The City is ever closer to a transit hub at the Depot site in Northfield. And if Director of Transportation with Hiawathaland Transit, Amy Repinski, has anything to say, it’ll be soon. Repinski delivered a presentation to Council as they near the 5 year mark of taking over transit for Northfield. Some of the services include two routes in Northfield. Deviated routes have a fixed location and time. There’s no call in, however they do still offer Dial-a-Ride Monday through Friday from 6am to 6pm. For more information click HERE. They received a $620,000
grant to expand services including, for Rice County, a multi-cultural travel trainer to help Somali and Latino community understand how to take transit. They also plan on a commuter route between Northfield and Faribault. You can pick up tokens at Cub Foods in Nfld and/or City Hall. City Engineer Dave Bennett said they’ve been working with them, Benjamin Bus and Save the Depot on a design layout for the Transit area off Hwy 3 between 2nd and 3rd streets where the old Depot is being restored. Bennett said, “it’s a one-way traffic coming off 2nd street traveling to the south to 3rd. Parking on both the north end and south end. The transit hub is just north of the pavilion of the depot”. 2 – PREFERRED – OPTION 2A COLOR SKETCH. They’re finalizing plans and costs to get it done this year. They’ll need to subdivide the land with the Depot group and get some variances. Bennett added that both Hiawathaland and Benjamin Bus will use the site as soon as the improvements are made. With infrastructure in place, transit service could start right away. I’ve posted the sketch of the design on kymn.net. Mayor Pownell and Admin Martig will be in studio at 7:20 this morning with a full recap of the meeting. Also a reminder that you have until May 4th to fill out the Citizen Survey and let your voice be heard as Council work on their Strategic Plan.
NAFRS talks Fire station and drafting 2018 budget
The fire hall was the big topic during the NAFRS joint Powers board meeting. The first actual design meeting was held this morning. Chair Glen Castore said the design team is headed by Fire Chief Gerry Franek, Asst. Chief Jeff mahacek, NAFRS ex-officio member Jerry Anderson, the architect and the construction manager. Castore said when they start actual building in 2018 they’ll build the addition first, so operations will “run as they run now”. Once that’s done, they’ll put the trucks in there and work on the other side. Castore said they’ll adjust as needed. If necessary, they would rent space from Valley Autohaus to accommodate the trucks. He commented on the Joint Powers Board saying, “things are going along fairly smoothly at this point. We’re just in the beginning of our budgeting process for 2018 so we will get a draft budget to the Board at this next meeting in May and talk about it in June some more and vote on it in July”. The next NAFRS meeting is the 18th. All meetings are open to the public. They begin at 8am in the Police Station Conference Room.
Mock crash set for Friday
Multiple emergency agencies will conduct a Mock Crash on Friday at 1pm at the Northfield High School. They do this every other year to remind students of what can happen if you drink and drive. This also includes drugs and distracted driving. Police Chief Monte Nelson said by the end of the demonstration it’s pretty quiet. The speaker is Chad Lexvold of Kenyon.
Vote!
Downtown Northfield is in the quarterfinals in the contest to win “America’s Main Street” and a grand prize of $25,000. The public can vote daily at mainstreetcontest.com through May 28th when the Top 10 will be selected.
