A Nerstrand man was convicted yesterday of being a Felon in Possession of a Firearm. Last night, a Rice County jury also found 30 year old Jeremia Michael Roberts guilty of giving a false name to police officers. On October 28th of last year, Roberts was found in a van with an uncased, unloaded shotgun. He gave the officers a false name and date of birth, pretending to be his brother. A female passenger had seen Roberts place the shotgun in the van and that Roberts had participated in “jacking cars” the night before. Rice County Attorney John
Fossum said, “Roberts showed that he was a danger to the community by possessing a shotgun after his felony conviction. We will seek the mandatory sentence in this case.” The firearm charge carries a maximum 15 years and minimum 5 years. Sentencing is scheduled for June 13th. Roberts has multiple convictions for theft, drugs and driving after revocation. The case was investigated by the Morristown Police Department and the Rice County Sheriff’s Office. Roberts – Nerstrand complaint
Youth don’t let obstacle derail playground project
Some enterprising young women competed for and received a grant to put in a playground at Viking Terrace. Athziri Rodriguez, Odalis Puga, Sheyla Lino were the Youth Bank Grant recipients, a project through the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative. After receiving the grant, the owners of Viking Terrace decided there was not an ideal location inside the Mobile Home Park for the playground. So, HCI contacted the City to see if it was possible to add additional equipment to the nearby Dresden Hills Park playground. The grant is $10,000, they raised an additional $4,000 for the project. Their adult advisor Sara Tetrault praised the girls saying, “so the girls got to learn a lot about how when you hit an obstacle, you can back up and go a different way”. The young women donated the $14,000 to the City of Northfield to add additional playground equipment to Dresden Hills Park in an effort to, “hopefully attract young kids so they don’t go on the roads or… just make it a very happy and safe place for the kids to play”. Rodriguez added that it was a 2 year process. The City will now get the equipment ordered and install it.
Nfld celebrates Earth Day in a big way
Tomorrow’s Earth Day and Northfield celebrates in a big way. Helen Forsythe explained that it starts this afternoon with a happy hour from 4 to 6 at the Rueb-N-stein with Northfield Community Solar. Forsyth talks about events tomorrow on Bridge Square. There’s a “Wellness Wakeup” at 9:30am which includes a Bike, a hike in the Carleton Arb and a garbage pickup. You can grab some free coffee too. There are free workshops throughout town, which include various skill sharing and crafts, such as making a felt penguin! Find the details of the Community Celebration at the Weitz Center tomorrow afternoon at northfieldearthday.com. Check out other events going on this weekend on KYMN’s online events calendar.
