30 Mar Kick the Tires and Light the Fires!
Josh Craig:
“Just like in the movie, Goose bites it and Maverick lives on.”

Charity Cup Champions City of Greenville (l-r Steve Willman, Curt Garrison, Chad Henry, and Choice One’s Wes Goubeaux)
Josh Craig:
“Just like in the movie, Goose bites it and Maverick lives on.”
Charity Cup Champions City of Greenville (l-r Steve Willman, Curt Garrison, Chad Henry, and Choice One’s Wes Goubeaux)
Nick Selhorst:
“I bet Matt’s parents were confused.”
Every week or so Brittany writes a fun question on our break area whiteboard to help us learn more about each other and to have a little fun. We felt this one solicited quite a few entertaining answers (and at least one eye roll…).
So how did Choice One itself get named? Back in 1994, the original founders and owners didn’t want to use their last names for the new company, as they planned to add more owners as the company grew. (What foresight!). So, as the legend goes, the founders wanted something positioned at the beginning of the alphabet, because, you know, the Yellow Pages still mattered then. (What foresight?)
Brittany, maybe next week you can ask a follow-up question on the whiteboard: Why didn’t your parents name you something else? Didn’t they know that you’d work for Choice One someday and we’d have too many Jeffs, Allan/Allens, Nicks, Craigs, Brians, Ryans, and Michaels?
P.S. Don’t forget that we’re approaching the Sidney-area Choice One Charity Cup–join us March 28 for an evening of fun!
Matt Hoying:
“I find it ironic that Megan has a file folder marked ‘Paperless’ and… there’s paper in it.”
While tracking down what was surely a truly thrilling portion of the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee Standard General Conditions of the Construction Contract (even the name is long, legal, and boring…), Matt came across one of Megan’s files that, well, seemed like a bit of an oxymoron. The paper in the “Paperless” file is, coincidentally, more legal-beagle language: the portion of the Ohio Revised Code that dictates which kinds of documents can be kept electronically and which must be kept as hard copies.
At Choice One, we’ve noticed a few oxymorons within our line of work. Like how sewer smoke-testing smoke comes as a liquid. Or how traffic engineers perform “speed studies” with the expectation of slowing drivers down. And that sometimes there’s more right-of-way on the left side of the street. Shoot, even our industry is an oxymoron—is there such a thing as a “civil” engineer?
Matt, if you’re looking for more irony concerning paperless-ness, perhaps you could calculate how much paper was used by the State of Ohio to ascertain if a bit of information had to be kept on paper or not. We’re guessing the amount of paper devoted to becoming paperless at the state level is “seriously funny” compared to Megan’s single sheet of printed text.
Bruce Metz (Jackson Center Village Administrator):
“Do you know what I’m pointing to?”
No, Bruce is not pointing to his warm, friendly heart or his stylish (albeit green-less) shirt. He is pointing to his Jeff-Puthoff-style pen placement, because he knows how much Jeff Puthoff misses his precious pocket.
While many of us at Choice One often keep a snazzy, blue-ink-only Choice One pen in our pockets, a few of us carry (or in some cases don’t carry…) more distinctive items:
Bruce, thanks for so kindly sympathizing with Jeff on the lack of personal storage space. Pocket or not, however, let’s make sure that pen you carry is one of those snazzy, blue-ink-only types. We’ll have Jeff drop one off if he remembers to tuck an extra in his… padfolio.
P.S. If you haven’t submitted your team for the Sidney Charity Cup, sign up before the March 1 deadline!
Kyle Siegrist:
“To be clear… I can grow a mustache, it is just very blonde and thin.”
Do you feel the need? The need for …a thin blonde mustache?
If that statement makes no sense to you, it’s probably because you haven’t seen the 2018 Sidney Choice One Charity Cup Invite. If you can’t tell from the invitation, this year’s theme is all the US Navy F-14s, volleyball on the beach, mirrored aviator fun from the 1986 movie Top Gun you can handle. Designer Kyle Siegrist is our resident “Goose” on the invite. Just without the mustache part…
Kyle, maybe your lack of a Goose-style mustache is due to the fact that you weren’t yet born in the height of the Top Gun era. But it’s ok, you were born in a MUCH better year: 1994. You know, the year Choice One Engineering was founded. Good things clearly come from the year 1994, so we know that despite his lack of facial hair in the upper lip-ular area, Kyle is still one of “the best of the best,” like the pilots from Top Gun.
So if you’re not busy on March 28, and don’t mind getting the song “Danger Zone” stuck in your head, come out to the Sidney Charity Cup. We can’t promise our version of Goose will have a mustache, but we’re pretty sure we can promise good food, good competition, a good cause, and a lot of Top Fun!
Matt: “The City asked us about doing a water model for them.”
Jake: “I do modeling. Just not water modeling–that’s up to Brian Schmidt.”