PALATKA, Fla. -- Residents of Palatka are concerned after the city's largest employer was sold, but officials are telling the 1,200 employees that their jobs are secure.

The announcement that Kansas-based Koch Industries bought Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific came Sunday, making people at Putnam County's paper mill nervous about their future.

The $13.2 billion deal received approval from both companies' boards, making Koch the largest private company in the United States, operating refineries and pipelines, and manufacturing pulp, paper and fibers.

Georgia Pacific makes consumer paper products, along with building products such as plywood, lumber and gypsum wallboard.

"This is where we go to church, this is where we coach our kids, this is where we send our kids to school, so we're a part of this community," G-P spokesman Jeremy Alexander said Monday.

Koch offiicals told Channel 4's John Dunlap they had no plans to close the plant, it will retain the Georgia-Pacific name and it's pulp division will continue to be run out of headquarters in Atlanta.

"Coached with their good reputation -- and Georgia-Pacific has a good reputation -- it looks like a win-win situation," Palatka Mayor Carl Flagg said. "But any time you become a subsidiary of a larger company, you're always concerned about what's the next step."

The experience of paper workers at a southeast Georgia plant bought last year by Koch does reassure the people in Putnam County.

Koch bought Georgia-Pacific's pulp mill in Glynn County early last year. After the sale, the company promised local officials that all the plant's 768 workers would retain their jobs, and while Channel 4 can find no currently employment figures for the Brunswick plant, there have been no major layoffs.

While there is always concern about exporting jobs overseas, as one official said, as long as they're using local timber in the product, it makes sense to keep the plants open and the jobs here.