Brad Frazier was the Executive Director of the Cannon River Watershed Partnership from 2015 till March 10th when he tendered his resignation. The Board of Directors named Kristi Pursell as Interim Executive Director. I asked her if they were expecting Frazier’s resignation. She said, “no, nope, I was not. It was not a conversation that I was privy to”. It left the organization without a Director for a week. In a press release, the Board wrote, “Mr.
Frazier informed CRWP that he was looking to explore new opportunities and other passions.” Pursell also joined CRWP in 2015 and has,most often, been the face and voice of of the organization rather than Frazier. Right now, they’re trying to sort out the day to day business and set priorities before determining the process of looking for a permanent replacement. The Cannon River Watershed Partnership is governed by a 25 member Board of Directors. Twelve are elected officials – six county commissioners and six Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisors from the six counties of the watershed. Thirteen are citizen members who are elected each year at our annual meeting in March. The official press release: CRWPPressRelease
Prowe pushes for action on Mill Towns Tr
Since 1990, a group of bicycle enthusiasts have worked on their dream of a bike trail connecting the communities along the Cannon River. Mill Towns Trail representative, Peggy Prowe, spoke to the Northfield Planning Commission about the route that had been planned directly through downtown on 4th street. The DNR requires the trail be off-road to be designated a State Trail, which receives bonding dollars. Although there isn’t any money for it right now. Staff says the Comprehensive Plan must be changed. Prowe explained, “currently on your park and trail plan there are several routes for the Mill Towns Trail and we need to clean that up. I guess that’s what they felt was important”. With those changes approved, Prowe says they can start fundraising and holding public hearings. She added that part of the plan in Northfield includes, “a 10 foot wide trail for pedestrians and bicyclists that serves the city center, the dense housing on Jefferson Pkwy, Bridgewater school, kids going to the Middle school and the High school and the soccer fields”. The Mill Towns group believes there should be an underpass for pedestrians and bicyclists at Hwy 246 and Jefferson if they put in a roundabout. Commission member, Jay Jasnoch commented, “there are miles of route laid out there, some of it is easy to at least think about how you would accommodate, some of it doesn’t have a direct route to accommodate to get to the end goal, which leads me to believe that maybe there’s an alternate route other than the 4th street route”. City Planner Scott Tempel mentioned an option Public Works Director Dave Bennett suggested, “there could be an engineered solution to separate the bike lane on 4th street. You keep it on there but put in a physical barrier or realign the road to meet the DNR standards”. The Planning Commission debated cost, other routes and logistics. This item is on the Northfield Council’s agenda for Strategic Planning. I’ve posted documents included at the Planning Commision on kymn.net. 4 – Original Downtown Route (1) 3 – MTST Northfield Concept Nov 2015 2 – MTST Northfield Alignment Concept Cverview 1 – Mill Town Trail History, Planning Vision
Take a video tour of the Nfld Depot
Save the Depot’s, Alice Thomas, will take folks on a video tour of the Northfield Depot Renovation this Wednesday morning at 10:30 at the Northfield Senior Center on Jefferson Pkwy. Thomas will provide an update on what’s been happening this winter on the exterior, the interior progress and the summer work plans. Skip nasty March weather and the difficulty of navigating the mud and building materials to join others in the warm, comfortable Senior Center, Room 106.
