by Dennis Dalman
A public open house/party will take place for John Kothenbeutel, who is retiring after 30 years of service to Sartell’s Public Works Department, including the last eight of them as its director.
The open house is scheduled from 3-5 p.m. Thursday, April 4 at the Sartell Community Center. Cake and refreshments will be served to all those who attend. The April 4 retirement party for Kothenbeutel marks 30 years to the day he was hired by the City of Sartell.
Kothenbeutel is known by many affectionately as “Beetle” because his last name is pronounced “Cote-en-beetle.”
In a recent interview with the Newsleaders, Kothenebeutel said he will miss so many people.
“I was happy working here,” he said. “It was a great place to work. Great administrators like Patti Gartland, Mary Degiovanni, Anna Gruber. And the city staff and council members were always so supportive of Public Works. And I’ll miss the ones I worked with in Public Works. They were always so dependable. Sartell staff now has new blood, lots of youthful energy. Good energy.”
He also praised an administrative worker, Jill Hollenkamp, who has been helping out with Kothenbeutel’s office tasks.
Kothenbeutel started as a laborer in the city’s fledgling Public Works Department when he was just one of five employees working for the city. That was shortly after he’d earned a license from the St. Cloud Area Vocational Technical School’s Waste-Water Treatment Program. He worked up the ranks to maintenance worker, then to assistant director of Public Works in 2005, and in 2016 he was named its director at which time he appointed supervisors within the department.
When Kothenbeutel started his job in 1994, Sartell’s population was just slightly more than 5,000. After years of steady growth and residential, commercial and public developments, it’s now home to more than 20,000 residents.
Kothenbeutel, 59, was born and raised in Rochester. He came to the St. Cloud area to attend St. Cloud State University but then switched to studying at St. Cloud Area Vocational College.
Lisa Vollbrecht was recently hired by the City of Sartell to become its new public-works director. She is a long-time Sartell resident who worked as assistant director for the St. Cloud Public Works Department since 2007.
Sartell Public Works Director John Kothenbeutel
