A Familiar Desk Welcomes Lisa Niemeier to Castle

When Lisa Niemeier started working at Castle Contracting in 2016, she found herself in familiar territory.

“I ended up sitting at the exact same desk that I did when I worked at my previous company,” she says, explaining that Castle had taken over the former space of its neighbor, QRS Recycling, after that business downsized.

Fortunately for Niemeier, the QRS CEO had recommended her to Castle Director of Accounting Sherri Cavaletti. “She called me in for an interview and then invited me to join her team as an accounting assistant,” recalls Niemeier. That position leveraged the accounting skills Niemeier had honed from working in the waste and recycling industry for the previous 20+ years.

About six years into her Castle tenure, Niemeier decided to transfer to McCarthy’s corporate accounting group to broaden her perspective. “I just wanted to try something different and learn some new skills,” she says, but she rejoined Castle’s accounting team in March 2024 when a new position opened up.

In her current role as project administrator, Niemeier manages client billing for a wide variety of projects. “On any given month, I could be billing between 30 and 40 clients or more,” she says. “It involves a lot of interaction with clients and project managers on a day-to-day basis, which is one of the things I like most about my job.”

Keeping track of the individual billing preferences and legal requirements of each client is one of the most challenging parts of the position, she notes. “There are so many different aspects of the job, and I'm still learning new things every day.”

Culture of Cooperation

Niemeier enjoys the close-knit bond among Castle’s five-person accounting team. “We all work really well together,” she observes. “If someone's overloaded, there's always someone there offering to help, which is a nice feeling.”

That same collegial spirit extends to the full Castle organization, where “Everyone knows each other's families and the names of our kids.”

Niemeier lives in Fenton with her husband, Don, a pump station mechanic at Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD).

Their son, Nick, recently graduated from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, with a bachelor’s degree in sports communications and a minor in business. “He played goalie on the hockey team, so we were always very busy following him around and watching hockey games,” she says.

The Niemeier family also includes Duke, an 18-month-old, 50-pound mixed-breed dog she affectionately calls a “foster fail.” “We had adopted him out as a puppy, but the family returned him because they said he was biting and chewing everything. So, we took him back and ended up keeping him,” she says. “He's a lot of work, but he's the best dog and we just love him.”