Head-on crash kills Northfield man
A head-on crash kills a Northfield man. At 4:15 yesterday afternoon, The Minnesota State Patrol responded to an injury crash on Hwy 19 near Decker Avenue. The report states that 23 year old Matthew Johnson of Lonsdale, was traveling eastbound in a 2016 Ford Fusion when a 2010 Toyota Corolla driven by 29 year old Cosmus Arita of Northfield, crossed the centerline. Johnson was taken to Northfield Hospital with non life threatening injuries. Arita died at the scene. No alcohol was detected on either driver and both were wearing their seatbelts. Hwy 19 was closed for over an hour between Holyoke and Decker. A call to the State Patrol has not yet been returned.
Nfld Council discuss finances
As the Northfield Council discussed their CIP/CEP, the Park Fund was brought up. It has about $100,000 in it. The fund is used for items like maintenance and expansion. City Administrator Ben Martig commented that they removed all the improvements they had in their 5 year plan as there’s not enough money in the fund and no more money coming in. The pool slide they’d budgeted for nearly doubled in cost to $65,000. The other update , good news, regarded the growth of the City, “in effect we had a 2{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} increase in the tax levy next year. If your property values were to stay the same, the tax rate’s actually going down so you could see a reduction in the City portion of the taxes”. Council must set their 2017 budget in December.
“Tell your family where you’re hunting” says Sheriff
Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn urges hunters this weekend to tell their family/friends where they’ll be hunting and what time they should expect to be home. He says there are still parts of the County where there’s no cell phone service and from time to time, they’re called on medical emergencies such as heart attacks and people falling from their stands. Dunn encourages hunters to bring a small first aid kit with them and to adhere to safe hunting practices, know where that barrel is pointed. And, of course wear blaze orange! He reminds hunters to pay attention to no trespassing signs. He says if you wound a deer and it wanders onto a signed No Trespassing property, you must get an escort to retrieve the deer. A Conservation Officer, a Deputy or the Landowner. The deer season opens tomorrow morning and continues through the following weekend.
Huge crowd gathers for movie premiere
Nearly 800 Northfielders walked the red carpet for the world premiere of “Love Always, Santa”, last night at the Northfield Middle School. Audience members cheered as they recognized Northfield landmarks, which were prominently displayed in the opening scene. Joan Spaulding, owner of The Hideaway Coffeehouse, where many scenes were shot said it was so exciting! [listen to the podcast to hear the soundbites] Her son, Mike was in the movie with the only non-scripted part playing a didgeridoo. He said he doesn’t really own one but made it sound that way with Mongolian Throat singing! Isadora Swann is the girl who plays 9 year old Lily. This was her first movie. She tells me that her friends didn’t quite believe she was in a movie but then she showed them the trailer and “they were like, That’s YOU”! While she would like to be an actor, she added that it’s an unstable career and if she wants a family, she might do something else. You can see she’s grounded! Her mom commented that it was exciting to film in their hometown. CVB Director of Tourism, Lisa Peterson, read a letter from Producers Mike and Lori Leahy saying they knew from the first phone call with Todd (Bornhauser of the Chamber) that Northfield was the “perfect place for their film”. The movie airs Sunday on the Hallmark Channel, check your local listings for time.
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