2025.11 - Staff Meeting

The minutes recorded herein constitutes the writer’s understanding of the items discussed at this meeting. If there are errors or omissions within, please advise the author within five (5) days of the date noted at the end of this document.

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New Employees:

• Administration- Melissa Vine (Maumee) Start Date 10/22/2025!

• Survey: Nathan Wolff (Port Clinton) will be starting 10/27/2025!

DGL Giveback - United Way

• United Way of Greater Toledo serves Lucas, Ottawa, and Wood Counties, but your support extends far beyond Northwest Ohio.

• All DGL offices are supported by a local United Way.

• United Way 211 is our biggest resource. It offers free, 24/7 confidential help that connects people to local resources.

• United Way 211 supports ALICE households and anyone facing life’s toughest challenges.

• One call links people to essentials like food, housing and shelter, transportation, and hundreds of other services.

• 211 is the front door to help in our community.

• Reach out to Brandon to get signed up for United for the Holidays – a great way to volunteer in our community.

• You will be receiving emails during this campaign please follow the link provided if you wish to donate.

Laurie:

• Insurance renewals – We have quotes from Anthem and Aetna that are both more attractive than our current Medical Mutual renewal.  Still evaluating with our broker and want feedback if these changes would cause any issues.  If you have Promedica docs, they are still negotiating with MMO.  From the Promedica perspective, they say they are not close.  From Hylant’s perspective, they believe it will get resolved before year’s end.

• Holiday Party – Our Holiday party will be December 6th at TolHouse.  Invites have been mailed.  Please respond by 11/23.  We look forward to seeing you there with a spouse or guest.  

• Vacation Payout – Your intent to carry over or payout per the stated rules is needed by Friday 11/21/2025.  The payout will occur in the November 28 payroll.  If no direction is given, all extra will be carried over to 2026 as allowed (80 hours Max.). 

• Payrolls through the rest of 2025 – The week of Thanksgiving and Christmas are both payroll weeks, there will be a hard cutoff for submitting and approving hours and expenses due to the shortened week for both occasions. 

• Ohio PE/PS – This is a renewal year for Ohio.  Please look at your emails for a renewal notice.  Salesforce is now used by the state and these notices often go into your junk folder.  If you are licensed in other states, please keep an eye out for their renewal notices.  Not all states are on the same renewal cycles.

• DBE – You may have heard that the USDOT has suspended the DBE program.  Any current DBE firm needs to reapply and get reevaluated. DGL is currently reviewing our options.  DGL is also an SBE and ODOT has expended their program to include SBE requirements on many projects.  Based on the January project list, the number equals what would have been DBE related in the past.  We have formed great relationships with firms we have partnered with over the several years and have full confidence we will continue operate as a subconsultant on projects that have an SBE goal.

• Incident Reports - Remind staff to report accidents/damage to vehicles and complete incident reports as required. We have DGL owned and rental vehicles and this is required for any insurance claim or rental return that occurs. This is due to an unreported damage to one of our trucks. 

• Keyless entry is being worked on this week. This work is being completed to upgrade our security and safety.  Our satellite offices all offer keyless entry, and we thought that Maumee needed to be upgraded as well. Key cards will be provided to all employees.  This is not a time tracker.  It is solely for access and safety. 

Administration:

Jane:

• Please be sure to complete timesheets in a timely fashion. With our pay weeks falling on weeks of the holidays it is very important to get them done as soon as possible so Jane can complete payroll.

  
  

Brandon:

• If any supervisor has an employee who is leaving for any reason, please fill out the first page of the termination sheet and get it over to Brandon. We need to track who is leaving so that we can pay them out the correct amount and get their benefits terminated in a timely fashion.

• Please make sure you let Brandon know about any updates regarding change of addresses, name changes, etcetera for DSC. He will not approve changes without speaking to you first to ensure you are the one that made the change.

  
  

Ellen:

• Nate Wolff is a new CAD technician who started in Port Clinton.

• Jonathan Pike is starting Monday, November 10^th as a survey technician in Independence.

• We have two new transportation engineers starting in late spring/early summer.

Marketing:

Logan:

• We are working tirelessly on updates to the DGL website for our 100th anniversary!