Dodge County welcomes new county engineer

Dodge County’s new county engineer Noah Baumgarten was officially appointed to the position at the Feb. 10 county board meeting.
He replaces Guy Kohlnhofer, who is retiring.
Baumgarten is a native of New Jersey, growing up in Bergen County. He earned a Civil Engineering degree from Penn State University.
He said that after college, he worked with Dewberry Engineers, where he gained experience on major infrastructure projects in both New York and New Jersey, including water mains, highway paving, roadway construction and sewer systems. Also during this time, he gained a professional engineering license from both New York and New Jersey.
He said he recently moved to Minnesota to not only become the Dodge County engineer but also for a new adventure and as a change from the East Coast.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to serve Dodge County and look forward to working with the community to the best of my ability,” he said in an email after meeting the board.
Kohlnhofer will work full time for another week or two mentoring Baumgarten. He will then be working part-time into April.
Other board actions
Also at last week’s meeting, the board handled a number of routine items.
They approved a resolution to issue waste hauler licenses for 2026 to Waste Management of Rochester, Tracy Services, Skjeveland Enterprises, Freeborn County Coop Oil, Northstar Recycling, Veit Disposal, Harters Disposal of MN, Thompson Sanitation, Aspen Waste Systems of MN, and LRS of Minnesota LLC.
At the request of Kevin Venenga, the county finance director, the board approved the list of authorized signers on the accounts of MBT Bank.
The action, he said, was the result of MBT policy changes, the change in the chair of the Board of Commissioners, and recent staff changes.
The chairman of the board was given authority for a single account, and the county administrator, finance director and accounting services leader were granted authority to handle banking operations for all Dodge County accounts.