Today’s news update

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For the top news briefs,

• The Northfield City Council have made several decisions regarding Capital improvement Projects for 2010-2014. First, they approved a motion recognizing and confirming the need to replace and/or expand the Northfield Safety Center and expand the Northfield Library within the next 5 years to meet the needs of the community for the next 20 years. Next, the council approved a motion to reuse the existing location for a new fire facility and to find a new location for a police facility. This is the model the council will use moving forward in future planning of Safety Center Projects. Third, the council approved a motion confirming the library expansion project to be the expansion of the public library at its current location, southward. The planning will also address and integrate vehicle parking into the final project design. These three motions were all approved with 6 council members in favor, and one dissenter, council member Jon Denison. The council also voted 4 to 3 in favor of a timeline that would see the police facility being built in 2011, the fire facility being built in 2012 and the library expansion getting under way in 2014. Finally, the council approved a preliminary total project cost for the new police and fire facilities not to exceed $8.5 million dollars, and the library expansion not to exceed $8.5 million dollars. The motion was approved in a 6 to 1 vote, with council member Jon Denison voting against the motion. KYMN will have continuing coverage of the council’s CIP decisions throughout the week.
• Minnestoa non-profits will have a chance today to receive a portion of a half a million dollar match for every donation made to their organization through the GiveMN web site. It’s part of the Give to The Max program. GiveMN.org is a new online resource designed to make the donation process more convenient for people who want to give. More than 37,000 Minnesota non-profits are registered with the site, including dozens of organizations in Northfield. Minnesota leads the nation in charitable giving. Last year, Minnesotans donated $4 billion to charity. For more details, you can click here.
• The Rice County Public Health Nursing service, in partnership with the Northfield and Faribault school districts and Minnesota Visiting Nurse Agency is sponsoring two H1-N1 vaccine clinics for children ages 4 through 9. The clinics will primarily offer the nasal spray vaccine to those who are eligible. And a limited supply of injectable H1-N1 vaccine will be available for children who aren’t eligible for the nasal spray vaccine. The Faribault clinic will be held on Thursday, November 19 from 5:00 pm until 8:00 pm in the Rice County government Services Building. The Northfield clinic will be held on Friday, November 20^th from 5:00 pm until 8:00 pm at the Northfield Middle School.