/field operations.
• CHW is proud to announce the hire of Shawn Steers to the position of Student Engineer Intern. Shawn is currently a Civil Engineering student at the University of Florida and is scheduled to graduate in May, 2012. Shawn will be assisting the department on various projects while he finishes his Bachelor of Science degree.

• Rory Causseaux was mentioned in a recent article in the Gainesville Sun. He was a panelist on at the third annual University of Florida Bergstrom Center Real Estate Forum. Click here for the full article.

• CHW in partnership with CPPI and Ponikvar & Associates was selected to design and permit a new state of the art bus maintenance facility, administration, and operations building and parking for 200 buses for the City of Gainesville RTS. The $50 million total project budget will be phased in over several years and when completed will allow RTS to efficiently and effectively operate and maintain its fleet of buses including Bus Rapid Transit and Articulated Buses. CHW is excited to be a part of one of the largest City of Gainesville Public Works projects ever under taken.
• CHW was selected by the City of Alachua to design, permit, and provide construction administration to a 10,000 linear foot reclaim water main extension project. The extension will provide reclaimed water from Alachua's new state of the art Water Reclamation Facility to the City of Gainesville's bio Mass Facility (also known as the Reusable Energy Center). This will allow it to use reclaimed water rather than significant groundwater withdrawal via well. The project design will occur in early 2012 with construction completion by January 2013.

• As a local business, CHW is involved with the community through event sponsorships and volunteering. We were recently involved with the American Heart Association Heart Walk and promoted heart health throughout our office. For the holidays, CHW is conducting a food drive to support the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank. This is a great local cause to be involved with. They deliver a barrel to your office for your collections. As you fill it up, they come to replace it and distribute the food to the needy through non-profit groups and churches. During FY 2010-11, the organization distributed 4,103,419 pounds of food - a new record. We decided to coordinate our collections with our Employee Christmas Potluck this year. As the smell of home cooked meals fill the office, so do the donations overflowing the barrel.
• We have had such great volunteer involvement by our employees this past year. As such, CHW has made it our goal to supplement our normal sponsorships with more volunteer events in the community. Our goal is to participate in 6 local volunteer events in 2012. To kick it off, we are sponsoring and volunteering at the City of Gainesville 13th Annual Great Air Potato Roundup on January 28, 2012. It is a huge city wide event to reduce the pervasiveness of this invasive species in our parks. We also raised the stakes by having a competition with local landscape architect firm,Buford Davis & Associates ,on who will collect the most air potatoes. We hope to see many of our friends in the community at the event.

• CHW is proud to announce the hire of Jason Johns to the position of Construction Project Inspector. Jason joins us from the FDOT and brings seven years of Senior Roadway Inspection experience with him. His past experience includes inspections of bridge repairs, rails to trails project and numerous miles of roadway construction both new and rehabilitation throughout FDOT District 2. His addition will further strengthen the CEI Division at CHW, allowing us to provide even greater services and responsiveness to our clients and further raises the bar of experience, knowledge, and professionalism here at CHW.

• Causseaux, Hewett, & Walpole, Inc. teamed with CPPI/Ponikvar and was awarded the City of Gainesville RTS design build project to construct a new bus maintenance, administration and operations facility located off Veitch Street off South Main Street. The facility will initially accommodate 200 buses with future expansion capabilities. The nearly 40 million dollar project is funded in large part with Federal Transportation Authority funds. Construction will start in the fall of 2012.

• Francis M. Block passed away peacefully in his sleep on September 19, 2011. He is survived by his wife, Rosie, and two daughters, Ricki Lynn and Ashley. Frank had recently been promoted to Construction Inspector within the Construction Administration Division. He had been with the firm since 2003, and previously provided Field Crew Chief duties as part of the Surveying Division. He was very well respected in his survey duties and was quickly gaining similar respect in his new role as a Construction Inspector. Our office is establishing a scholarship in his name at Santa Fe College. Our office has also set up the Francis M. Block Family Fund at M&S Bank to offer assistance to his family. For more information about the fund, please contact Becki Jordan at our office.

• Causseaux, Hewett, & Walpole, Inc. was awarded a contract by the Gilchrist County BoCC to study and mitigate flooding along several residential streets as well as paving nearly 1 mile of limerock roads. The nearly $700k project is funded by a CBDG and will start construction in early 2012.
• Causseaux, Hewett, & Walpole, Inc., partnering with John C. Hipp Construction Equipment Co. Inc., was awarded a design-build project by the FDOT on October 24, 2011 for the shared-use path and other associated work on the 7 mile section of CR 354 from US 27 to SR 51 in Lafayette County. The project will consist of a 7+ mile, 12-foot wide shared use path within the CR 354 Right-of-Way. All driveways and side roads will be paved from edge of pavement to the R/W limits. CHW will be responsible for all land surveying services required for the design and construction of the project, as well as all engineering design and regulatory agency permitting services. Cal-Tech will provide geotechnical services and Normandeau will provide gopher tortoise relocation and associated permitting services. Hipp will construct the facilities and will be the prime for the contract with the FDOT. Land surveying will occur between December 2011 and January 2012. Engineering design and permitting will occur between February 2012 and April 2012. Construction will occur between April 2012 and October 2012.

• Guy Parola, A.I.C.P. was recently hired as a Planning Project Manager in the Planning Department. He has a Bachelors of Science in Food and Resource Economics and a Masters of Arts in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Florida. He was formerly with the City of Jacksonville Planning and Development Department from 2000-2006 and then with the Northeast Florida Regional Council from 2006 to 2011. His new role will have providing comprehensive, regulatory, and land development services.

• Causseaux, Hewett, & Walpole, Inc. participated in the Alachua County HeartWalk on September 24, 2011. The company participated in two aspects for this event from July 11 to the day of the event. The first was to promote being healthy during this time period by encouraging employees to be more active and eating healthier. We competed against each other to see which team could produce the most steps or equivalent steps. The second aspect was fundraising for the American Heart Association . In total we raised over $3,300.
• Causseaux, Hewett, & Walpole, Inc. attended the inaugural Education Ball for the Alachua County Public Schools Foundation on September 18, 2011. This event raised money for the following programs:
  
  • Take Stock in Children
  • Foundation for Success Teacher Grants
  • Senior Scholarships
  • Black Stallion Literacy Program
  
  Our office was an Educator Sponsor of the event. The theme of the evening was "A Night in the BIG Apple for Education" and consisted of a dinner, entertainment, dancing, and a silent auction. For more information, please click here for more information.

• Causseaux, Hewett, & Walpole, Inc. was one of three firms selected by the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) for their Annual Engineering Services for Projects less than $2 million at the August 9, 2011 BoCC Meeting. Notifications were sent to 3,874 entities; solicitations were requested by 103 entities; and 10 responses were received from Alachua County. CHW was ranked #1 of the final five teams selected and the final three approved. Our team was comprised of companies and individuals who work and live within Alachua County. Those companies that comprised the CHW team were Buford Davis & Associates, Ecosystem Research Corporation, GSE Engineering and Consultants, Plan-It U.S., LLC, SouthArc, Inc., and Volkert, Inc.

• We distributed our Third Quarter 2011 Newsletter notifying clients and interested parties about updates to:
• Alachua County CLSC Extensions
• Innovation Gainesville
• Growth Management Updates for the State of Florida and how they impact our local communities
• City of Gainesville updated Regulations for the Protection of Natural and Archeological Resources
• Alachua County pending ULDC updates

For more information, please click here to see the newsletter in its entirety.

• Christopher Gmuer, PE and Andrew Roberts, PE are a part of this year's Florida Engineering Society's North Central Chapter slate of officers. Andrew is this year's Chapter President and Co-Coordinator for the MATHCOUNTS Committee. Chris is this year's Chapter Secretary and Coordinator for the K-12 Committee.

• On July 11, 2011, CHW began fundraising and promoting heart-healthy living for its employees by participating in the Start! Heart Walk program with the American Heart Association. The company has been divided up into teams of four to have a friendly competition to see which team can produce the most steps between now and the Annual Gainesville Heart Walk being held on September 24, 2011. So far this month we have raised funds by starting a friendly penny wars competition to collect our spare change, a Bring-Your-Dog-to-Work Day, and a Rock Band party. If you would like to participate or help with our fundraising for this great cause, please see more information on our Community page.
• On July 20, 2011, Rory started on his trip for Climb for Cancer where he will be climbing to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. He will be flying over to Africa with his wife and nine other individuals in an effort to raise funds and awareness about cancer. He will be reaching the summit on July 29, 2011 and will return back home on August 6, 2011. For more information or how you can help with this great cause, please see our Community page.

• Sean Faegans was recently re-hired as a Field Technician in the surveying division. Sean returns to work with us after having worked here in the past from December of 2000 to December of 2007. In his role he will serve on a field crew in support of a Crew Chief.