Engineers open local office

Choice One Engineering expanded into Indiana Tuesday as its Portland location officially opened at 607 N. Meridian St.
“We’d just seen that there was kind of a void with civil engineering firms in the area and the culture and the people in the area seemed to fit who we are too,” said Ryan Lefeld, vice president of Choice One.
Before coming into Portland, Choice One representatives met with Mayor Randy Geesaman and Chamber of Commerce executive director Dean Sanders. They were easy to get along with, Lefeld said, and their interest and excitement was encouraging.
The engineering firm chose the Meridian Street space for its accessibility and exposure to traffic.
While Choice One hasn’t completed any projects in Portland yet, the firm is building a relationship with city members, said Lefeld.
Dan Jutte, a contractor Choice One frequently works with in Fort Recovery and who also works in Portland, helped connect Choice One and the city.
The firm works in the areas of street reconstruction, land development, site development, water distributing, storm water, surveying, railways, bridges, bike paths and trails, bike paths and trails, sanitary, streetscapes, traffic, and grants and funding.
Choice One is looking at doing smoke testing work in Geneva’s sewers to locate potential problems. The firm has done work for Fort Recovery since its beginning.
For now, Lefeld is the office’s only full-time employee, joined at times by part-time employees.
“That’s just kind of how we’re filling it out at first until we kind of get out feet wet and start picking up a few projects,” Lefeld said.
He hopes to be joined by another full-time employee by the end of the year.
Choice One’s other offices are in Sidney, Ohio and Loveland, Ohio.
The Sidney office was the first opened after Jeff Puthoff, Tony Schroeder and Tom Coverstone founded the firm in 1994. Puthoff and Schroeder still work in Sidney; Coverstone has retired. The Loveland branch opened around 2011.