Geneva Nodland
Hundreds of essential workers power Fargo’s city government, providing the region with critical services that keep us safe and improve the quality of our lives. Their tireless efforts behind the scenes keep our community running smoothly and efficiently at all hours. Their passion to serve with purpose every day embodies the spirit of The City of Fargo.
Here are some of their stories!
Keith Johnson, Public Works Department
Keith Johnson spent 30 years as a Fargo firefighter before retiring last year. A month later, he joined The City of Fargo’s Public Works Department where he has found a new satisfying way to deliver essential services to the community where he grew up.
As an equipment operator, Keith is behind the wheel of snowplows and sand trucks in the winter, keeping Fargo’s streets clear so drivers can safely reach their destinations no matter the weather. In the warmer months, he operates street sweepers to ensure roads are free of debris.
The diligence of drivers like Keith, who prioritize cleaning streets from gutter to gutter, can prevent motorcyclists and bicyclists from wiping out on grit in the road. This vital work often goes unseen by residents. “When you go to bed at night, there might be some sand or a pop can in the gutter. In the morning, it’s gone,” he said. With every season comes a new job for Public Works crews who beautify Fargo by collecting windblown debris after the snow melts. Crews are responsible for heavy lifting during the Spring Cleanup effort, patching potholes, cleaning sewer lines to prevent backups, mowing grass, and spraying weeds on City property. “It’s amazing how busy we are,” Keith said. “There’s always something to do.”
The son of a detective sergeant with The Fargo Police Department, Keith is carrying on a legacy of public service. For him, it’s rewarding to know his Public Works coworkers care about their service to The City as much as his fellow firefighters did. “It just feels good when you’re working with people who want to do good for the community.”
Kim Sund, Fargo Cass Public Health
As an environmental health practitioner for Fargo Cass Public Health, Kim Sund is in the business of giving residents peace of mind.
Kim and her coworkers in the Environmental Health Division serve as guardians behind the scenes so community members can feel safe whenever they go out to eat, stay in a hotel, swim in a public pool, use a tanning facility, shop at a pet store, or get a tattoo.
“We want you to go out and be able to enjoy whatever it is you want to do,” Kim said.
Environmental health practitioners like Kim perform random inspections of more than 940 licensed food and beverage establishments in Fargo, West Fargo, and Cass County every year so residents don’t have to worry about whether health guidelines are being followed. A key element of an inspector’s role is to regularly educate license holders with the aim of preventing violations.
“Here at Fargo Cass Public Health, we have a mission statement: We prevent, promote, and protect. That is essentially what we are doing by licensing and inspecting all those different establishments,” she said.
Originally from the northern Minnesota town of Grygla, Kim earned a degree in biology and joined the team at Fargo Cass Public Health nine years ago. For her, the job is fulfilling because every day she goes home knowing she served her community.
“We’re always in the background quietly helping people,” she said. “I really enjoy that part.”
Todd Keel, Information Services Department
Raised in Fargo, Todd Keel has always admired the dedication of local first responders. Now, he finds fulfillment in supporting their vital mission as manager of the public safety team in The City of Fargo’s Information Services Department.
Todd’s team ensures seamless computer system operations for dispatchers, police officers, and firefighters across the FargoMoorhead community, whether they’re responding to a fire, crash, or medical emergency. The team’s primary focus is maintaining New World software, essential for providing key information and mapping data in real-time to the screens in squad cars and firetrucks.
“We’re a resource that first responders can count on 24/7/365, while they keep our community safe,” Todd said. “In an emergency, citizens need as quick a response as possible, so having the software and interfaces available to be used intuitively and reliably is critical.”
Todd’s team is constantly learning to keep pace with evolving technology. As a reliable force behind the scenes, they make sure first responders have the tools needed to save lives.
“This is the best job I can imagine,” Todd said. “If I can go home knowing my work helped someone, then that’s a success.”
Peggy Amsbaugh, Engineering Department
Wearing her bright orange City of Fargo vest, Peggy Amsbaugh is a visible presence at construction sites around the community where she keeps a close eye on erosion and sediment runoff.
When contractors disturb grass and dirt to build new structures, Peggy makes sure they follow regulations so that mud from construction sites does not flow into the storm sewer system. Her daily vigilance is critical to safeguarding the Red River where Fargo sources its drinking water. “We try to make sure our storm system is clear and clean,” Peggy said, who’s originally from Bottineau, North Dakota. “If too much sediment runs into the river, then our wildlife will be harmed, and we won’t have the same recreational opportunities.”
As an engineering technician with Fargo’s Engineering Department, much of Peggy’s job centers around educating builders and the public on how regulations are meant to protect our community and its environment.
Along with erosion control, she responds to spills of unsafe substances, so they do not enter the storm sewer system. On an annual basis, she inspects stormwater ponds and underground stormwater detention areas as well as floodwalls and levees, monitoring for any deficiencies in our crucial flood protection system.
In all these different ways, Peggy provides essential services to the community and, in turn, improves our quality of life. “I’ve always been a helper who looks for ways to make something better,” she said.
Kim Citrowske, Planning & Development Department
As long-range planning coordinator for The City of Fargo, Kim Citrowske is focused on helping the community envision its future.
With years of urban planning experience, Kim helps facilitate planning processes that engage residents, business owners, and stakeholders, to learn what they desire in a city. Using their input, she helps guide plan development to set the stage for positive change so Fargo can maintain its unique character while creating vibrant, livable neighborhoods.
“Many people have different opinions on what the ideal neighborhood should look like, so we aim to find a consensus to develop a community vision that’s attractive to businesses and residents,” Kim said, who’s from Canby, MN.
A prime example of her essential work is the Growth Plan process currently underway. Over the past several months, Kim and the team within Fargo’s Planning & Development Department have hosted open houses and online surveys, collecting feedback from residents on how and where the community should grow (learn more at FargoGrowthPlan.org).
Community voices and ideas are integrated into actionable policies and plans that will foster a sense of place in Fargo for years to come. “We try to provide that level of predictability for residents, so they can know what to expect in neighborhoods around our community,” she said.
Utilities:
Maggie Sahr, Water
Dylan Sherwood, Water Reclamation
Matt Basol, Solid Waste
The City of Fargo operates three utilities that collaborate daily to serve communities across the region. The utilities—Water, Water Reclamation, and Solid Waste—are each vital to our daily lives.
The story of this essential triad begins in south Fargo at the Regional Water Treatment Plant that draws from the Red and Sheyenne rivers to supply drinking water to residents in Fargo, West Fargo, and some Cass Rural Water District customers.
Maggie Sahr, the Water Utility’s compliance coordinator, is a key part of the water treatment process as she regularly chemically analyzes water to ensure quality. Sahr, originally from Jamestown, gathers data to help provide safe, refreshing water to the community and limit the plant’s use of costly chemicals—a savings that benefits all utility customers.
“We have a lot of innovation in our water plant,” which has won the award for best-tasting drinking water in North Dakota for two years running, Maggie said.
“We’re really proud of that.”
After fresh water reaches customers, some of it flows down the drain to the Regional Water Reclamation Facility in north Fargo where wastewater moves through screens to filter out solids, including items that should not have been flushed. Some objects end up clogging pumps and Dylan Sherwood, an operator at the Water Reclamation Facility, troubleshoots those problems and many others.
“There’s always a curveball being thrown your way. It’s challenging but also rewarding,” Dylan said, who grew up in Fargo.
The wastewater moves through a series of treatment tanks and structures where it’s disinfected until safe to discharge into the Red River. Solids strained from the wastewater are placed in dumpsters and hauled to the Fargo Sanitary Landfill, which is operated by the Solid Waste Department.
In one year, the landfill receives a total of about 220,000 tons of garbage. Equipment operators like Matt Basol use bulldozers to push and pack this trash into landfill cells, building it into covered mounds to trap the smell, keep loose garbage from blowing away, and prevent water from creating runoff. After capturing methane gas from decomposing garbage, the Solid Waste Department sells the gas to local industry and also utilizes the gas to generate electricity that’s sold to area utility companies, creating revenue streams for the taxpayers of Fargo and keeping pollution out of the air.
A Fargo native, Matt says Solid Waste employees put their heart into collecting garbage and maintaining the landfill because they want a clean community for all residents. “My dad tells me every day he’s proud that I work for The City of Fargo,” Matt said. “I hope everybody else is happy with us and what we do here because we try our best to make every citizen happy.”
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