WHEN ROBIN BOBZIEN FIRST moved to Aberdeen, he saw a vibrant, progressive community, with members that were passionate about bringing improvements to their hometown. A lot can change in 31 years, but that fact has remained true.
Bobzien grew up in North Dakota and spent the first nine years of his career working for the city of Jamestown as the Assistant City Engineer. He attended Jamestown University, then Jamestown College, on an athletic scholarship. He played football, basketball, and baseball while he studied math and chemistry. Bobzien considered pursuing a few different fields of study, but he didn’t have a clear idea of what sort of career he wanted.
“I started college at 17, and there wasn’t much clarity about the future,” he said.
“I’ve been fortunate to have a great group to work with.” – ROBIN BOBZIEN
With a background in athletics, he considered coaching, and he also thought about becoming a pharmacist. Bobzien was also interested in construction, since running equipment interested him. He got a job with the North Dakota Department of Transportation, and it marked his first time working in the public sector.
“I thought I’d work for the DOT as a career,” he said.
By the time he started attending the University of North Dakota, Bobzien had a better idea of his field of study and graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering.
“Engineering let me stay with construction and be part of things from start to finish,” he said. “Concept, design, editing. Seeing things through from start to finish was a cool part of it.”
Jobs were hard to come by at the time for many. North Dakota was going through a gubernatorial race, and the governor put a hiring freeze at the state level. Bobzien had been hired for a full time temporary position for the DOT, but he was laid off by the time construction season began. Around that time, he came across the Jamestown municipal job, and he was curious about what it entailed.
“I still had to pay the bills while I was figuring it out,” he said. “I thought it would be a good chance to learn an engineering job from a broader perspective. The city job was a decent opportunity, but I had no idea it would be a career.”
In 1994, he made the move to Aberdeen to become the city’s Public Works Director and City Engineer. The move was a great opportunity to advance his career, and it also brought him a little closer to family.
“When I moved here, Aberdeen just got its mall,” he said. People mentioned specific projects to him as soon as he arrived in town, and he hit the ground running. Many of these projects were things that were normally expected: drainage, road projects, and refurbishing the water plant. But the heart of his work went beyond the city projects.
As Bobzien worked, he became more in-tune with what people in the field needed from these projects.
“Every project was accomplished by others,” he said. “I realized early on that I wasn’t the one doing these projects, but I was facilitating them.”
He spent a lot of time thinking about how to make these projects easier for people to work on, and those ideas continued as his career developed.
“The engineering side pushes you to come up with a solution,” he said. “Like college, you go in with one idea and come out with something else. I’d have a solution and talk with stakeholders, construction, the people that utilize it later on, and those conversations brought in different solutions than what I thought.”
Bobzien said that one of the most rewarding parts of his career has been making improvements to different parts of our city and being able to see those benefits in action.
“It’s a very gratifying thing to see those come to fruition and to do them with others. None of these projects were things I did, they were things we did,” he said. “I was able to work with a great group of people. The list of departments I worked with is long, but you worked with every one of them to address their needs.”
Bobzien estimated that in the 31 years he’s worked for the city, he oversaw over $200 million in major projects. That number could be even higher, but there are several projects that he has started that won’t be complete until after his retirement, including the Public Works building and the water reclamation bid.
“We’re smarter together than separately,” he said. “These relationships are really neat. You become close to them. There are adverse situations, like an awful winter or a rainy season, and contractors struggle and find out ways to get through it. Trying to solve things together and collaborating on solutions was fun.”
In 2023, Bobzien became the City Manager. He was surprised to be offered the position, but he said that he was excited to have the opportunity to finish his career by doing something new and exciting.
“It was a good change for me,” he said.
Bobzien had to broaden his perspective a bit after the change in position, but a lot of his work as City Manager was the same thing with a different look.
As he approaches retirement, Bobzien said that he’s excited to focus on unfinished items from his personal to-do list and spend some more time with his family, especially his grandkids. Dave McNeil, who has worked for the Aberdeen Police Department for over 30 years, has been chosen to be the new city manager for Aberdeen.
“I’ve been fortunate to have a great group to work with,” Bobzien said. “People working for the city are all in it for the right reasons, and they share their passion with others.”
- How does your work reflect your passion?
Working for the City has really been about helping people. As an engineer by trade, I have been trained to solve problems. I feel that this is what our employees try to do every day. Although we can’t solve every issue, it is something that we strive to do. This is really a collaboration of many people trying to make life better in our community, one step at a time.
- What is something you love about the Aberdeen community?
Aberdeen has always been a progressive, vibrant community that has many people that collaborate to help Aberdeen continue to improve and grow. I have always loved the energy that these groups have and it is infectious!
- What do you like to do in your free time?
Free time is spent with family, traveling, or biking and walking.
- Where is one of your favorite places in Aberdeen?
There are many places in Aberdeen that I really enjoy, but I especially love our trail system and use it as often as possible.
- What is one word you would use to describe yourself?
Optimist, and if I can add a second, cheerleader.
- Why is community involvement important to you?
The City needs to have people that are involved to collaborate on common themes and ideas. Having groups of people involved provides the energy needed to help move the community forward. Without this community involvement, Aberdeen would stagnate. I’m proud to say that I believe that Aberdeen is great at having people give of their time to continue to make us a progressive community!…
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