125 Years -- Forming the Face of Chattanooga
By Chattanooga Magazine Staff

This year, Betts Engineering Associates celebrates 125 years of serving the Chattanooga area. Though it began mostly as a surveying firm, Betts has expanded and now offers clients other services such as land planning and erosion control, and award-winning landscape designs. After more than a century, the company is still going strong.

"Our long history is very valuable because we have worked for so many people and companies that our name is known," says Jim Crownover, president of the firm. "Very often, we are told that we were recommended by a friend or acquaintance."

The oldest engineering firm in Chattanooga, Betts Engineering was founded in 1885 by Edward E. Betts, a local engineer. The firm took up residence in the James Building and moved a few times before finally ending up at its present location on South Market Street three years ago. The company was led by three generations of Betts before being passed on to its current president, Jim Crownover, in 2005.

The company was influential in developing nineteenth-century Chattanooga. The firm participated in many of the projects that resulted in some of the city's memorable landmarks, foremost among them the original Walnut Street Bridge. Over the years, the company also worked with the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, design and construction oversight of Wilder Tower, civil design and landscape architecture for Miller Park, and site planning for the athletic facilities at the McCallie School, as well as numerous residential subdivisions.

The practice of surveying is not what it used to be. Betts still owns some of the old equipment and hand-drawn surveys of eras past. Crownover says the old nineteenth-century drawings are elaborate; even the directional indicators are covered in flourishes that Crownover says must have taken hours. Crownover began work at Betts as a young surveyor 41 years ago, and he has seen many changes with his own eyes.

Though the business started with hand-drawn surveys, the computer has taken over the practice, which he says can be good and bad. On one hand, it takes away from the art and the individuality of those old drawings, and on the other, it has made the process easier and faster.

"At one time it took maybe a week to get a drawing done for a survey," Crownover says. "Now they can come in and download that information onto a computer and have a drawing within an hour or so."

But speed hasn't completely erased individuality. Dale Ann Wells, senior project manager, says employees still find ways to make computer drawings unique and personal.

Betts installed its first computer system in 1988; it cost $20,000. Since then, Betts has kept up with changing technology, and the company is committed to staying on the cutting edge of engineering and design by upgrading to the latest software and equipment.

"You always have to keep up and try to stay on the leading edge with new people. We've been through generations of other companies."

Keeping up with the present and the future also means staying abreast of changes in regulation and policy, public sentiment, and understanding the needs of the community. Betts has proven that an old company can still hold its own. The company applauds employees' efforts to continue their education, and the firm is dedicated to developing client relationships. With the combined knowledge of the planners and engineers on its staff, Betts can assist developers from beginning to end of any project.

Betts is involved in infrastructure improvement in many of the area's communities, numerous highway expansion projects, site planning for three city parks, the master plan for Chattanooga State Technical Community College, and civil and landscape design for planned improvements to Market Street.

Crownover says Chattanooga has changed a great deal in the time he has been working at Betts. What was once a polluted city has become a city with a commitment to health and sustainability.

Betts employees, who have an average of fifteen years' experience with the firm, are intimately familiar with the regulations for clean water and erosion control. The firm expects to be LEED certified within the year. Being green and sustainable does have its challenges; it often requires extra cost and work for the engineers, developers and builders involved. Some of the regulations may change or shift over time, but the need for sustainability is here to stay. Crownover says he expects sustainability to soon become a societal norm rather than an exception.

"We see the future as more sustainable engineering projects," Crownover says. "That's going to be the next big change this industry sees is taking the environmental extra step."

As it enters its 125th year of business, Betts Engineering is looking forward to that future with anticipation. The firm will likely hold an open house to exhibit its many past accomplishments, as well as its hopes for the years to come. Just like so many businesses in the Chattanooga area, Betts suffered during the recession, but Dale Ann Wells says business is picking up and the future is looking brighter.

Betts is surveying a 3,000-acre plot of state land that stretches across parts of northern Hamilton County as well as Rhea and Bledsoe counties. The land is part of a trail system and land trust for Tennessee. Also in the works is a Walker County-owned hotel and convention center at Canyon Ridge.

Crownover says the firm is also looking to gradually make the switch to an employee-owned company in the next few years when he retires.

"Employees are our most valuable resource," Crownover says. "We invest much in their development, and in small private companies, keeping these people is very important. Employee-owned companies tend to keep the best people because they become a real part of the team."