Choice Mindsets

08 Dec Face/Off

Michael Seeger:
“Soooo…. which photo has the faces swapped and which is the original?”

Ever dreamed of being an engineer at Choice One? (Wait, that’s not on your bucket list?) Well, our friend Josh Turton, with Redi-Rock, clearly feels that even just looking like a Choice One engineer is a worthy venture. We’re not sure how long ago he started growing his beard, but as you can see, Josh (in purple), has nearly achieved twindom with Choice One’s Mike Goettemoeller. Josh has honed his looks so closely to Mike G.’s that when we digitally swapped their faces during the Loveland Charity Cup event, Michael Seeger couldn’t tell which was the face-swapped photo. (We’re kind of wondering if Josh and Mike G. can even tell…)

Josh, we appreciate your dedication to looking like a Choice Oner. Here are a few extra tips to help you out:

• Get super nerdy. Calculator holster and pocket protector not optional (if someone hasn’t already gotten rid of pockets, of course).
• Get crazy clumsy—spill coffee, fall down, etc.
• Get ridiculously excited about culverts, sewer systems, dirt moving, and all things traffic engineering. (See also “Get super nerdy.”)
• Wear green (duh).

If you want to see more of Mike G. and Josh hanging around, looking similar, then check out all of the fist-pumping, high-fiving action in the Loveland Charity Cup video(Josh gives high-fives all around at about 52 seconds). And if gents out there want to start growing a beard to make these nearly identical twins a set of triplets, you had better start now: the Sidney Charity Cup event will be held March 28, 2018!

P.S. In case you were wondering, the photo on the right is the photo with Mike’s and Josh’s faces swapped.

24 Nov Green Friday

Mike Goettemoeller:
“Thanksgiving is a compilation of my favorite hobbies: playing cards, eating food, drinking beer, taking naps, and watching football.”

Gobble gobble! Choice One’s offices are closed today, but it’s not due just to a Thanksgiving-induced food coma. We heard there was a Black Friday deal on traffic counters, so we’re all in line trying to keep some of our noisiest (i.e. traffic) engineers here happy.

Still, we didn’t want to miss this opportunity to thank you for a few things:

• Thanks for telling us you like the color green, even if you don’t mean it.
• Thanks for humoring the aforementioned traffic engineers (including Mike G.) when they drone on and on about signal warrants, opening design years, roundabouts, etc., etc.
• Thanks for reading these Mindsets. We appreciate that you’re willing to participate in our bi-weekly attempts to embarrass ourselves.

10 Nov Ringer

Nick Selhorst: “The only bad thing that happened last night was Bertke’s team won.”

Charity Cup Glory

In his 11 years at Choice One, professional surveyor Allen Bertke has been on the winning side of three Charity Cups (2008, 2011, and 2017), not to mention several second place titles as well. Ringer, much? Our 2017 Loveland champion team, SiteWORX, pretended they didn’t know that Allen was such a talented bucketball player. But if we see Allen eating Chipotle for the next month (his favorite), we know winners (l-r) Dustin Cooper, Matt Smith, and Joe Smith slipped someone an envelope full of burrito coupons to make sure Allen was on their team.

But enough about Allen. Words aren’t quite enough to express our sincere appreciation to everyone who supported Sweet Cheeks Diaper Bank by donating to and participating in the First Annual Loveland Charity Cup event on November 8th. But since words are all we have, THANK YOU to all of you for your amazing generosity (and a really fun night to boot!). Because of your donations, we were able to collect $3,904 for Sweet Cheeks (which equals 30,030 diapers for children in need)!

You’re on the clock, Sidney area! The 2018 Sidney Charity Cup will be held on March 28, 2018. We can definitely be bribed to put Allen on your team. We like pizza, doughnuts, sandwiches, cookies, or, you know, just food in general. Just don’t ask that bitter Nick Selhorst guy to be on your team–in six years, his teams haven’t even fared well enough to even make it out of the round robin portion of the tournament…

P.S. Be sure to watch our Enjoyment Page, Facebook, and Twitter to relive more fun from the 2017 Loveland Charity Cup!

27 Oct You Name It!

Troy Niese:
“I’m in the market for a nickname… every time someone talks about the City of Troy, I answer.”

13 Oct Almost Famous

Kaye Borchers:
“I think this guy is asking for an autograph. Craig’s an ODOT legend.”

When he attends the Ohio Transportation Engineering Conference (OTEC), Choice One traffic engineer Craig Eley is quite the celebrity. With 25+ years’ traffic engineering experience with ODOT and now at Choice One, it’s no wonder he knows pretty much every person in the room, not to mention every piece of traffic control gadgetry in the exhibit hall. (Nerd alert!)

We have a few other “celebrities” at Choice One. Our survey crews are occasionally caught on Google Earth Street View. Megan Bornhorst once appeared on the gameshow Let’s Make a Deal. She won $450 and a home gym (which she admits she has used a total of five times in six years). And Mitch Thobe once appeared in ESPN stock footage as the typical disgruntled Cleveland Browns fan on the network’s Around the Horn talk show.

While being renowned celebrities sounds fun, it’s not all meet-and-greets and parting gifts. Megan has to dust that home gym. Mitch had to adopt a life as a Browns fan to become famous. And for Craig, trying to get anywhere at a traffic conference is impossible—he’s endlessly stopped to swap roundabout tips and snap selfies. Which means if you’re traveling with him at OTEC, you are probably going to miss out on the nacho bar in the exhibit hall.

P.S. In case you were curious, big brother Owen Kuck welcomed home twin sisters last week, Eleanor and Olivia. Oh, and engineer Matt Hoying welcomed baby boy Ethan, while engineer Dane Sommer welcomed baby girl MJ. See photos on our Facebook page!

29 Sep Now Hiring

Employment Application:
“Owen enjoys the outdoors, red tractors, and dressing like daddy. He is very productive, with the exception of nap time, and would like to get out of the house more with two new siblings* coming soon.”