Choice Mindsets

02 Sep Office Space

Megan Bornhorst:
“I don’t know what’s more exciting: Tony cleaning his office, or the new refrigerator?”

This week, Tony has been busy straightening up his office with a thorough cleaning. The commotion has drawn most of us in to chuckle at hairstyles in old photos, kid Tony about a resume rejection letter he kept from 1984 (he claims he was rejected 500 times—why he kept just this one letter is a mystery), and admire the impressive stack of outdated textbooks older than half the staff at Choice One.

Apparently, as exemplified in the hidden-camera-esc photos above, equally exciting this week is the new refrigerator delivered to the Sidney office. Upon finding the original 2001 paperwork for the old fridge (likely amongst the cobwebs on Tony’s shelves), we realized that it was time to provide our larger 2016 staff a little more space to play refrigerator Jenga with lunches, Canteen soda, and leftovers.

While these two events may seem unrelated, they’re actually well-timed, as we will need more space for another engineer: we are currently searching for a new, full-time engineer for our Loveland office*. The new fridge will offer that future engineer a place to keep his or her bologna sandwich cold on company meeting days, and with Tony’s office now cleaner, we can consider partitioning off a space for that third restroom we’ve been dreaming of. And maybe, with Tony’s office space doubling as the third restroom, something can FINALLY get accomplished in there, whether he’s around or not.

*Know a civil engineer looking for a job who wouldn’t mind being picked on in a Choice Mindset? Send him or her our way!

19 Aug What’s Your Sign?

Inquiring Mindsets want to know:
“If you were a traffic sign, what would you be?”

	Megan Bornhorst, Chronic Hugger “”This crazy directional sign, as I feel I am going a million different directions with my kids, and I like its inspirational ‘good luck’ message.”
	Ryan Lefeld, Potential Cleveland Browns Draft Pick “As a lefty, I would be the ‘no right turn sign.'”
	Brittany Clinehens, Professional Christmas Decorator “‘Use Crosswalk, Don’t Jaywalk,’ because my third-grade self entered a school safety contest with the same phrase. I thought I was being clever by rhyming ‘walk’ with ‘walk.'”
	Tony Schroeder, Coffee Machine Repairman “‘One Way.’ I am an introverted engineer who likes things a certain way… which I believe, of course, is the right way.”

05 Aug Schooled

Craig Eley:

“I bring in an apple a day. Next company meeting quiz I’m going to put it on Tony’s desk to hopefully get an A.”

22 Jul Christmas in July

Kecia Flaute:
“Did you see Mitch opening up that box of traffic counter tube road tape? He’s the traffic engineer equivalent of a kid at Christmas.”

In case you weren’t paying attention to the date, Brittany and Megan (above) would like to remind you that it’s essentially six months to Christmas. (Don’t tell our resident Grinch, Jeff Puthoff.) And Christmas often means the newest, latest gadget to open on Christmas morning, much like Mitch and his treasured tape.

New gadgets that excite us at Choice One are often atypical to the digital doo-dads popular each holiday season. For instance, Matt Hoying fondly remembers that special day, many years ago, when we received our first traffic counter and tubes, and he officially became M. John, Traffic Superhero. Many of us have gathered around a computer screen, marveling at the latest edition of SimTraffic and Synchro traffic engineering software, watching the little animated cars go around and around an animated street (or to watch when the bathroom is available). And who could forget when we got our new coffee machine and all of the “joy” it brought Tony back in early 2012?

So what’s on the Choice One wish list this Christmas in July? Grain farmers Andy Shuman and Jeff Puthoff are probably dreaming of rain. Brian Schmidt is likely imagining Arby’s. Or Pop-Tarts. Or just food in general. And co-op Collin Schroeder is hoping that Mitch’s prized mastic road tape is just a LITTLE easier to scrape off those twelve, 30-foot traffic counter tubes next time.

08 Jul Inquiring Mindsets

Inquiring Mindsets* want to know:
“What is your favorite Choice One Canteen snack?”

	Nick Selhorst, Coffee Sampler “Starburst, but only the red and pink ones. I secretly feed the yellow and orange ones to Schmidty.”
	Jeff Kunk, Doughnut Non-Buyer “I only eat food from the Canteen when it’s expired and Barney puts it out for free.”
	Brian “Barney” Barhorst, Sidney Canteen Manager “I don’t buy my own product because it would eat into my profits.”
	Brian “Schmidty” Schmidt, Loveland Canteen Manager “Pop-Tarts, which are both sweet and healthy. But only when yellow and orange Starbursts stop magically appearing on my desk.”

24 Jun Kidding Around

Tony Schroeder:

“How many Barhorsts does it take to scan?”

Three, Tony. It clearly takes three.

Brian “Barney” Barhorst’s daughters Carly (left) and Danielle (right) have been helping us this summer on our quest to make Choice One paperless by scanning plans and documents. If you’ll recall, our good friend Camille began a few summers back before heading to the University of Dayton to become a chemical engineer. (How dare she not want to be a CIVIL engineer, right?!)

Indeed, our employees’ kids seem to enjoy Choice One as much as their moms and dads. For instance:

• Wes Goubeaux’s daughter Callie has mentioned that she “loves that Daddy gets to wear green every day!”
• Jeff Kunk’s family mows, trims, and cares for the landscaping at the Sidney office (to Barney’s standards, which, mind you, is no small feat).
• Just this past Father’s Day, Tony’s son Wade gave his dad a custom Choice One cycling jersey. That’s Tony’s son-in-law Nick on the right in the linked photo, stuck riding and tent camping with Tony for a whole week on the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure. Poor guy.

Even though Carly and Danielle recently commented, “Great, even our birthday cake is Choice One colors…” we like to think our families don’t mind admiring (or at least accepting) a closet full of green, cutting the grass just so, or spending a week pedaling with us. And maybe, just maybe, Kunk’s kids will pony up for him and buy the doughnuts their dad owes us.