Four agreements are going to come before the Northfield City Council for a vote regarding the NAFRS Fire Facility. Administrator Ben Martig explains that there’s an architect and construction managers agreement to get into the formal designs and construction documents. The other components are pre-construction cost agreements which are a little more complicated with a Joint Powers Board as the City owns the building and land while the Joint Powers runs the operation. The City of Northfield will do the bonding as owners of the building and then be paid back by
the other entities for their portion. But before the bond issue there will be about $180,000 in pre-construction costs. If they were doing this as a city project, they would use the cash they have and then it would be paid back from the bonding dollars. In this case, because it’s a Joint Powers, the City needs an agreement to say that NAFRS agrees to pay Northfield for those costs if the project doesn’t move forward. The last piece is a management agreement, a Design Team who would oversee the project for change orders and such. The Council is scheduled to vote on the agreements on Tuesday. The plan is for construction to begin in 2018.
Nfld School Board getting ahead of the game
The Northfield School district proposed their annual 2017/18 Capital budget along with the long term Facilities Maintenance fund. This is a new funding stream which expands it over the next couple of years in a phase in process. And the intent of the long-term maintenance facilities revenue program is to make sure that school districts can do the necessary upkeep on their buildings to be able to keep them as long as possible. Those monies are for upgrading the facilities, no new building. The Capital budget is the kind of to purchase curriculum, technology and some light maintenance. Those are the things they’d like to get going on as soon as possible. If they approve these projects earlier, they can get a better price when they bid the jobs. The Board will look at it again March 27th.
Rescue Squad kicks off fundraiser
The Northfield Rescue Squad held their kickoff fundraising event last night at the Fire Facility. The plan is to raise $600,000 over 3 years for a new heavy duty rescue truck. Squad Captain, Aramis Wells, put together a powerful powerpoint presentation outlining the reasons why they need to replace the 17 year old truck. He called it a very large tool box. A demonstration of firefighters cutting through metal to get to a patient was eye opening. As Wells and Darrin Stowe talked about yesterday, the difference in cutting through the metal of a car built in 2000 and one built in 2013 is about an extra 15 minutes. Which cost a life. Passenger safety inside the rescue truck was also eye-opening. For more, click HERE
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Tonight is the 2nd most dangerous night on the road. Faribault Police Chief Andy Bohlen commented that statistically, when a holiday falls on a Friday or Saturday, there are more DUI’s and more crashes. He said that law enforcement doesn’t want you to not have fun, but rather, have a plan! Extra officers will be out on the road tonight.
