Driving past the new Fairfield Inn & Suites building site on Hwy 3 it hasn’t looked like much work has been going on lately. I spoke with Community Development Director Chris Heineman who said they ran into a “dewatering issue”. Due to the land it sits on, the developer has used something called geo piers for footings, it’s the same type that were used on the condo project. Rather than a concrete slab, these footings go down to bedrock and are 7 to 10 feet apart across the entire building pad.
Heineman said they got ¾ of the way through when, on the side closest to the River, “the actual water, both the water flowing on top of the bedrock from the high water table and the rains that we’ve been having as well as just wet soil on the site, it kept sloughing in where the geo pier holes were drilled and where the machinery was going to put them so it was just not possible to complete the geo piers without de-watering”. So they’re pumping the water out of the footing area, about 8 to 12 feet below the surface. The water is then being taken to the City of Northfield’s water treatment plant. Heineman said, “the pumps couldn’t be turned on until there had to be additional testing done”. He said if it would’ve been pumped directly off site to the river, then it requires an MPCA discharge permit which could take a month. The developer will pay a per gallon charge for the water that’s taken to the treatment plant, but it’s still more cost effective than to wait for a permit from the MPCA. The crew that works on the geo piers went to another job while the dewatering takes place, Heineman says he’s hearing that work will resume next week. And they should only need a few days to place the rest of the geo piers.
Charter Chair resigns in dispute over new members
David Ludescher resigned as Chair of the Northfield Charter Commission last night and then quit altogether. On their agenda was, once again, the question of whether to recognize Greg Colby and Judith Schotzko as voting members of the commission after a Judge appointed them without going through the Chair. Secretary Scott Oney said in an email that Ludescher offered a path to the pair to be recognized but they didn’t take it. After resigning his Chair position, Lance Heisler became Chair. Oney said, when it looked as though Heisler was going to recognize the new members, Ludescher quit but stayed in the audience. They were recognized but abstained from voting on it. Oney also abstained as he believes it should be up to the judge, in a new order. Immediately following, Administrator Ben Martig gave a presentation about a new procedure he’s worked out with Clerk Deb Little for processing new members. As an independent Commission, Oney said some members weren’t comfortable with City staff being that involved.
NAFRS Board okays Admin Asst. position
The NAFRS Joint Powers Board met yesterday. Part of the agenda included a block for “Administrative Support”. The items listed included an overview of a portion of the McGrath study findings from December centered around the Board’s administrative process. Chair Glen Castore read a summary which included, “Increasing Leverage (pg 64 in study) . The status quo isn’t working and it will take great courage for the Board to unify and change the foundation of the organization placing a full time Fire Chief as the leader who is responsible to the Board. This action needs to occur as soon as possible”. It also included following Roberts Rules of Order and 3 items of Succession Planning. The full report is posted below. Castore said all the items in the succession plan have been addressed. And now they’ve hired an HR firm and have a more structured process. Jessica Peterson White said clearly not everyone felt that way, “I think if we’re going to move forward in a healthy way, it would be good for.. I want to hear other people weigh in”. From that point on there seemed to be a disconnect between talk of a possible full time fire chief who would handle administrative duties and the immediate need for an administrative assistant. Chief Gerry Franek is a part time volunteer and needs assistance. He requested a 30 hour a week assistant in January. After further discussion, a motion was made to hire one. There was confusion as to whether they even needed to vote on it with attorney, Marin Swanson, even saying it IS confusing even IN the JPA. The motion then involved adding benefits to the position. It passed. Clearly there is still more work to be done as this relatively new Joint Powers Board continues to evolve. The one thing they ALL agree on is that we have an outstanding Fire department. They had 20 applicants for the 3 or 4 firefighter positions open. Final Report NAFRS 12-26
