Locally Grown Northfield

Over the past week or two, there have been a couple of comments indicating that Locally Grown is, or is perceived to be, a “liberal blog”. I find this both interesting and amusing.

One of the things I’ve always appreciated about local politics is that the issues we deal with are non-partisan, and more often than not don’t lend themselves readily to being characterized as “liberal” or “conservative”. And Locally Grown has always been dedicated to the discussion of local issues.

• Is our new rental ordinance liberal or conservative?
• Is the pressure to have or not have a municipal liquor store either liberal or conservative?
• Is Northfield’s capital improvement plan liberal or conservative?
• Is our annexation deal with Greenvale township liberal or conservative?

You get my drift.

I understand why partisanship is prominent in our discussion threads about the election and national political issues; I just don’t think it’s particularly accurate or helpful to throw these terms around in other discussions.

Since Locally Grown in particular is defined not just by posts written by the Triumvirate, but also by the personalities of the regular commentors, if most of those commentors lean to the left, Locally Grown may appear that way. But since these things seem to come and go in waves of participation, LG could just as easily appear conservative a few months from now.

What evidence is there that LG is a liberal blog? And where’s the “conservative blog” in town? I want to follow that one too.

Last night, planning commissioners Alice Thomas, Suzie Nakasian, and I hosted a “get-to-know-you” party for our newly elected female councillors and the Mayor-elect.

Before I issued the invites, I checked with City Attorney Maren Swanson to determine if Alice, Suzie, and I could be at the same place and even [gasp] potentially discuss items of substance. Ms. Swanson confirmed that since the three of us are less than a quorum, it’s permissible under state law. (Since none of the newly elected officials have been sworn in yet, there were no issues related to notice, open meeting law, etc. as far as they were concerned.)

When I informed the current Planning Commission chair and former city councillor Greg Colby of what we were up to behind his hairy back, he responded:

OBJECTION>>>> This sounds like fun and I resent being excluded because of my gender. Nonetheless, I thank you for the heads up and I will try not to be too male by holding a grudge.

In addition to discussing the Comprehensive Plan and a bit about City processes, the event yielded the following crucial information:

• Erica Zweifel grew up surrounded by exotic animals. (Her father was a zoo veterinarian.)
• Suzie Nakasian sings jazz in the shower and says she’s better than her professional-jazz-singer sister.
• Mary Rossing has a secret wish to sell everything she has to live in a van and travel around at will.
• Alice Thomas went to school in a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade.
• Rhonda Pownell has palpitated the internal organs of a cow.
• Betsey Buckheit has a thing for circus music.
• I left home at 17 to live on a commune in Oregon.

I wanted to put something in there about how Rhonda’s experience being up to her shoulder in manure was particularly good preparation for service on the City Council, but she’s so kind-hearted that I took it out. Sort of.

In short, the seven of us had a great time at the first and last gathering of this group. I think we were all a bit sorry that we won’t be able to do it again; however, we all understand and affirm the need to protect the integrity of our local democracy. I told everyone involved that I planned to blog about it, in the interest of transparency between city officials and citizens. That’s one of my pet issues, and I hope we can establish some new trends in that arena.

Greenvale Township’s supervisors and Northfield city officials drew closer to reaching an agreement at the end of a fifth annexation negotiation meeting at the township hall on Tuesday night.

“I think we’re looking at a win-win,” Brian O’Connell, Northfield’s community development director, said after the meeting.

O’Connell and Joel Walinski, Northfield’s interim city administrator, offered a new payment plan to reimburse Greenvale for the property taxes it will lose when 530 acres of undeveloped farmland goes onto the city’s tax rolls. Northfield would like to attract industrial developers to the site.

The proposed payment plan would reimburse Greenvale in the amount of about $3,854 a year for five years. That figure is the amount of money Greenvale currently collects in taxes on the property. In the sixth year, Northfield would pay a “balloon payment” that would equal about 20 more years of annual payments. In all, Northfield would pay Greenvale about $96,362, using today’s property tax rate figure.

That amount is significantly higher than the $7,708 figure O’Connell and Walinski presented at first, which would have met the state minimum requirement of reimbursing a township for two years.

O’Connell said Northfield could manage to budget for the balloon payment expenditure in six years. He said he thought offering Greenvale a large lump sum in the annexation deal was a good way to find “mutual ground” between the desires of both communities.

Greenvale’s three supervisors appeared happy with the offer, but said they would have to investigate if the township would be allowed by law to accept such a large lump sum of money. They also were unsure if they would be able to invest the money as they pleased.
“We might be required to use it to lower taxes,” Supervisor Robert Winter said.

O’Connell and Walinski said they would compose a new draft of the agreement while the township found out about its ability to receive large payments. Walinski said he hoped to see the annexation process complete in February. City Council will have final say on the terms of the agreement.

Our guest yesterday: Betsey Buckheit, newly elected City of Northfield Councilor for Ward 2… and a blogger.

We discussed the newly approved comprehensive plan with which she has a long history. But most of our time was spent on — you guessed it! – the municipal liquor store and the current controversies surrounding it. See the ongoing liquor store discussion here.

Click play to listen. 30 minutes. You can also subscribe to the podcast feed, or subscribe directly with iTunes.

Our radio show/podcast, Locally Grown, usually airs Wednesdays at 5:30 PM on KYMN 1080 AM and on Fridays at 4 PM on KRLX 88.1 FM.

Northfield Mayor Joseph Lee Lansing will attend his omnibus hearing on Dec. 17 at 1:30 p.m. in Rice County District Court in Faribault. District Court Judge Warren E. Litynski set the date Wednesday afternoon after an arraignment that lasted about 10 minutes. The mayor is facing five charges of misconduct by a public official and two charges of conflict of interest by a public official. Lansing, casually dressed in jeans and a sweater, appeared in good spirits during his arraignment hearing, and chatted with people before and afterward. His attorney is Tom Dunnwald.

Main Street Moravian Church meeting on drug use in Northfield from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Note: This is an edited video of the question and answer portion of Sunday’s meeting at the Main Street Moravian Church. I edited out images of the undercover sheriff’s deputy and any audience member. I also shortened the length of some questions and stretches of silence. For a complete, audio-only recording of the meeting, follow this link.

Questions remaining:

Are the people of Northfield doing enough to help get drug users through recovery?

Why did this problem blossom in Northfield in particular?

Where does Northfield stand on a time line stretching between “higher amount of drug users” to “very few drug users?” When does that time line begin? When might it end?

Carleton put up two hockey rinks on the bald spot last week.

Where will the other outdoor hockey rinks be this year?

How about the location of the other recreational (non-hockey) skating rinks?

Is there a page on the City of Northfield’s web site where its rinks are listed? I couldn’t find it.

 

Sharp-eyed reader Steve Wilmot alerted me to this building being torn down along the railroad tracks behind the Quarterback.

Anyone have any details about the building and what’s in the works?

Nate Jacobi, Assistant Director for Civic Engagement at St. Olaf’s Center for Experiential Learning, has alerted us to their Google map mashup “highlighting over 50 Northfield-area Community Organizations (nonprofits, schools and city/government agencies).”

Attach a comment if you see any problems with it or if there are resources that should be included.

 

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An Iraqi child participates in the War Kids Relief project

A Minnesota-based non-profit is spending the next few months partnering children in New York City, Washington D.C., and Northfield with children in Iraq in an effort to build closer ties between the nations.

“We thought about Minneapolis, but decided on Northfield,” said Pam Middleton, executive director of War Kids Relief, which is a program of the Children’s Culture Connection non-profit.

Middleton will help select about two dozen eighth- and ninth-grade students across Northfield to participate. Each child needs to submit an application in school to be considered.

“Northfield is Middle America, but it’s also a special place. The citizens here are so engaged,” she said.

The children Middleton helps select will attend at least three afternoon gatherings in January, February and March at the Northfield Public Library. There, War Kids Relief organizers will help each Northfield teen begin a pen-pal kind of relationship with an Iraqi child. The youth will exchange letters, artwork and videos. The Northfield children will learn about Iraqi culture by hearing stories, playing Iraqi games and eating samples of the region’s food.

Photo by Josh Rowan From left: Dina Fesler, president and founder of Children Culture Connection; Sandra Hakim; Pam Middleton; and Charles London, author of One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War, pose at the War Kids Relief program kickoff event last week.

The mission of Children’s Culture Connection is to “help U.S. kids develop an appreciation for other cultures, to foster cultural awareness within our own multiracial communities and to raise money and awareness to help at-risk children throughout the world,” according to the organization’s Web site.

Examples of the artwork and writing of the participating Iraqi children are hanging in the James Gang Hideaway Coffeehouse and Winebar on Division Street. The first War Kids Relief library meeting is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 10 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Update 11/18 11:30 a.m.: I edited a few grammatical errors this moring and took out the phrase “warring nations” in reference to the U.S. and Iraq.

• See Nov. 13 RepJ story and follow-up discussion: EDA talks about trust between elected officials and paid staff
• See Nov. 14 Nfld News: City may choose a liquor store proposal next month

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It’s been two weeks since the last Friday Memo. Has Joel been kidnapped?

The Friday Memo, written by interim Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski and many of the department directors, managers, and supervisors, summarizes many of the staff activities for the week.

Although it’s directed to the mayor and city council, it’s helpful for citizens to see what’s going, too. The Friday memos are published and archived in PDF form at the bottom of Joel Walinski’s web page.

See the Friday memo for this past week (actually, Oct 27-31) and then comment or ask questions about it here.

NOTE! There’s a City Council meeting tonight, Nov. 17. Big items:

• Consider adoption of park system master plan
• Consider adoption of the transportation plan
• Consider adoption of 2008 Comprehensive Plan

Amy Gohdes-Luhman, pastor of the Main Street Moravian Church, organized and hosted a town hall forum on heroin today. Panelists included:

• Dr. Charles Reznikoff – Addiction Medicine Specialist, Opiate Agonist Therapy (OAT) Clinic - Northfield Hospital
• Sarah Shippy – Program Director, MEd LICSW, Omada Behavioral Health Services
• Scott Robinson – Sheriff’s Deputy, Rice County Drug Task Force
• Jeff Eckhoff – Assistant Principal, Northfield High School
• Two individuals with personal stories of addiction

Cick play to listen or download the MP3. 

• Podium presentations: 0 to 1 hr, 24 minutes.
• Panelist Q&A: 1:24:00 to 2 hr 42 min.

See the Rice County Chemical Health Coalition’s Chemical Health Resource Directory on the Northfield HCI site for a huge listing of area services.

See the album of 10 photos or this slideshow:

 
Coordinators Julie Bubser and Zach Pruitt are now bloggers at the newly revamped Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) website.

Right photo: Mary Nelson, Julie Bubser, Zach Pruitt, and Curt Benson at a recent WordPress training session at the Bittersweet Eatery Tea Room. (Mary and Curt will be working on the new  Northfield Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Alcohol and Drug Use website, coming soon.)

Katie Nelson did the original design, Northfield web designer Sean Hayford O’Leary implemented it using WordPress, and I concentrated on the coaching (with my blogging coach business hat on).

Here’s a one-minute video clip of auctioneer Ed Kuhlman doing his thing at last week’s Northfield Historical Society auction.

Carleton news: Johnnies Answer Knights’ Late Score, Steal MIAC Title

NORTHFIELD, Minn.––Matt Frank (Sr./Caledonia, Minn.) caught a 4-yard TD pass with less than a minute left to give Carleton a 10-7 lead, but Saint John’s drove 63 yards in a little more than 40 seconds, capped by a 22-yard TD catch by Jeff Schnobrich from Joe Boyle to give the Johnnies a thrilling 14-10 win over the Knights.

The win gives the Saint John’s the MIAC title outright and the NCAA Playoff bid, and denies Carleton its first conference crown since 1992. The Knights finish the season at 7-3 overall, tied for second in the MIAC standings and Carleton’s best season in 16 years.

The House Party for Sarah Henson was held at the Grand Event Center last night.

See my album of 55 photos or this slideshow:

See Doug Bratland’s post on Northfield.org with his album of 40 photos or this slideshow of his:

Remember the Legacy Amendment? I blogged about it back on October 11th. Well, it passed.

In today’s Star Tribune Local Music Columnist Chris Riemenschneider offered some suggestions on how to use it. As I said in the title of this post, I think the guy is a genius.

Chris points out that that the Minnesota music community is consistently the red-headed stepchild when it comes to funding of the arts. Yeah, let’s just leave it at the fact that the dance community, the theater crowd, and the visual arts army seem to have better connections than the boys and girls in the bands.

He figures that there should be about $54 million a year for the arts and suggests how some of it could be used to support local music. His suggestions include funding for underage venues and shows, health-care assistance for musicians, festivals promoting Minnesota music, scholarships for music education, and tax breaks for venues that offer live music.

I think Riemenschneider offers some brilliant ideas. Check ‘em out and let me know what you think.

 

Jaci Smith, managing editor of the Northfield News, has been getting hammered by citizens who were offended by her Broadening the Field front-page headline in the Nov. 5 edition of the paper, announcing the results of the city council elections.

See the letters to the editor in this week’s paper. Her column in last Saturday’s paper was titled, Defining a ‘broad,’ and a race in which she wrote:

In my e-mail to the councilors- and mayor-elect, I wrote that I think of a “broad” as a woman who is smart, savvy, tough and confident; a woman who can balance work, family and business and still find a way to be involved in the community. A leader. I can’t think of anything we need more for our city. So, in my eagerness to impart that message in three words or less on Tuesday night, “Broadening the field” seemed appropriate.

I am profoundly relieved that our new female leadership took the headline in the spirit that it was intended. But by choosing the headline I did, I managed to sidetrack the momentum and the conversation from all the exciting possibilities before us onto something much less interesting and noteworthy. And that’s what I regret most of all.

We joked about ‘broads’ vs. ‘chicks’ on this week’s Locally Grown podcast… a show where Ross and I regularly turn to Tracy and say, “Tracy, you ignorant slut!” ala Dan Akroyd-to-Jane Curtin in SNL’s Counterpoint.

I thought Jaci’s headline was clever.  If the term once was offensive, it no longer is, just like the phrase “that sucks” used be offensive but no longer is. Even old timers from Frank Sinatra’s day might remember that he used ‘broad’ as an affectionate term for a girl or woman with sex appeal.

Jaci should not have (weakly) apologized, but rather should have defended herself by citing none other than Eve Webster, president of the League of Women Voters Northfield-Cannon Falls, who was quoted by Suzi Rook in the Northfield News in October:

• Leading ladies: Women return to political races in Northfield
• Voters Guide: More women than ever before are running for public office in Northfield this year

Having women and men at the table when determining the city’s course is important, said Thurston, who served two terms on the council. “I think it’s good to have a woman’s voice and a man’s,” she said. Webster, with the LWV, agrees. Decisions about public policy are more wisely made when a variety of perspectives are available,” she said. “It’s a matter of broadening the field.”

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