Allen Bertke: “I love it when a plan comes together.”

You can’t see the mohawk in the photo, but Project Surveyor Jesse Waggoner, pictured, played a heck of a B.A. Baracus from the 1980s TV show The A-Team for a recent video introducing Choice One’s new drone surveying services. Check out The Choice One Team video to see Jesse’s mohawk in all of its glory, Allen’s delivery of the iconic line, and all of the acting “skills” of Choice One’s surveyors.

While there are many excellent acting accomplishments in The Choice One Team video we feel the award statue for “Best Awkward Performance” should go to co-op (and future full time employee) Justin Puthoff for his portrayal of “Concerned Property Owner.” And although Jesse’s real (albeit temporary) mohawk is pretty rad, the top honor in that category should definitely go to Jim Niergarth, playing Faceman, for “Performance by Bad Hair.”

If you’ve been reading Choice Mindsets for a while, you’ll know this isn’t the first time this particular quote has been declared. Back in 2012, Jeff Puthoff commented on Tony’s bad luck when his tire went flat on vacation. However, this time, the statement was made without any flat tires, as Allen, playing a Choice One version of The A-Team’s Hannibal, quoted the line while signing a survey plat with satisfaction. We do love it when a plan comes together!

Maggie: “This is MY Farmer Jeff.”

Miss Maggie, who is almost three years old, is Jeff Puthoff’s neighbor. Maggie’s backyard faces one of Jeff’s fields, and she enjoys watching Jeff manage his crops next door throughout the year. When offered the opportunity to dress like “Farmer Jeff” for the day (complete with green Choice One shirt and cowboy boots), Maggie eagerly agreed!

Jeff is not the first Choice One celebrity. Engineer Craig Eley is famous at the annual Ohio Transportation Engineer’s Conference and is often caught signing autographs for adoring traffic engineering fans. Engineer Nick Selhorst is still regularly appreciated for his portrayal of National Lampoon’s Cousin Eddie on Choice One’s 2017 Christmas card. And who could forget surveyor Dan Perreira’s appearance on a postcard that reached mailboxes in at least 15 Ohio counties?!

Much like surveyor Eric Kuck’s son Owen, Maggie looks pretty adorable in her Choice One gear, and we appreciate her excitement about green (even if it’s just to match “Farmer Jeff”). Maggie, we could use a few more enthusiastic engineers, so keep following in Jeff’s farmer footsteps, and perhaps you’ll become a civil engineer someday, too!

P.S. Watch Facebook and LinkedIn for some up and coming Choice One celebrities from our survey department next week!

Inquiring Mindsets want to know:
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of Fall?

Craig Frilling: “I speak my own language: Frillanese.”

There’s never a dull moment with Field Surveyor Craig “Frizz” Frilling around. Whether bad (the survey truck gets stuck) or good (he’s serving up his famous BBQ chicken), Craig always has a way of improving a situation with his unique way with words.

While Frizz hasn’t provided us a Frillanese-to-English translation dictionary yet, the following are terms that might be included in Craig’s personal language based on past events.

• Water-fall: Frillanese term meaning “drawn to the water.” Craig is always finding puddles, mud, creeks, and ponds to lose a boot or cool off in, even when it’s not hot.
• Cover your ears!: Frillanese term meaning “listen to her purr.” Craig is still waking up the neighbors starting up his classic 1989 GMC Safari van, which is still [barely] running!
• S’up?: Frillanese term meaning “Frizz is in da house!” Craig certainly has a way to make something slightly dreaded a little more enjoyable or flash a smile to brighten our days.
• Frizz-ability: Frillanese term meaning “willingness to help.” Craig is always lending a hand, and he’s often first to show up when help is needed.

Really, without Craig’s Frizz-ability, Choice One wouldn’t be the same. Not only would the rest of us have to lift more awkward, heavy things alone, shovel more sidewalks, and eat sub-par chicken at company picnics, we’d be without Craig’s sense of humor and bigheartedness, too. Thanks Craig, for making Choice One a Frizz-tastic place to be!

Matt Hoying: “Sammy couldn’t get Justin and Frizz to do it right, so she had to just do it herself.”

Sometimes, you just need to step in and show someone exactly what’s needed. Our graphic designer Sammy Selby doesn’t typically work on a Choice One field survey crew, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t show co-op Justin Puthoff and field surveyor Craig “Frizz” Frilling how it’s done.

Like Sammy, our surveyors are super versatile. They attract business with their good looks. They aren’t afraid to get wet, dirty, or cold. They keep our sidewalks safe when it snows (but do struggle a little with mud). Heck, they even pose for Choice Mindset photos without [much] complaining again, and again, and again.

We’re sure Sammy would be a great surveyor, but we think for now she’ll stick with graphic design—open-toed shoes probably aren’t ideal for some construction sites. Thanks, Sammy, for being willing to step in to show Justin and Frizz how to do things just right for the camera. If nothing else, you’re helping us be able to keep featuring them in Mindsets!

Are you or someone you know as versatile and tough as our field survey folks? Join us!

Brittany Clinehens: “Dang it! I knocked over the unicorn again!”

We’ll jump on the cliché of “Christmas in July” to present you with yet another random Choice One situation from this past December (we have so many there’s a backlog). For the 2022 Christmas office decorating contest, the front “pod” of Choice WONers (because you all voted and picked their pod as the best decorated!) created quite the winter wonderland that included a glittery, winged, twinkly-light-lit unicorn. And Brittany (far left in the photo) kept knocking it down every time she trotted past.

We get it, Brittany, there were dangling snowflakes to dodge and balloon clusters to evade, and dang it, that unsteady unicorn was hard to avoid (at least by Brittany…) Brittany is typically not clumsy (that designation typically applies to Nick Selhorst and Nick Sanders), but for whatever reason, she and the unicorn couldn’t keep out of each other’s way. Perhaps Brittany’s love of Christmas drew her and the unicorn together. Or maybe it was the somewhat questionable construction of the unicorn.

Like our Christmas décor, we at Choice One often end up being a unicorn: each day we choose to change what people expect from the typical business. So whether it be in December or July, we hope that when Brittany (or any of us) stumble into you, you always enjoy our unique style of twinkly-light-lit magic!