Four and a half to five million dollars. That’s the estimated cost of repairs to the biosolids building of the Wastewater Treatment plant. The Northfield City Council declared a local state of Emergency last night. Utilities Mgr, Justin Wagner showed pictures of the damage explaining a main location of the fire was the pasteurization vessel which was “not identifiable”. The conveyor belt completely melted through onto the rollers. Public Works Director Dave Bennett said, “this is catastrophic damage in the plant, I mean, that process is not going to be up for 6 to 12 months”. Staff was
asking for the Emergency declaration to be able to move quickly and not have to go through a competitive bid process. As for insurance coverage, the City already met their $75,000 deductible due to the flooding incident earlier this year. He said, “so for each claim, it’ll be a $1,000 that we’ll have to pay”. This will impact future premiums. Councilor Colby noted the extensive damage, asking why it took so long to put the fire out. The system alarms do NOT go to the fire department, but Bennett said staff did respond. Administrator Ben Martig explained, “when we talk about alarms, those aren’t all fire alarms going off. That space in particular is not sprinkled and so it does have some limited fire suppression based on the time it was built…. so certainly as we do a rebuild they’ll be a lot more protections built in”. An hour after the alarm went off, a passerby noted the smoke and called the Fire Department who identified the location
of the fire. Martig said there was an electrical storm that evening. When the investigation by the Insurance investigator is complete, it will be made public. State Fire Marshall said there was no foul play. In the meantime, sludge has to be hauled out by truck, depending on how long the system is down, that could cost an additional $1 million. Staff is also looking at a portable system. The rest of the functions of the wastewater treatment are in working order and there’s no issue to the public. Mayor Pownell and Administrator Martig gave a recap this morning, their interview is posted on kymn.net. According to documentation provided by Mayor Pownell, the biosolids building was set for an upgrade in 2021. 1 – Declare emergency resolution (2)
You can view the meetings online at the City’s Website HERE.
Final candidate filing
Filing for Northfield council seats closed yesterday. Jon Denison filed for Ward 4, he will run against incumbent Jessica Peterson White. Greg Colby, the At-Large councilor is being challenged by Clarice Grabau, Suzie Nakasian, Ward 1 is running unopposed. As for the county level, filing also closed and according to the Minnesota Secretary of State, David Miller is running unopposed for District 3 Commissioner and Steve Underdahl of Faribault and Gordy Kosfeld are running for Commissioner in District 4. County Sheriff Troy Dunn and County Attorney John Fossum are each running unopposed.
Dundas Police get on FB
The Dundas Police Department now has a Facebook page. City Administrator John McCarthy said they’ll be able to post warnings and current information. The Facebook address for the Dundas Police department is dundasmnpd.
