The Kleingers Group is pleased to announce the addition of Funding Specialist, Joe Cottrill. Clients can expect to benefit from Mr. Cottrill’s extensive knowledge of available funding, application processes, and guidelines. He will assist and advise Kleingers’ clients regarding potential funding for the community’s capital improvement projects.

Joe served 22 years as Project Funding Coordinator with the Hamilton County Engineer’s Office where he gained in-depth knowledge of local, state, and federal funding programs through his involvement with the State Capital Improvement Program, Local Transportation Improvement Program, Small Government Commission Funds, Municipal Road Fund, Clean Ohio Revitalization Fund, and the Job Ready Sites Program.

Here, Joe was responsible for administrating the laws of ORC to make the Ohio Public Works, work. Joe was also responsible for advertising programs for upcoming funding rounds, reviewing applications, establishing the rating scores, and making recommendations.

He also served as the Liaison Officer for the Ohio Public Works Commission District 2 Integrating Committee for 22 years. He was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Ohio Legislature in 2010 for his work with the District 2 Integrating Committee. Joe also was with the Washington County Engineer’s Office in Marietta, OH for eleven years as a design technician and bridge inspector before moving to Cincinnati. Here Joe developed his bridge inspection experience.

His career in the industry began at the age of 15, where he began work for his father’s company, Calvin Construction Company until he left for college. The construction company, since dissolved, specialized in roadways, bridges, and dams. In Joe’s years with his dad’s company, he earned money to help put himself through college and gained tremendous knowledge about public construction. Joe received his B.A. degree in Theology from Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC in 1982.

When asked why Joe chose to join The Kleingers Group, he responded,

“I was motivated the most by my knowledge of Kleingers’ good reputation in the industry. Their plans are well thought out and helped make my life easier for my colleagues at the County, especially the reviewers. When engineers do not take the time to think through their designs, it makes life a lot tougher for reviewers. Kleingers is known for their high-quality work, which is always well thought out.”

He also went on to share that he has known Tim Casto for a long while and how the two of them became good friends over time.

Joe retired from public service in December 2010 and has worked in the private sector since. He is married to Kimberly Steele Cottrill, has two grown children, and an adorable dog named Sophie (who runs the house). In his spare time, Joe enjoys building scale models of cars and trucks. He claims he is not a ‘Master Modeler’ (which is apparently a real job in the scale model world), he plans to stick to just the hobby.

Happy Engineers Week! We spent the week reflecting on what makes a good engineer, what brought our employees to this career, how they share their passion for this kind of work and what it means to others when we do what we do. As we wrap up this week’s Engineers Week, we asked our team a few questions that we hope you find entertaining and insightful!

How do you explain civil engineering to people who don’t know?

I often present to young students on career day at various schools, and I typically keep it simple and start with “civil engineers design roads and bridges.”   If it’s a little older crowd, I often delve into what we do with site engineering and explain that civil engineers design everything on a building site outside of the building, including driveways, parking lots, sewers, waterlines, drainage and grading. If I was cool, I’d say civil engineers take a vision of a site and turn it into reality. – Steve

Everyone seems to know what an architect is, so I tend to describe a Civil Engineer as “The Architect of the Land.” We generally focus on things outside of the building, shaping the land and providing the infrastructure needed to support the buildings that architects design. – Melissa

Someone else just explained to me today the three things you need to know to be a civil engineer…

1. You can’t push a rope.

2. Water and dirt make mud.

3. $#!t (er, um, water) flows downhill.

Good advice for anyone. – Craig

When I try to describe it, and their head turns a funny angle, I fall back to:  Essentially, it’s a 5 year degree in ditch digging. – Tim

Tell us about a moment where you thought to yourself “I love what I do.” What made you think that?

I love being able to see a project come to life. To step onto a job site and see your engineering design set in motion is a really cool feeling. – Melissa

Every time that I’m involved with the planning and design of a new project, and I get to see the progression from concept, to planning, to detailed design, to and through construction…. and I get to see the final product with the end user using and enjoying the space…..I take a lot of pride.  We engineers like to be creative in our problem solving, and therefore I’m stoked any time I can use creativity to solve a unique problem in an effective and efficient manner.  – Steve

What’s the biggest misconception about engineers?

The biggest misconception about engineers is that we are all nerds!!! That is 100% false… we are all “cool nerds”!!! – Melissa

The biggest misconception about engineers is that they have no personality.  Engineers are taught to think analytically and determine the best possible outcome based on the facts.  By nature, they are conservative and have low risk tolerance.  Most engineers are quick witted, loyal and fun to be around. – Nick

That there isn’t any creativity in what we design. We often find ways to be creative when appropriate, but when it comes to designing for roadways where lives are at stake, it’s important to rely on tested design methods and know what you are doing. – Dave

That they are this odd lot of extroverts who favor form over function and have a deep seeded passion for the creative arts.  I guess people just can’t see how it is that we are actually much more into numbers, logic and have horrible tastes in fashion, style and aren’t really that good of communicators and we don’t really excel at grammar and we tend to make run-on sentences. – Greg

Who is the coolest engineer you’ve ever met?

Jim Kleingers, of course!!! – Everyone

All engineers are geeks, so from the perspective of the outside world I haven’t met any “cool” ones.  However, any engineer that can speak well in public is generally viewed by other engineers as the coolest person on the planet.

– Dave

Wow, that’s a tough one.   Isn’t “cool engineer” an oxymoron?  – Steve

What skills are most important to be a good engineer?

A good engineer has a great aptitude for math and science.  He/she understands how things work and is able to explain that to others. – Nick

Of course math skills are a must, but being able to look at one problem and provide multiple solutions is what makes a great engineer. – Melissa

Ability to focus, computer skills, and logic.  Certain types of math are important too, like geometry. – Dave

Listening and understanding the needs of a project and its owner and end users, and being able to translate this into helping the vision become a reality. – Steve

To be ‘engineereeyee’. – Tim