Each year, The Kleingers Group conducts the measurements for the Ohio Challenge Hot Air Balloon Festival, measuring the distance between dropped beanbags and the targets.

The Kleingers Group is pleased to once again sponsor The Ohio Challenge Hot Air Balloon and Skydiving Festival!

For more than a decade, The Kleingers Group has conducted the measurements for the event, measuring the distance between beanbags dropped from the balloons and the targets during the competitions.

This year, we will be out there again with the robotic total station to help make the measurements needed to declare a winner.

Each year up to 40 of the country’s best balloon pilots compete in the three-day challenge while tens of thousands of people enjoy the two-day festival.

In addition to the competition, visitors can enjoy a balloon glow, skydiving performances, balloon rides, a car show, games, entertainment, and food.

The 13^th annual Ohio Challenge Hot Air Balloon Festival will be held July 10 – 12 at Smith Park in Middletown.

Visit www.ohiochallenge.com for more information.

If you are looking to purchase a commercial or developmental piece of property, chances are your lender may have asked you to provide an ALTA survey before the loan is approved. So what is it and what do you need to know?

An ALTA survey is a very specific type of survey that follows national standards developed by the American Land Title Association in conjunction with the National Society of Professional Surveyors. In addition to locating the boundary of your property, an ALTA survey identifies physical features, evidence of possession, and other conditions that could indicate adverse title claims.

Basically, the survey helps the title company be sure that there is nothing on your land that is going to indicate someone else has a claim to it and that you are going to be able to use the land in the way you intend.

For example, an ALTA survey will look at everything within five feet of the boundary lines, as well as trails, fences, easements, or overhangs that encroach onto the property. Simultaneously, a title examiner will supply a title commitment, including documents that might affect the title, such as liens, easements, mortgages, rights of way, reservation of mineral rights, and others. Those items are then plotted on the survey to see exactly how they impact the property.

Standards for an ALTA survey are typically revised every five years, with the next revision expected in 2016. Unlike a mortgage location survey, which varies from state to state and is typically used for residential property, an ALTA survey is normally specific to commercial or industrial properties.

Before requesting an ALTA survey, be sure to confirm with your lender if there are any specific requirements that they will need. For instance, to verify zoning compliance, the number of stalls in existing parking lots may be needed. This is just one of several “Optional Table A” items. Knowing those requirements upfront can expedite the delivery of the survey and potentially save you money in the long run.

An accurate ALTA survey will ensure there are no surprises that may negatively affect the use of the property.

The Kleingers Group has long believed in the importance of building better communities.

While we hope that those values come through on every project we work on, there are some projects of which we are particularly proud.

For the last several years, The Kleingers Group has worked with Habitat for Humanity Greater Cincinnati to survey properties donated to the group.

Specifically, once an individual has donated a piece of property to Habitat, our surveyors have volunteered to complete boundary and topographic surveys of the property, ensuring property lines are correct and no conflicts exist with the property.

Habitat then uses the information to build a new home or rehabilitate an existing home.

“This is one thing we can do to help the overall community by giving back,” said Director of Surveying Dave Cox.

This past year, surveyors have spent time at homes in Lockland, but have previously surveyed throughout the Greater Cincinnati area.

In addition to the time spent surveying, our surveyors have also given to their communities in a multitude of other ways, helping others to learn about the profession.

Several of our surveyors have spent time helping Cub Scouts earn their Engineering badges by helping them learn about what engineers, architects, and surveyors do.

Recently, Matt Habedank worked with the St. Dominic cub scout pack 483, showing them how to measure property lines with the robotic total station.

Among other things, Matt said he let the kids guess how far they were away from the instrument.

Most of them have never even heard of surveying, Matt said, and learning about it can be eye-opening.

Other surveyors have volunteered their engineering knowledge throughout the world. Randy has spent time on construction projects in Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru.

Regardless of how they choose to do it, The Kleingers Group is proud of our surveyors for helping to strengthen their communities and for sharing their knowledge and talents.

This week marks National Surveyors Week! Our 25 registered surveyors and technicians are a hardy bunch and have braved conditions ranging from freezing, sweltering, wet, muddy, buggy, smelly, claustrophobic, and itchy all in the name of accurate surveys and maps. This week we salute them!

This week is also about promoting the profession and educating others. With that in mind, we asked our surveyors about some of their favorite experiences.

1. how Do You Explain to Someone (who Knows Nothing About Survey) What It Is that You Do?

“We stand behind a ‘camera’ and take pictures!! 😉 We do such a multitude of things its often hard to describe, but mostly we give engineers a basis to begin their design by locating terrain and physical features and producing a drawing or map that they use to design with. As one of my former colleagues said “if it wasn’t for all the math and walking it would be pretty good job!” – Adam C.

“If I am talking to one of my friends about my job, I tell them I draw up plans of an area we surveyed or gather information of the owners of that lands we are doing work on.” – Adam I.

2. What Is the Weirdest Thing You Have Ever Surveyed/Scanned?

“I spent a lot of time at Rumpke landfill doing a multitude of surveying activities. Many times, they had us getting the height of the trash to make sure they weren’t going over the height allowed by the county. Other times they had us surveying existing and proposed gas lines as they would sell off the gas being produced underneath the trash.” – Randy

“While working for a company as a CO-OP, we had to survey a lime bed field with a ‘sled’ that had three prisms on it, which two people pulled back and forth along the bed.” – Adam I.

“We scanned the inside of a manhole (just last week) by lowering the scanner down the hole using a winch/tripod system that was designed and made by a couple of our former employees. I also staked grave markers at a cemetery one time, which was a little weird.” – Adam C.

3. What Is the Coolest Project You Have Ever Done?

“The coolest project that I worked on would have to be working on the Rockies Express Pipeline for three months in the field and about a month in the office.” – Adam I.

“While everything we do is ‘cool’, I remember on one occasion working in the field I had to get on a boat that took me out to a barge in the middle of the Ohio River. Once on the barge, I climbed up on the top of a pylon they had attached to a crane. The crane swung me out over the water and I had to have our instrument man on the shore line me up with where the pier needed to go so they could drive it into the bottom of the Ohio. These series of piers were being set for a conveyor system to load coal from the shore directly onto the barges.” – Randy

“I’m not sure what the ‘coolest’ would be but, I enjoy working on higher profile projects that require special attention to detail or creative solutions (Fountain Square, Dunnhumby, Cincinnati Premium Outlets come to mind – I’m sure there are others)” – Adam C.

4. What Is Your Favorite Part About Your Job?

“I guess it’s working with our surveying staff. We have a great group of surveyors who are tremendously talented and experienced, and have great attitudes. They care deeply about how we do things, and about TKG, which makes my job a whole lot easier! It’s cool to be able to see projects completed and know that you played a part in the process of building the project.” – Adam C.

“My favorite part of my job would be the variety of work that I could be doing from day to day.  One day in might be doing research at the courthouse or I could be mapping up a topographic survey for a large site.” – Adam I.

“I like that every job brings different challenges to think about and find solutions too.” – Randy

5. What Have You Done to Educate Students or Others About the Profession?

“I spent four years teaching survey calculations at Cincinnati State. I also worked with a local Boy Scout troop on survey equipment and maps.” – Randy

“I’ve worked with students at Cincinnati State conducting mock interviews to help them with job and co-op searches.” – Adam C.

6. Have You Participated in Any Volunteer Work Related to Survey?

“While not 100 percent survey related, but rather more engineering, I have been involved in a several construction projects in Guatemala, Ecuador, and Peru (houses, churches, and schools).” – Randy

“We have completed several Boundary/Topographic and plot plan projects for Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity over the past several years. They are fairly “standard” surveying projects that we do pro bono to help out the greater community.” – Adam C.