Council voted to approve leaving public comment rules “as is”. The Northfield Council wrangled over the issue several times. Councilor Peterson White wanted to cut back to only allowing the public to speak once near the start of the meeting. Others wanted the public to be allowed to comment on each regular item but felt they must register before the meeting begins. Jeff Johnson called it the “Victor Summa rule”. As a Council watchdog, Summa commented at the open mic this week, “basically you’re trying to control a few people that are interested, AS interested as you are in the City of
Northfield”. His co-hort, Don McGee said City Hall is a place where residents have a right to ask questions, offer opinions and express grievances. He said several have told him they’re afraid to speak, they’re intimidated. He thinks the message the council’s delivering is, “that, hey, we don’t really care much but, yeah, we have to give you 2 minutes. Take your 2 minutes, go away, and then we’ll go on doing what we planned to do all along”. McGee said they should encourage the Citizenry to speak. And with a 4 to 1 vote, they chose to continue what they do now which is to allow the public to speak for 2 minutes at Open comments and then again at each Regular agenda item, should they choose. They will reiterate that residents turn in a sign up card but can do that throughout the meeting. Mayor Pownell commented, “one of the other things that I really wanted to highlight with that though too is that we have the e-comment function that we are going to be rolling out”. Administrator Martig said they hope to roll it out it in April. It will be a “click function” with the agenda items on their website, “they’ll be some reporting functionality that comes to that. We’ll be making it available to the public so they’ll be able to see the comments as well”. In that same vote they also decided who’s going to decide where they sit, the Mayor. Unless 2 councilors want to swap.
Bookbag bee brings Ness back to the Library
Retired Northfield Librarian, Kathy Ness, may have bid goodbye to the day to day library business but she’s picked up her sewing skills to introduce Boomerang Bags to the Northfield Public Library. She explained, “the idea is that people get together and sew simple handled bags and then donate them to be used at a Library, a grocery store, whatever”. The library buys plastic bags at a dollar a piece and goes through upwards of 125 a month, over $1200! The intent of the boomerang bags is, of course, reuse, which reduces the use of plastic bags and allows those dollars to be better spent. Tomorrow and Saturday, Ness is holding a bookbag bee at the Northfield Library tomorrow from 9:30 to 1pm according to the website. They’ll sew bags and also prepare packets of 6 bags for people to take home, sew, and bring back. They do have one sewing machine at the library. She made a bunch of packets last week and they’re already gone. The fabric was donated by a furniture store. Ness says she hopes to hold these a couple of times a year. The Friends of the Library purchased the silk screen kit so she can print the Boomerang logo and Library on the pockets. There will also be a bookbag bee on Saturday from 10am to 4pm. For more information click HERE to connect to the Library’s site.
Read before you react
A story of a man who went missing 5 years ago became viral for Northfielders after someone reposted a Facebook “memory”. One commenter thought he’d seen this person and was encouraged to call police. I spoke with Police Chief Monte Nelson who received a call from the commenter. After questioning the Facebooker, it turns out that he hadn’t read the date and hadn’t read the article. After being informed that it was 5 years old, he then determined that it likely wasn’t the man who went missing. Nelson doesn’t discourage people from calling, in fact, they prefer you do, however it’s always a good idea to read the date and the details. Sadly the man in question has not been found.
