Mayor “optimistic” as Northfield council to discuss Waterford Annexation issue
Waterford Township has sent an invoice to Northfield every year since 2010 for payments they feel due them on an Orderly annexation agreement from 1980. It’s up to $27,000 now. In 2009 legislation passed that made those types of agreements void after 6 years. City Attorney Chris Hood determined that, since the City had paid for 30 years, they didn’t have to any more. In an attempt to soothe relations, Councilors Ludescher and Zweifel were on a subcommittee to address the issue last year. In February, they each brought forward different resolutions. Most council members at the time, seemed to want a hybrid of the two.
Council approved Mayor Graham and a City staff person to negotiate with Waterford a one-time payment and a release of claims. Administrator Martig and the Mayor have been working with Waterford. He said, “we sat down and talked with them. We had a very good conversation about how can we move this forward because it’s not only that we want to resolve this with a neighbor and get along with our neighbor, we want to have an Orderly Annexation agreement with Waterford”. He added, “there’s a project right now, low income housing project that is waiting in limbo until something happens with Northfield and Waterford”. Graham says an offer’s been made and Council will discuss it on July 5th. Northfield needs some land and Waterford wants to protect themselves into the future. Graham added, “we don’t want to negotiate this at the Council level right now, we want to be able to go back. We just want to make Council aware of where we stand in this process and we’re hoping that they continue to give us charge to gp back and negotiate with them and see where we go”. He’s “optimistic” that the issue will be resolved.
NAFRS hears preliminary budget items and forms Ad Hoc committee
The Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Services joint power board met this morning. Bron Scherer presented preliminary budget ideas with suggestions to create a type of depreciation fund for equipment and possible insurance options as they assume ownership of a couple of newer trucks. Mayor Glenn Switzer brought forward a resolution to reconsider his request to create a part time Administrator position, funding the position for 2017 and any capital expense for the following year be specifically designated. The Board was somewhat divided on the issue. Ex-officio Jerry Anderson said that’s the Fire Chief’s job. As it is, Switzer pointed out that Chair Glen Castore does a lot of what an Administrator would do. He said too many things are falling into the “anything that needs to be done” category, and they should be memorialized for future Boards. Mayor Graham made a motion to create an Ad Hoc committee of Ben Martig, John McCarthy and Bron Scherer to look further into an Admin position. There was no formal vote on Switzer’s resolution.
Groundbreaking for rural broadband in Goodhue Co.
Senator Matt Schmit joined residents of Goodhue County and representatives from New Ulm-based NU-Telecom as they celebrated breaking ground on a “fiber to the farm” broadband deployment in rural Goodhue County on Monday. The deployment was funded by a $116,00 state grant and $128,139 provider match. The project will focus primarily on connecting homes and businesses for residents who work from home — including small business owners, farmers, and telecommuters. The legislature, this year, appropriated an additional $35 million in matching state grant funding for the effort, which targets investment to Minnesota’s hardest-to- serve areas.
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