Twenty-five years later, Sheriff’s Dept. ok’d for more personnel
The Rice County Sheriff’s department is growing. After over 25 years, Rice County Commissioners voted to allocate dollars to add law enforcement staff next year. Sheriff Troy Dunn said population has increased, calls for service have increased and they’ve seen a significant rise in Child Protection services. They’ll add an Investigator to help with that and 2 Patrol Officers which will allow them to have 2 deputies on 24 hours a day. Dunn said, “when you have one officer working and you have a major crash or domestic, you don’t want to be sending in one officer”. By adding these extra people, Dunn, says
response will be better. Not even the State Patrol has someone out 24 hours a day. If there’s a crash on the interstate or Hwy 3, it’s Rice County deputies that will get the call. The hiring process has begun and interviews will be taking place soon. Dunn said they had 96 applicants! He hopes to have the 3 positions filled by mid January. Then it’s 3 to 4 months of training.
Two are jailed after suspicious vehicle report
Two are jailed after a suspicious vehicle report at Northfield’s Super America gas station on Thursday. A patron called Northfield police after watching a couple root around inside a vehicle, stop in the driveway and not leave. According to the criminal complaint, at one point the driver of the vehicle went inside and was asking questions that led the employee to believe the occupants may have been casing out gas stations. As officers arrived, the 2002 blue Pontiac Sunfire left. A short time later, they spotted the vehicle on Spruce Ct. near Jefferson Road. Inside they found a man and a woman
pretending to sleep. 30 year old Kristin Therasa Fretschel and 21 year old Nicholas James Smith, both of Wisconsin, were found inside. The VIN was run and the vehicle came back stolen from Reedsburg, Wisconsin. They pair had multiple ID’s
and it appeared that Fretschel had scabs on her arms and legs. She also told officers that she was paraplegic, however, she did walk. The complaint says the Smith is the son of the husband’s owner and Fretschel was the one who drove off with the car. Officers searched the vehicle and found drug paraphernalia, 2 bags of methamphetamine and “a loaded syringe”. They’re both charged with receiving stolen property and drug charges. The most serious charge carries up to 5 years in jail. Formal complaints: smith and fretschel
Nfld Schools see highs and lows of “World’s Best Workforce”
The “World’s Best Workforce” is defined by 5 goals. Northfield Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said they include making sure all students are ready for Kindergarten, can read well by 3rd grade, are college and career ready, close the achievement gap and graduate from high school. The Northfield School Board heard the annual report and there were some highlights and some areas for improvement. The achievement gap has shown some improvement but not really enough for Hillmann or the School Board. Another area for improvement is reading. Hillmann says, in the school system, they say K through third grade is learning to read, 4th through 12th grades is reading to learn. Every other subject after that, as you get into deeper content such as science, math and social studies, the ability to read at a higher level is critical. Another key transition is middle school on a more social/emotional perspective, the next significant transition is 9th grade. Hillmann said, “a lot of research points to how successful kids are in 9th grade will determine their ability to graduate”. Things like Northfield’s TORCH program and their 9th grade Academy provides additional support. The good news is that 97{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} of Northfield students graduate.
Winter Walk ornament hunt has begun!
The hunt for this year’s Winter Walk Snowflake ornament began at 8 o’clock this morning. The brown 3 to 4 inch metal snowflake will be on Nfld city property but will NOT be in ANY decorations. There will be no need to dig unless we get snow. There will be up to 4 clues. KYMN will read them each morning around 8 o’clock and post to our website at 8. The Northfield News will also post the clues. The winner gets $500 in Chamber bucks. Official rules are on kymn.net and the Northfield Chamber website. If you find the ornament, call Tim Freeland at 507-581-5038
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