Fargo Moorhead Business News: Retirement

Bartsch reflects on four decades of work at OTP

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

A century ago, Otter Tail Power Company was incorporated, and two years later, in 1909, the company began generating electricity at Dayton Hollow Dam south of Fergus Falls. Part of this 100-year-old history, for more than 42 of those years, is Duane Bartsch who is retiring at year’s end.

Bartsch is best known as the liaison between Otter Tail Power Company and its biggest industrial customers. In this capacity he headed industrial services for the company.

“The biggest change during my career came about through computerization,” he said.

“Computers allowed for so much faster and more efficient response when it came to doing rate analysis, contracts and providing other services for customers,” Bartsch said. “It also allowed for communicating news to them about electric motors, heating and cooling options, and you name it.”

Computerization aside, Bartsch emphasizes it was and still is important for Otter Tail Power Company to maintain what he describes as “the person-to-person contacts with customers.”

Over the years he has worked with Lakehead Pipe Line (now Enbridge Energy), which has crude oil pipelines running across northern Minnesota; Minnesota Pipe Line; Ladish Malting (now Cargill Malting) east of Jamestown, N.D.; Dawson Mills (Ag Processing Inc.) in southern Minnesota; Melroe (Bobcat) at Gwinner, N.D.; and Potlatch (lumber mill and oriented strandboard plant) east of Bemidji.

“Yes, those are some of the largest industrial customers Otter Tail Power Company has served for many years, and it was rewarding to work with people at those facilities,” Bartsch said.

Additionally, Bartsch has worked with Northwood Panel Board (Norbord); Solway near Bemidji, 3-M (later Imation) at Wahpeton; West Central Turkeys at Pelican Rapids; and Kenny’s Candy, Tuffy's Pet Foods and Barrel O’ Fun at Perham, to name a few.

Bartsch is quick to praise the industrial services team that also includes Mark Remer, Paul Aasgaard and Jeremy Rham.

He first worked for Otter Tail Power Company in 1964, at Devils Lake, N.D., as a student intern while attending North Dakota State University, Fargo, where he obtained a degree in electrical engineering. A native of Rugby, N.D., he officially joined Otter Tail in 1965, first working as an engineer in transmission and distribution in Fergus Falls.

Al Hartl was president of Otter Tail Power Company when Bartsch came on board. He later worked under the auspices of Bob Bigwood, John MacFarlane, Doug Kjellerup and Chuck MacFarlane.

He served as a division engineer in Bemidji in the late 1960s and in 1971 transferred to Jamestown, N.D., working in the same capacity. He became manager of industrial services in 1978 and worked in that area of operations for the next 29 years.

Bartsch has a son, Christopher, and two grandchildren. He and his wife, Cindy, have a daughter, Audra Robyn, 10.

“The personal relationships with fellow employees and customers is what you cherish most,” Bartsch said during a retirement party in his honor Thursday evening. “I’m thankful for these many years of working for Otter Tail Power Company.”

Duane Bartsch, closing out more than 42 years of employment with Otter Tail Power Company, paused in front of the company’s Central Dam waterpower station near downtown Fergus Falls.

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