Township elections were held yesterday. In Dakota County’s contested races, Donovan Palmquist won Eureka Township Supervisor over Allen Novacek by 10 votes and Butch Hanson took the other Supervisor seat over Nancy Sauber by 6 votes. In Greenvale Township, they have their first female Supervisor, Darcy White won over incumbent
Duane Fredrickson by 36 votes. The Town Treasurer in Randolph Township is Lori Wiik, she beat Chris Meyer, 22 to 7. In Rice County, 3 races were also contested. Wells Township Supervisor is Jeffrey LaCanne and Flavia Berg is Town Clerk . In Wheatland Township, Gary Pavek edged out Kenneth Kes by 1 vote for Town Supervisor and in Erin Township, Joseph LeBrun won over Darrel Turek by 1 vote for Supervisor. In For all the results in Dakota County click below: https://services.co.dakota.mn.us/electionresults/#at/35dd9eb1-49a2-4170-8f5b-b6292a35af19/ar/14/ All other races had no opposition. Rice County results: Twp Election Results
Presidential Commons can’t pay their debt
The Northfield Council discussed Presidential Commons last night. It is a Tax Increment Financing District set up in 1999. There are 84 townhome units, 75 of which are low income. Finance Director Melanie Lammers said, “we currently have a bond with an end date of 2022 but what has happened is, with the fall of the housing market back in ’07/’08, the District is not collecting enough Tax Increment to cover it’s bond payments”. The City has made $115,000 in loans to the District. If left as is, they would have to continue to fund it through 2022. Administrator Martig said, “what we’re basically looking at doing is refinancing our debt, reissuing that, extending out the length of time that we collect that to allow a little more dollars to come in to repay that to make up the difference”. Refinancing now will also save them interest. It was refinanced in 2007 and then the market crashed. The Council generally seemed in favor of refunding. Marig said there would be no local impact. Cities don’t typically do this type of financing any more but rather a “pay as you go”. He explains, “if we did a development deal now, most likely what would happen is you’d have a Developer agreement to say that you’re going to pay. You can issue debt, you can get a bank loan with that, you can have these anticipated tax increment financing coming in, but if it goes down, you’re going to take that risk”. The Council is also looking at combined debt issuance with the street reclamation projects which will save some dollars. This will come back to council for a vote but most seemed in favor of refunding and rolling in the street projects.
MGM still has hoops to jump
While MGM was approved for a liquor license in Dundas in the old K-Mart building, there are still some hoops to jump through including a demolition permit, a building permit and then an inspection. A 10 screen movie theater will take up 30,000 sq. ft. of the 90,000 available. The building will be gutted but the exterior will remain much the same except for separate entrances for each rental.
SWCD offers native plants for purchase
The Rice Soil and Water Conservation District is holding a Native Plant Sale again this year. Order by April 14th for a mid-May pick-up. You can choose from a Butterfly or Raingarden package with 48 native plants each. To place your order or learn more ,http://www.riceswcd.org/urban/
