The Ohio Council of ASCE is soliciting nominations for the 2012 Ohio Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award. Nominations must be received by the Ohio OCEA Committee Chair no later than 5:00 PM, Friday, March 16, 2012. If you are unable to meet this deadline, please contact Al Esser at 440-256-6500.

As a service to our members and colleagues who may be seeking employment opportunities, we have provided links directly to Human Resources or Careers pages on the company website. Please visit our employment page and click any of the company logos to visit their site. We thank the companies listed for their support of the Central Ohio Section of ASCE.

The page also includes links to the ASCE National website which provides employment assistance with hundreds of job postings and additional resources.

I hope that everyone had an outstanding holiday season and are now ready as I am looking forward to the exciting upcoming ASCE events over the next six months, including dinner meetings for the months of January and April, lunch meetings for February, March and May and concluding with the June golf outing.

In November our luncheon meeting was held at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center where it was a pleasure to hear the speakers Michael Bongiorno of DesignGroup and Ryan Hoffman of Heapy Engineering discuss the innovative design strategies of the structure and its surroundings. They did an excellent job at presenting what key factors were taken into consideration for the Center to meet the LEED Gold certification.

I wanted to start off by thanking Shawn Thompson of CH2M HILL, Kerry Hart of Kokosing and Marie Keister of Engage for the outstanding presentation of the Columbus Crossroads project at our September lunch meeting. This signature transportation project in Downtown Columbus will change the interstate landscape of Columbus and will effect how we commute on I-71 / 670 for many years to come. Please visit their website www.ODOT71670.org for project updates, detours and renderings of this landmark project in Central Ohio.

The Central Ohio Section of ASCE held their 11th annual Civil Engineering Career Day on April 20, 2011. There were 14 high school juniors in attendance from different schools throughout Central Ohio. The day started out with representatives from Turner-Bovis Lend Lease who gave us information and site visit of the over $600 million dollar OSU ProjectONE construction. Over lunch at the OSU 4-H building, Dr. Carolyn Merry with OSU and Dr. Ken Walsh with OU presented to the students general information about civil engineering and their respective schools.

The Committee on Younger Members is seeking nominations for the 2011 Younger Member Employer Recognition Award.

The Employer Recognition Award was created to recognize employers who support young engineers and assist with their personal development. CYM also awards two Superior Employer Recognition Awards (one public, one private) to the nominees who best display exemplary support of young engineers in their organizations. A list of winning organizations will be submitted for inclusion in a Society publication and in the Younger Member Newsletter.

ASCE's legislative fly-in last week was a success. ASCE members from Central Ohio and also ACEC members met with staff members of Representative Tiberi and Senators Portman and Brown. Senator Sherrod Brown's office is very active coming up with his own version of infrastructure improvement which includes a mix of grants and loans and goes beyond highways and covers the clean water act.

ASCE Members,

The Metro Early College High School (the Metro School) has an internship program for their students and they are looking for mentors and internship sites. This is an opportunity for you as a professional to help a young person fulfill their potential. Please read the message from Mr. Neugebauer below.

Dear Colleague,
My name is Cory Neugebauer and I am the Internship Coordinator for Metro Early College High School. Many of you receiving this email have participated in Metro’s Internship Program in the past (or have expressed interest in participating) and some of you are hearing about our program for the first time. To those who have participated in the past, let me extend my sincere thanks for what you have given back to our students. Hopefully you feel much has been returned to you throughout the experience that shows first-hand how your contribution is invaluable to the growth and development of our students. To those who have yet to participate, I invite you to become part of a very special experience that connects aspiring young people with real-world professionals in order to foster partnerships that will benefit you (your organization), our students, and our community.