Engineering a Win/Win Outcome

COBLESKILL — About 40 years ago, Milan Jackson lived for a year in a house on Elm Street in Cobleskill, a place where he was destined to return as an adult. Jackson was born in Duluth, MN, the son of a military father. The path that would return him to Elm Street led him, in his youth, through various regions around and outside of the country—from snowy Minnesota to steamy Alabama, back north to Syracuse, on to Canada, as distant as the Philippines, and back to the U.S., returning to Cobleskill for high school.

Now, a tall, pleasant, friendly professional, he described the kinds of activities he liked to do as a kid, “When I was in elementary school, there was a drainage ditch behind our house, and we used to build dams across it. We played in the water, played in the creek, played in the woods….”   

There are some who believe that everything we experience contributes to creating the life we choose to live, and over time, those experiences unfold our life’s path. It may be the case for Jackson, since by the time he was ready for college, he had decided to pursue a major in civil and environmental engineering from Clarkson University’s top-ranked School of Engineering in Potsdam, New York. After graduating he lived in various cities throughout his early career, going from Elmira, NY, to Maryland, and Schenectady before returning, in 2000, to Schoharie County to work for Lamont Engineers. 

Lamont Engineers, a fixture in Cobleskill since 1980, was founded by Cobleskill native and Cornell graduate Henry Lamont. His goal from the beginning was to serve upstate New York by providing civil engineering services to the area. The company quickly became a resource for designing water and waste water systems for municipalities.  

Jackson was hired as a structural engineer, the job he had been eager to do since he graduated. “I wanted to design buildings and such,” Jackson said, “But at the time, Lamont had a lot of water and wastewater work, so that’s what I did.”    

Lamont Engineers has continued to grow as an established resource for designing water and waste water systems for nearby municipalities. They are also hired to take on structural engineering projects that include highway garages, and fire stations. While they have done other commercial and residential work, Jackson stresses that the water and waste water projects are their strong point. 

Over time, the company found that municipalities, industries, and private clients with water and waste water systems also needed professional operators to provide consultations, problem-solving, and well-managed required maintenance. As a result, an affiliate company, LVDV Operations, was established to provide those services for clients, many of which are in the New York City watershed. So, while Lamont Engineers designs water and waste water systems, LVDV is focused on ensuring that those types of systems are maintained and functioning properly. 

Today, though Henry Lamont is still involved in the firm as a Principal Engineer, Jackson has ascended to the role of President and the company moved. When he started in 2000, the company office was in a multi-story brick storefront on Cobleskill’s Main Street, and he initially worked in an office in East Berne when he started. Ten years ago, Jackson oversaw the company’s relocation to a building on Elm Street that was once a fitness facility with a large gymnasium in the back and a large parking lot out front.  And it, coincidentally, was across the street from the house where he once lived as a boy.  He had come full circle.

After refurbishing the building to accommodate the staff of about 17 people along with interns whose cubicles now fill the former gym area (a few other staff members are housed in offices in Gloversville and Saugerties), the decision was made to take some of the unnecessary parking spaces out front and turn them into an outdoor seating and eating spot. 

“We just thought it would be nice to have an area where we could have an outdoor space,” Jackson said. “If people want to go up, it is nice to eat lunch out there. Maybe not as much as we’d like to, but we’ll use it to have a grill or some lunches several times throughout the summer for the staff.” They have also hosted a happy hour mixer there for the Schoharie Chamber of Commerce, for which Jackson serves as the head of the Business Generators Group (BGG).  

Jackson values the importance of community service and not only makes it a priority to support the other businesses in the Chamber, but as President of Lamont, he takes the firm’s mission to heart as well. That is to exceed their clients’ goals and expectations while preserving the good of the environment, the communities, local economies, and businesses they serve. They aim to please—to keep customers highly satisfied and to successfully build the company’s growth, stability and profitability, which allows them to serve customers well, maintain a solid reputation, and to be a responsible employer to the staff. 

Any good engineer knows that when each component of a system is designed to work well with the other parts, the structure will be strong and function at its best. The results speak for themselves; Lamont Engineers has been recognized for three years in a row by Albany Business Review as One of Albany’s Best Places to Work, and they were named Business Partner of the Year in 2024 by the Schoharie Chamber of Commerce.  

Something Sir Henry Royce, an English engineer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited luxury cars, once said sums up the philosophy of what Jackson, and the company, appear to be keeping in mind. That is: “Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.”

Find out more about Lamont Engineers on their website lamontengineers.com or on their Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/LamontEngineers.