Troy Niese: “We have so many multiple names here we have run out of nicknames.”

Co-op Nick Schmidt is spending his summer semester in our Loveland office and keeps popping up when Loveland folks try to page a Sidney-office Nick (Selhorst, not Sanders), so it was deemed essential to give Nick Schmidt a nickname that wasn’t a “Nick-name.” We already have a Schmidty (who is one of three Brians), so Max (Keeley, not Scherch), randomly suggested “Scooter.”  Sorry Nick Schmidt, you’re forever Scooter from this point on.

With nearly 80 full-time employees at Choice One these days, it’s no surprise that we still have many double, triple, and even quadruple names here. When we first pointed out this phenomenon, 46 percent of Choice One had double/triple names. Now? 46 individuals have repeat first names, equaling nearly 58% of our staff! No wonder we’ve run out of nicknames!

Nick, Troy had a similar problem because we often reference working for the City of Troy. Somehow, Troy the person didn’t end up with a nickname even though he wanted one. So feel lucky, Nick, that at Choice One, you’re never just a name—you’re a unique piece of our ever-growing nickname puzzle.

Adam Siegel: “I want to get this necklace off. But my hands are sweating and cramping.”

Engineering co-op Adam Siegel accompanied Matt Hoying on a fieldwalk and happened across a discarded “gold” costume necklace in the gutter that he couldn’t pass up. Adam slid the necklace over his head but struggled to open the tiny clasp to take it off on the way back to the office. Despite Matt generously sharing the car’s A/C, after ten hand-cramping minutes of sweaty struggle, Adam was close to giving up on the imitation jewelry’s removal.

Apparently, having cramped, tired, and/or sweaty hands is common at Choice One. Indeed, swinging a sledgehammer is sometimes hard on the hands for new employees. Or remember the time Brittany ran Kaye’s head into the wall thanks to failing fingers? Sometimes we even work to avoid using our hands–so much so that going hands-free is desirable, especially when it comes to a “long” walk down the Sidney office’s 11-cartwheel long corridor.

In the end, Adam triumphantly freed himself from the chain’s grip (although he eventually put it back on to parade his “treasure” around the office). Thanks to Adam, we’ve learned that our fieldwalks can turn into treasure hunts, just like our office corridor walks can turn into cartwheels. And with this latest find, our collection of memorable moments just gained another gem—this time, a shiny, “gold” one.

Andy Shuman: “Who would have thought it would be almost too cold in June for ice cream?”

Like Brian Schmidt and chocolate chunk cookies, ice cream and summer just go together—there’s nothing like a double scoop on a hot June day. But this past Monday it was a bit chillier than we would have expected as we enjoyed some celebratory ice cream outside our offices.

The festive occasion was an exciting one: Choice One was named a top five Best Firm to Work for in the nation by the Zweig Group for the 11th year in a row, and in typical engineer/surveyor/landscape architect fashion, we celebrated with fun food and high fives and then eagerly got back to work—so much to do! June is prime design and construction time (not to mention vacation time!), which means we like to keep busy with some of our favorite types of designs: roundabouts, sanitary sewers, and arm pits… er, renderings and concepts.

Regardless of the weather, ice cream is always a welcome reward at Choice One–note that Andy said almost too cold. To be sure, if there’s something tasty to enjoy, neither weather, nor too much refrigerator clutter, nor filing cabinets are going to stop us. Here’s to many more years of sweet success!

Inquiring Mindsets:
What are you looking forward to this summer?

Summer is upon us, and we at Choice One couldn’t be happier. Sure, we have summer vacations planned, but we’re REALLY excited that it’s full-on construction season, blazing hot field survey season, and, of course “winter” for Mike G. Still, besides all that, what else are Choice Oners looking forward to most this summer?

Mitch Thobe: ”Many kids dress up for Halloween as what they want to be when they grow up–some Batman, some an NFL football player. Justin had it figured out very early.”

Eight years after the Halloween “costume” photo on the left, Justin’s goal of working for Choice One Engineering has come true—last week he was hired full-time as a civil engineer after graduating from Ohio State.

Although he’s only been a full-time employee for a couple of weeks, Justin was featured in Choice Mindsets several times as a co-op. Indeed, he’s sweated it out thanks to Dan Perriera’s stingy management of air conditioning. And he made his acting debut in The Choice One Team video last summer as “Excited Property Owner” and “Field Surveyor with Machete #2.” A double billing!

Justin, the sky’s the limit here at Choice One for you—you’ll probably be controlling the A/C and winning an Oscar before too long. Just remember the three “Ds” of new Choice One employees: Develop great projects, Dress in green always, and, of course, Doughnuts for all after your first paycheck.

Link Thobe: “Daddy, I want to see the water drain!”

Link is the 2-year-old son of one of Choice One’s stormwater engineer Tyler Thobe and wife Brittany. While out and about near his home with his parents (who were watching for traffic), Link couldn’t help but check out the catch basin structure along the street. And we agree–stormwater is interesting, Link!

It’s hard not to let our engineering, surveying, and landscape architecture passions rub off on our families and friends. Despite the fact that his kids are all adults now, designer Brian Barhorst is still probably dragging his family past Choice One roadway projects all over Ohio. Jeff Puthoff’s  “dress like dad for Halloween” sons are both studying to be engineers like dad (and Justin starts full-time at Choice One next week!). And although he hasn’t been hired as a surveyor yet, surveyor Eric Kuck’s son Owen, now 8 years old, probably fits into his dad’s Choice One shirt a little better now than he did at age 2.

We hope you inspire more kids get into stormwater management, Link. Who doesn’t like to splash in puddles, run in the rain, review times of concentration, and calculate composite runoff coefficients? Keep checking out those catch basins, too—we appreciate your enthusiasm toward flow rates and invert elevations!