Choice Mindsets

26 May Feeling Stilted

Cara Tilford, Sugarcreek Township:
“Did you send the tallest Choice One employee you have?”

He may be trying to disguise himself with those sunglasses, but we see right through that masquerade—that’s surveyor Ryan Francis. On stilts. Because… why not?

Ryan is a helpful guy, and while being helpful dropping off a few things to our friends at Sugarcreek Township on his way to perform a survey nearby, Cara coerced… ok, “encouraged” him to try out a set of [green!] stilts. Indeed! Just see how stylish and graceful he looks!

Contrary to Cara’s comment, Ryan is NOT the tallest Choice One employee. That title currently belongs to Nick Sanders, who has handily out-heighted all of us since he first started cranking out storm water pollution prevention plans with Choice One years ago.

Regardless, Ryan is owed a big “thank you” for helping out with the delivery (and for being a good sport). But the biggest “thank you” of all goes to Cara, for not only getting Ryan on stilts and in sunglasses, but for deftly snapping and sending the photo, too!

12 May Licensed

Nick Selhorst:
“Michael found out he passed his P.E. on Friday morning so he hung up his “certificate” in Loveland.”

It may seem like just a sheet of paper, but to an engineer like Michael, passing the Professional Engineer (P.E.) exam and achieving licensure is a big deal. That piece of thicker-than-average paper means he has spent years preparing for a career in a glamorous field such as pavement analysis, water distribution modeling, or sewage pumping.

Obtaining a Professional Engineer’s license is a lengthy process. First, one spends five-ish years as an undergrad studying engineering. Indeed, some poor saps around here even suffered through this at the University of Dayton or the University of Toledo. Then one must spend four years under the tutelage of other Professional Engineers. Just imagine–four painful years under the scrutiny of uber-nerds like Matt, Tony, and Jeff Puthoff! Then, finally, one must pass an eight-hour P.E. test (and to get an engineer to think about engineering for ONLY eight hours at a time is a real feat…)

We could joke that we at Choice One also have a few other P.E.s besides our engineers around here (like Pizza Estimator Matt, Penny Economist Allen Bertke, or Pocket Eliminator Brittany). But we know it takes hard work to become a real licensed Professional Engineer. So here’s to Michael and all of the other P.E.s. Without you we’d still have gravel roads, no water pressure, and, yep… outhouses.

28 Apr What’s in a Name?

Angela Polechek-Damron, Village of Ada:
“You guys should start naming all Choice One babies after communities you’ve helped design over the years!”

If you follow Choice One on Facebook or Twitter, you might have noticed that there has been quite a rash of Choice One babies born in the past few weeks. When Portland engineer Ryan Lefeld and his wife Diana named their little girl Adalynn (above, left*), our friend Angela from the Village of Ada speculated that Adalynn was named after her employer. (Also pictured above are Michael and Andrea Seeger’s son Carter, middle, and Mitch and Kate Thobe’s son Drew, right*.)

Just think if these little ones follow in the footsteps of their daddies! By the time Drew Thobe is a traffic engineer like Mitch, cars might be flying. When Carter Seeger is designing site plans like Michael, he might be designing sites on Mars. And when little Adalynn is designing sanitary sewer like her daddy, Ryan… well… at that point sewage will probably still run downhill just like it does today.

While Ryan hasn’t officially confirmed whether or not [potential] future civil engineer Adalynn was really named after the Village of Ada, we can confirm that apparently the trend of naming all Choice One kids after communities hasn’t caught on quite yet**. Fear not! There are four more Choice One babies due between now and October (including twins!), so there is plenty of time for a Van Wert Heitbrink, a Wapakoneta Hoying, and twins Lebanon and South Lebanon Kuck.

*By the way, Adalynn and Drew, you owe the company lunch since you’re wearing the old logo.
**We can add to this list Ellianna Marie–daughter of Loveland engineer Brian Schmidt and his wife Marielle–born just this week! …Wait, was she named after the Village of Anna?!

14 Apr Say Cheese!

Nick Sanders:
“I also got up early to do my hair. 10 seconds early, to be exact.”

This week we’re taking a few new company photos. Some of us (ok, maybe just the ladies), have been discussing the extra time devoted to pre-photo hairstyling to make sure this most important picture looks amazing. Engineer Nick Sanders also thought some extra primping time was appropriate. As you can see those extra 10 seconds really paid off. Look at that ‘do!

These photos are being taken for our soon-to-be redesigned website. We’re infusing a little Choice One-ality into our individual shots, and Nick is featured with his favorite t-shirt—if you know Nick, you know that 14 of his greatest joys are his grandkids (indeed, if you’ll recall, number 13 was born during a Choice One company meeting). And if you know the rest of us, you can probably guess what will be featured in each photo… Farmer Jeff Puthoff with a John Deere hat (so predictable). Fast-food connoisseur Brian Schmidt with his elegant, sophisticated Burger King crown (naturally). And Mitch Thobe with his beloved, nerdy traffic counter, or his Cleveland Browns jersey (we don’t know which is more depressing).

Our other photo personalities might not be so obvious, so we’ll keep you guessing–hopefully you’ll visit the new site when it’s launched in the coming months to find out. While you might wonder if Kaye will be holding a ping-pong paddle or if Caray will be featured with two sets of jumper cables, you can bet there will be some amazing hair and smiles AND amazing Choice One fun to discover.

31 Mar It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane!

Don Harrod, Village of Minster:
“Hurry up! I don’t know how much longer I can fly!”

Evidenced by his billowing green cape, Don Harrod (Village of Minster Administrator) is indeed a superhero. However, maybe his super power is something other than flying. It probably didn’t help that photographer Joan Schroeder may have “encouraged” Don to hold his flying pose far longer than was necessary to snap a few photos. Don happened to win the Charity Cup raffle’s Grand Prize–a personal drone–so we hope the drone is able to fly a little longer than Don himself…

This past Wednesday was Choice One’s annual Charity Cup, during which our clients and friends helped us raise funds for a couple of great organizations. We invited guests to enjoy a night of food, drinks, and a few competitive rounds of comic book Superhero Bucket Ball. Over the course of the night, we saw a few Supermen, a few Wonder Women, and LOTS of Jokers!

Words don’t quite do our appreciation justice, but since that’s all we have, THANK YOU to all you for your amazing generosity and a really fun night. Because of your donations, we were able to collect $6,560 for two great causes. We can again sponsor the Miami Valley Down Syndrome Association’s family day at Young’s Jersey Dairy, and we are able to send three veterans on an Honor Flight to Washington D.C.!

Despite Mr. Harrod’s “heroic” efforts, it was the City of Vandalia taking home the first place trophy. Congrats to Vandalia’s Rob Cron, Ted Baker, and Chad Baughman! Watch for more Charity Cup photos, videos, and updates on Choice One’s Facebook and Twitter.

17 Mar Super Duper

Inquiring Mindsets want to know:
“If you were a superhero*, what would your superpower be?”

	Caray Schmiesing, Controller “Read people’s minds. Maybe I could prevent my teenagers from doing something silly.” Or at least keep them from leaving toast in your briefcase…
	Josh Craig, Project Engineer “Teleportation, so I wouldn’t have to deal with traffic when driving to the office.” Hmm, maybe our traffic nerds could help you with that, Josh?
	Andy Shuman, Project Manager “Be two places at once.” Sorry, Andy, Jeff Puthoff has that covered:Tony cloned him years ago.
	Holly Fannon, HR/Accountant “To be like Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie–just blink and things would be done!” As long as you’re not referring to anything that might be done in an episode of I Dream of Diaper Genie, Holly!”

*Want to see some of these superhero wannabes in action? Join us Wednesday, March 29th at the Choice One Charity Cup! We will be raising funds to support the Miami Valley Down Syndrome Association and to send real-life heroes on the  Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. Raffle prizes include a drone and virtual reality goggles. Be there!