UPDATED to include the actual ADOPTED plan from Bolten and Menk in 2016. Final Northfield Facility Plan Adopted 2016-02-16
“The League of MN Cities Insurance completed their investigation into the cause of the fire saying that there doesn’t appear to be a clear cut cause” says Public Works Director Dave Bennett regarding the recent fire at Northfield’s biosolids building. He sent a notice to media saying that “no mechanical or electrical issues were found and no negligence on behalf of the City”. Pictures show melting of the equipment, in particular the pasteurization vessel and belt. A study of the WWTP conducted in August of 2015 by Bolton & Menk, showed that the biosolids plant in
particular was below standard for storage capacity and they suggested increasing it by last year. The report also states that the lime pasteurization was in need of repair to motors, conveyors, heating elements and controls. Click on the above link for the full report. Pages 40 and 41 specifically. Additionally, Bennett writes, “the League has indicated that most of all cost associated with the fire will be covered. The League has begun advancing money to the City to pay for the costs being incurred. Contractors continue to haul sludge daily to other facilities for processing”. In last week’s Council meeting, Administrator Martig indicated that Northfield’s insurance premiums will rise as a result of the multi-million dollar fire. Bennett said they anticipate receiving a full report from the League in the next couple of weeks. Once received, he writes, staff will include it in a more updated presentation to Council in July. That facility and equipment was scheduled for an upgrade in 2021.
Nfld man offers drive thru employee cocaine
A Northfield man is charged with 5th degree drug possession, 3rd degree DWI and open bottle. 31 year old Carlos Vasquez offered cocaine to an employee in the Drive thru of McDonalds on Saturday. When the Northfield officer arrived to the scene, according to the criminal complaint, Vasquez was at the 2nd window yelling at an employee. As the officer approached the drivers window, he could smell alcohol. Other officers arrived on scene. Vasquez blew a .18, over twice the legal limit. There was an opened can of beer in the console, half gone and officers found a small amount of cocaine in his wallet. Vasquez had driven into the drive through after they closed and refused to leave, finally the 17 year old girl gave him an ice-cream, he then made suggestions to the young girl. He harassed three female employees. His initial court appearance is June 21st.
Rice County law enforcement ahead of the State in officer training
Previous “Use of force” police training has been scrutinized recently, Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn said, “in Rice County we’ve been doing things really well here. We’ve been doing the reality-based training, we’ve been doing de-escalation training for a long time and now that stuff is becoming mandatory starting this year”. Dunn’s department has been sharing the training with other agencies and he sat on a Board discussing what the training should look like. The State is supposed to reimburse law enforcement agencies for officer training, he said, “we’ve been getting reimbursed like 25{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} of our training costs and they say it should be at 100{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} but that money’s not there”. While legislators recently came up with some more money, it’s not enough. Training is huge, he says, “if you have well trained officers, well equipped officers that are doing a good job, you’re going to be able to provide better services at a lower risk”. Dunn said the biggest thing is communication to control the outcome.
