What does Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame baseball player Joe Mauer have to do with the Mahtomedi Public Works Department? 

Mauer and Public Works Department Director Bob Goebel both enjoyed careers as catchers. Mauer caught 100 mph fastballs, and Goebel has caught fawns and monitor lizards. Both aspired to be franchise players, and both were.

Mauer played for the Minnesota Twins from 2004-2018. Goebel has played for the city of Mahtomedi from 1995 to 2025. His 30-year playing days with Mahtomedi have lasted twice as long as Mauer’s 15-year career with the Twins.

This is not as far-fetched as it seems: it was Goebel’s idea, after all.

When City Administrator Scott Neilson interviewed Goebel for the position of public works director a few years ago, Goebel said, “I want to be a franchise player — I want to be the Joe Mauer of Mahtomedi.”

The Mahtomedi City Council recently honored Goebel for being that team player for three decades. In fact, he has worked for the city for 32 years. For his first two years of working for the city, he was a seasonal worker. 

In 1993, Goebel’s very first interview with the city for the seasonal job went like this:

City administrator: “When can you start?”

Goebel: “Tomorrow morning.”

The morning after that interview, Goebel started his job with the Mahtomedi Public Works Department, mowing in the summer and plowing in the winter. In 1995, the city hired Goebel full-time as maintenance operator.

Goebel never thought he had a job. “I love what I do,” he said. “There’s something different every day.”

For example, in August 2012, when Goebel was chief maintenance operator, he was driving down Lincolntown Avenue keeping an eye out for deer and skittish squirrels when he saw a giant lizard sunning itself on the centerline. “I thought it was an alligator,” he said of the 4-foot monitor lizard.  

Goebel wasn’t sure what to do, so he blocked the roadway with his truck to prevent the lizard from being run over and enlisted the help of several people, including naturalist Jim Malkowski of Pine Springs. The lizard scrambled into the brush and took shelter in a poison ivy patch. The team of lizard wranglers scooped it up in a fishing net, only to have it launch itself out of the net. 

Eventually, the lizard was secured and reunited with its owner, who said the lizard had slipped out of its cat leash and escaped into a pond while being taken out for a walk.

In May 2017, Goebel, a lifetime member of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, was given a chance of redemption and fame by rescuing a fawn from a storm sewer. He pulled the grate up, grabbed the fawn and had a photo op courtesy of the three Washington County Sheriff’s Office squads that had hurried to the scene. Goebel and the fawn were seen more than 100,000 times on Facebook, as well as on Channels 5 and 9 news. 

“It was loud, it called for its mom and took off immediately to hide in the bushes after I set it down,” Goebel said.

“I’ve known Bob as long as I’ve been here,” Neilson said. “Bob has been the go-to person for this city for quite a few years. His knowledge of city is vast — he knows where all the bodies are buried. He keeps me informed, is eager to learn something new and wants to be the best public works director he can be.”

“I interact with Bob every day,” said City Engineer John Sachi. “I have both his work number and private number and when I can’t reach one, I try the other. He answers all the time.”

Goebel is married to Judy and has three sons: Ben, Will and Jack. Jack, 16, stepped up to the council podium to concur. “He seems happy when he’s answering his phone,” he said of his dad.

“I never know what the next phone call will be,” Goebel said. “I deal with anything and everything.”

“Bob, you’re so good at what you do, even though it’s tough to be nice and do a nice job,” said Council Member Jane Schneeweis. “I’m glad you’re not leaving.”

“No, not leaving yet,” Goebel said.

Loretta Harding is a contributing writer for Press Publications. She can be reached at news@presspubs.com or 651-407-1200.