While on a jobsite in the Loveland area, field surveyor Matthew West met a new friend: this delightful pup, who jumped right onto the survey crew’s truck offering his assistance and big doggo smile. This friendly guy must have heard we are hiring and wanted to see exactly what a surveyor does before submitting an application.

We’ve had a few non-adults consider surveying in the past, but this is the first non-human we have encountered. And while this pooch seems like a happy, willing potential coworker, Matthew said he used the sledgehammer the wrong way [as a fire hydrant], and that’s not very helpful of him at all.

For those on the survey crew, there’s always an element of the unknown waiting in each day’s list of tasks. Whether it be a new furry friend, a photo-op by some interesting nature, or the dream of a helicopter ride, our field surveyors often return to the office with an adventure story to share. So thanks to our surveyors, who not only work hard in the field but work to help us all share big smiles.

Meet Urban Reichert, the delightful two-year-old who won the Choice One NCAA pool this year. Although he wanted to spend his winnings on yogurt, his mom, Choice One engineer and sanitary sewer modeler Casey Reichert, used a portion of his winnings to bring cinnamon rolls in for the company to enjoy.

Yes, out of 57 Choice One brackets in this year’s pool, young Urban did indeed win. He was the only participant to pick UConn as the champ, to which Casey remarked, “I think UConn was just the easiest team for him to say when I asked which team would win.”   

If you’ve forgotten what seemed to be a slightly painful, surprising NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament for anyone filling out a bracket, the upsets of the tournament may have felt “crappy” at times. Still, the tournament did lead to cinnamon rolls for everyone at Choice One, not to mention the incredibly sweet photo above—and we’re positive those are both a WIN. Congrats Urban—thanks for the treat!

Moms can be SO embarrassing. Kari Egbert, Sidney’s Clerk of Council, is no exception. Still, her son, Choice One field surveyor Kole Egbert, stepped up and donned what appears to be an authentic smile to appease his mom at this year’s Sidney Choice One Charity Cup, held last week.

Throughout the “Wild West” themed night, there were tennis balls and horseshoes thrown, tasty BBQ consumed, and lots of smiles and laughter. Unfortunately for Kari, neither the official Team Sidney nor unofficial Team Egbert won the Charity Cup tournament. That honor went to the Village of Yellow Springs, pictured below. The biggest win of the night, however, was the $7,510.00 generously donated by our clients and friends to benefit the Miami Valley Down Syndrome Association and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Dayton. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported these two amazing organizations—we are blown away by your generosity and enthusiasm!

We hope everyone who attended the event enjoyed it as much as Kari did… or at least as much as Kole pretended to when detained for a photo with his mom. To see all the rootin’-tootin’ Wild West fun, including more of “Team Egbert,” check out the highlight video. Thanks again to all who attended!

Congrats to Yellow Springs’s Ben Sparks, Courtney Sparks,
Lane Dykman, Bethany Dykman, and Choice One’s Jake Bertke.

What engineer Abby Gaydosh was suspicious of doesn’t matter to this Mindset—around Choice One, it could be anything. Just a single paper out of place on your desk might mean there’s an airhorn under your chair ready to blast when you sit.

It can be rather difficult to tell what is and is not a prank around here—we do lots of ridiculous things to confuse reality. To help Abby, here are some things at Choice One that are NOT jokes, no matter how crazy they might sound:

• Genuine, passionate enthusiasm for the minutiae of traffic signal timings, detention basins, and sanitary effluent.
• Several of us have legit modeling careers.
• Eating 176.75 Skyline cheese coneys in one hour. On purpose.
• Strange obsession with wearing green

It’s not that we can’t be trusted. It’s just that Abby’s newer, and she just hasn’t experienced all of our repetitive jokes/pranks that we keep finding funny. Perhaps we should make watching the Choice One Scare-tober video a standard onboarding assignment (you can see Abby at 14 seconds). At least then newer employees, including Abby, will know it’s important to always peek around corners and check under ordinary looking desks to verify the presence of a prank.

Max is one of our project surveyors, and in true surveyor fashion, three monitors doesn’t feel like enough to view multiple views of research, mapping, and software all at once. So, without having a fourth monitor handy to achieve his desired mega-view, Max got innovative and “went vertical.”

One might wonder, “What do project surveyors do and how could they use four monitors?” Great question.

1. The first monitor is, of course, for watching the weather. These guys would HATE to send the field surveyors out in bad weather…
2. The second is for Zoom chatting about where they’re all going to lunch together (based on the quality of the cheese, of course).
3. The third monitor is for shading their eyes from the bright lights.
4. And finally, the elusive fourth monitor would just be to have one more monitor than anyone else in the office.

All joking aside, our surveyors do a heck of a job developing field survey calculations, easements, right-of-way plans, boundaries, property lines, research, survey crew coordination, topographic surveys, legal descriptions, plats, annexations, subdivision layouts, land title surveys, and the list goes on. Wait… maybe they DO need four monitors?

P.S. Any of this (including having three OR four monitors) sound interesting? Visit our Join the Team page—we’re looking for surveyors!