The Clear Zone is the area between a municipal road or highway and the property owner’s line. These rights-of-way must be continuously maintained for access, drainage, safety, and a host of other considerations.
Clear Zone Maintenance, Inc. provides services on federal, state, and local contracts to maintain these “clear zones” for highways, state, and county roads. In addition, the Company also fulfills commercial contracts to maintain and improve inbound and outbound roadways for rural commercial properties, such as farms, orange groves, cattle ranches, and more.
More than 45 years ago, Robert (Bobby) Lindsey started his own business with just one tractor and one employee (and that was himself). Soon after, he quickly grew to become one of Florida’s larger citrus growers, while simultaneously managing thousands of acres for absentee grove owners through Lindsey Citrus Management. In addition, Mr. Lindsey stayed ahead of his field by developing and maintaining a U.S. Patent on sophisticated mechanical equipment he developed for cutting, topping, and hedging citrus grove acreage. His mechanical development experience later led to the development of Riverland Hedging and Topping Inc., a mechanical citrus pruning operation that at one time grew to become the largest in the state of Florida, with more than 25 pruning machines in operation.
Although the family has been involved in the citrus industry by growing citrus since the 1800s, the opportunity arose in 1974 to enter the citrus management business. With Mr. Lindsey’s innovation, he decided to leverage his knowledge and expertise in this area and to focus on and grow Clear Zone Maintenance, Inc.
In the early 1990’s, the Florida Department of Transportation launched a privatized vegetation management initiative and this led to the opportunity to secure and complete the Company’s first ‘right-of-way’ project in St. Johns County, Florida. Soon after, Mr. Lindsey launched Clear Zone Maintenance, Inc., which officially paved the way to diversify his business outside of agriculture. Over the next 30 years, Clear Zone (CZ) grew as it successfully completed numerous federal, state, and local vegetation management, as well as various commercial contracts in Florida. In 2016, Mr. Lindsey expanded the Company’s business into Georgia and became a qualified vegetation management contractor with the Georgia Department of Transportation. Since then, his company has successfully completed numerous large-scale vegetation removal projects in Georgia.
Currently, Clear Zone Mantenance, Inc. stands as one of the largest and most successful forestry equipment fleets and vegetation management companies in the Southeast. As always, Mr. Lindsey continues to lead by striving for further innovation and expansion within his company.