Richard Kleinmann, PLS, has joined Ayres Associates’ aerial mapping group, bringing more than three decades of survey experience in the municipal, state, and private sectors, including managing consultant surveying contracts for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s Southeast Region and serving as West Bend’s city surveyor for 21 years.

Kleinmann will serve the mapping and asset management needs of southeastern Wisconsin counties, municipalities, utilities, and transportation officials. Kleinmann will work with surveyors to support our land surveying operations in southeast Wisconsin. He is licensed to pilot unmanned aerial systems (drones).

“I bring clients extensive experience in the municipal, state, and private sectors, including useful experience hiring engineering and survey consultants,” Kleinmann says. “The value I’ll bring is my perspective being a consumer and a purchaser of these services for over 30 years. I can relate to clients’ needs, how they operate, and what their budget restrictions are. And I’m still a surveyor at heart and understand land surveyors’ world.”

At West Bend he was responsible for all City surveying activities, including maintaining control networks, PLSS corners, and survey records. Kleinmann performed the platting and mapping of city lands, including the research and preparation of legal descriptions for right-of-way acquisitions. He supervised and supported the City’s survey crew as they completed control, data collection, and stake-out surveys for public works and aerial mapping projects. He also reviewed certified survey maps and subdivision plats prepared by private surveyors for statutory and code compliance.

Kleinmann’s career is characterized by a quest to continue learning new skills and delivering innovation through his work. Kleinmann oversaw automation of West Bend’s survey operations and spearheaded the conception and implementation of the City’s utility GIS, including hardware and software purchase, GPS field data collection supervision, and database design and testing.

Kleinmann is president-elect of the Society of Southeast Wisconsin Land Surveyors and previously served as vice president.