The Northfield Police Department and Rice County Sheriff’s Office are warning citizens of a phone scam involving the Rice County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Dunn said they’ve received multiple complaints involving a company claiming to be a Cpt Mike Jones or Johnson or Willis, common names, from the Rice County Sheriff’s office. He’s telling people they have a warrant for their arrest and they can post bail. The Rice Co. Sheriff’s department has no Captains. Dunn said his investigators, as of late yesterday afternoon, were able to shut down the phone number.
So, if you were trying to call the number we posted yesterday, it’s been disconnected. The scammer was looking for a credit card number. Dunn added, “we will never ask you to give your credit card number over the phone for bail or anything like that. We’d rather have you go through a bondsman or come in and deal with us directly”. If you are contacted by this suspect or anyone else you think is suspicious, please call their Dispatch Center at 507-332-6001. They’re continuing the investigation. Click on full press release: Scam Alert – NPD – 02.15.18
1st reading of Preservation District designation brings up tax issue
In a 5 to 1 vote, the Northfield Council approved the First Reading of the inclusion of some properties into the 
downtown heritage preservation district. In 2015 the City received a grant to hire a consultant to update the historic downtown property inventory. They spent an additional $20,000 for the survey. City Planner Scott Tempel said they reevaluated all the buildings according to the modern criteria. The original survey was 30 yrs. old. Out of the process, 4 properties were recommended for inclusion to the Preservation district. Tempel said this allows for protections such as preventing demolition of historic buildings, making sure that any exterior changes were complementary to the district and meet the national standards. It’s also a step that enables Northfield to apply for federal matching grants to preserve historic properties. Chair of the Heritage Preservation Commission, Jason Menard, said, “while restoration can be expensive, we see increased tourism, business traffic and property values. People are filming movies downtown. Our downtown is the envy of many cities in the region. Preservation has a really good return on investment”. Jim Spaulding, owner of the Hideaway Coffee House, where a movie was shot, said, “My concern is that we are in the historic downtown preservation area and our taxes just went up 74{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9}”. Administrator Ben Martig said Rice County does the assessments and he encouraged Spaulding to reach out directly to the assessing department. Other building owners downtown have raised the issue of the exorbitant tax hike this year. Asked if owners get tax credits for the designation, Tempel said it would take a renovation valuing half the cost of the building to get any credits. He added that it can be a double-edged sword as property values increase with heritage designation. Councilor DeLong voted against it calling it, “this is another layer of bureaucracy that we’re imposing”. This will come back to council for a 2nd reading.
Weise new DARE officer
Northfield has a new DARE officer, Bart Weise. He grew up in Northfield, went to school here and has been an Officer in town for about 10 years. He just completed 2 weeks of intense training. He’ll now be teaching DARE classes to 5th graders in the School District. Weise will tag team with Officer Angela Borchardt, the former School Resource Officer. Weise is taking over that position.
