If you passed by Tobacco Field on Hwy 3 this morning, those flashing lights, guns and K-9’s may have alarmed you. Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn thought it was a false alarm, however, there was fresh damage to an entry and Deputy Chief Mark Dukatz reported this afternoon that he believes the alarm scared off the intruder(s). The alarm went off at 6:40 this morning and the owners called police. They didn’t want to enter the building in case someone was inside. Good news, no one was and nothing else was damaged.
Lammers to leave
Melanie Lammers tendered her resignation. She’s the Finance Director for the City of Northfield. I asked City Administrator Ben Martig if they were aware that Lammers was looking elsewhere. He said, “Nope, I didn’t know that”. Lammers is going to Hastings to be the Finance Manager. Martig said the job is more narrowly focused. In Northfield she’s also in charge of the
Liquor Store and the DMV. She also won’t be directly reporting to the Hastings City Council. Her last day is April 7th. Martig says they will cover with existing staff and also explore a contract with AEM Financial Solutions, they’re a management wing of the auditing firm they currently use. They’ll post the position this week and hope to have it filled by June. The salary range is around $102,00 to $129,000. Martig added, “she’s been here for a period of time and she’s done some great things and we wish her the best”.
Nfld Police offer fingerprinting 2x a week
Many of us likely didn’t know that our local police department handles fingerprinting for others than criminals. Northfield Chief Monte Nelson explained that they always fingerprinted anyone applying for a job with them, however, he said that in the last 20 years it’s expanded. Anyone who works with college students has to be fingerprinted and background checked; teachers;certain financial institutions, work for the Federal government. Lots of college students intern at government agencies. The department charges for the service as it takes time, but is no moneymaker for them. They used to allow people to just call up and make appointments but it’s not workable anymore due to the number of requests. They’ll be open on Tuesdays from 9am to 11am and Thursdays from 2:30pm to 4:30pm. They leave with their fingerprints, the local police do NOT do the background check, that’s up to the entity requiring it. There’s a technique to doing fingerprints properly, they can be rejected. That’s why people use the police or sheriff’s department. There’s no more ink, it’s all digital. For more information call 507-645-4477.
NHC gets $10k
The Northfield Historical Collaborative is going to be digitizing WWI documents with help from a grant of nearly $10,000 for the project from the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage grant program. This is the centennial of the beginning of the United States participation into that war. Northfield Historical Society Interim Executive Director, Cathy Osterman said they’ll search for all the materials between the Nfld Historical Society, Rice County, church records, the VFW and Legion. They’ll then be digitized and available online to the public so that those stories are preserved.
