A slew of thefts from vehicles hit the south end of Northfield late Sunday into Monday morning. At 6 o’clock Monday morning, Northfield Police received a call from a resident reporting suspicious activity. Officers apprehend 2 suspects inside their car with, what appeared to be, lots of stolen items. Police Chief Monte Nelson said they’re still looking for more victims as they have more stolen items than have been claimed! There could be upwards of 30 vehicles broken into. If you believe you’re missing items, call the non-emergency phone number. Nelson pointed out that none of the vehicles
were locked. The suspects hit neighborhoods around Sibley School. The pair, who are not from Northfield, are not being named until formal charges are made. Nelson also reminded residents, again, to lock your vehicles and don’t leave valuables inside. The Northfield Police Department would like to thank the citizen who called and reported the suspicious males. Their immediate call to police led officers to discover these crimes, identify the suspects, and recover stolen property. NPD-Press-Release-TMVs-010918-1
Wastewater treatment plant accident prompts emergency Council action
Northfield Council took emergency action last night after an issue at the wastewater treatment plant. City Administrator 
Ben Martig explained that they had been doing some maintenance when they had a, “pipe plug failure that evening so the alarms went off. Our staff responded to that”. They found 5 feet of partially processed wastewater in the basement of one of their processing buildings. That was was pumped out. Engineer Dave Bennett said during the pumping process, “we did have one of the pipes come lose and there was about 400 gallons of partially treated wastewater that did spill onto the ground”. There were no injuries and there is no threat to the public. The system was back up and running by 7 Tuesday morning. After closer inspection the valves and some other electric components were damaged by water, according to Bennett. While they are operating manually right now, many of those valves need to be replaced. The emergency action makes it possible for staff to immediately start negotiations with a contractor to get the work done. Martig added that State Statute requires an RFP process for expenditures over $100,000, however, “it’s an emergency because if we ultimately had full failure out of our plant because of some of these irregularities, if the system started to fail, it could end up in discharge of some of our wastewater into our waterways so that’s a public health risk”. The incident was noted to the MN Pollution Control Agency. Bennett commented on the equipment and cost saying that there are about twenty “gear actuators” that will need to be replaced. They’re about $4 to 5,000 a piece plus installation, which means over the $100,000 mark in State Statute. It’s estimated that cost will reach $200,000. They now have 21 days to get a full list of repairs necessary. Martig said they have insurance adjusters coming to town today. The City is fully insured through the League of MN Cities. Martig explains more in his interview now posted on kymn.net.
Nominate a Northfield graduate – Distinguished Alumnus
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2018 Northfield High School Distinguished Alumnus Award. Principal Joel Leer said the qualifications include must have graduated at least 10 years ago and have a distinguished career in service, vocation, or avocation to their community, society or humanity. Nominations will be accepted through February 23rd. Forms are available in the high school office or by calling 663-0630.
Hillmann and Co. will be checking roads tomorrow
With snowfall predicted, Northfield Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said he, along with Jenna Dardis and Barb Moore from the bus company, will be up and driving the roads at 4 tomorrow morning! They’ll come back in, check an updated forecast and look at the surrounding areas and then choose a course of action. Keep it on KYMN, both AM1080 and FM 95.1, for any school delays or closures.
