The Northfield Police Department and Cannon River Task Force agents are investigating a suspected heroin overdose that killed a young Northfield woman. Police Officers responded around 2 o’clock Tuesday afternoon to a residence in the 500 block of Wilson Court. On arrival, they found 25 year old Tessa Jean Schultz was deceased. Law enforcement is awaiting the toxicology report from the Hennepin County Medical
Examiner’s Office. Recently there were 3 Northfielders who were revived by naloxone after overdosing on fentanyl-laced heroin. Chief Monte Nelson noted in the press release that over the last several months, area police and medical professionals have seen many examples of illicit drugs (pills and/or powdered heroin) that contained Fentanyl or Carfentanil. Both of these drugs are often lethal in very small amounts. Nelson, once again, stressed, if you, a friend, or a family member is struggling with opioid addiction, please consider treatment options and obtain Naloxone, which is available at area pharmacies. If you find someone in potential overdose or unresponsive: Call 911 Immediately, Stay on Scene, Provide CPR,Help Emergency Responders with information and drug details. If you do that, you are protected from prosecution.
Flood, fire and pump failures lead to questions regarding WWTP
Update: restrictions were lifted at noon today. 2018_7_6 Update Advisory Lift
In the last 6 months there has been a flood, a fire and busted pipes and pumps at Northfield’s Wastewater Treatment plant. This latest incident on Monday night had city officials dumping a million gallons of sewage into the Cannon River prompting advisories to not have contact with the water. That warning continues until at least 2 this afternoon from the plant on Hwy 3 downriver to Lake Byllesby. Northfield Public Works Director Dave Bennett said this morning that bacteria levels are getting better and there will be another press release later this afternoon. An alarm at the treatment plant went off at 8 o’clock Monday night. A pipe had broken at the pre-treatment building. Bennett said, “the basement was totally full of water, pumps and controls and everything in the basement had been submerged”. As to how they got to dumping a million gallons of sewage into the Cannon from 1am to 4am on Tuesday, Bennett said, “we really thought it was going to be fully contained within the basement, everything was still operating at that time, and we were pumping out the basement and getting prepared and monitoring systems and then we started to have pump failures”. Including backup pumps. Once they failed, Bennett said, “later in that evening we finally just had to, we were too overwhelmed and too inundated and we had to have the discharge in order to get the pumps online”. He said they don’t know why the pumps failed. He said the facility is back on and operating now. Bennett doesn’t know how much it will cost. He said the fire in May and the flood earlier this year at the plant are not related. Mayor Pownell also said the incidents are “completely unrelated” adding, “we have a really solid facility. It’s a state of the art facility and it was significantly upgraded in 2002″. Bennett, Pownell and Administrator Martig were in studio this morning. One question asked was the reliability of Bolten & Menk, the consultants who audited the system in 2016. That report is online, recommending maintenance in 2021. Pownell’s answer was, “well I think the most important thing for us to know and understand at this point is we have really good quality insurance is covering all of these events. They’re doing the necessary research, going in investigating, trying to find the cause. Our job at that point is to ensure that we have the necessary procedures in place to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again”. The league investigator still hasn’t determined the cause of the fire. Pownell said that since the insurance company is going to pay the over $5 million in damages to the biosolids building after the fire, she said, “that was already going to be covered in our CIP, its now will be covered by insurance so that’s a major expenditure that our community will not have to pay for”. The City is covered by the League of Minnesota Cities which cities throughout the State pay for, which comes from taxpayers. The full interview is online at kymn.net. KYMN will continue to monitor the issues. 2 – 2016-01-26 M21109430 Northfield Facility Plan
Draheim and Vogel to hold Town Hall on Monday
Senator Rich Draheim and Representative Bob Vogel will hold a public town hall listening session in New Prague on Monday morning from 7:30 until 9 o’clock. The public forum will be held at the New Prague City Hall, located at 118 Central Ave N., in the second floor City Council Chambers. Sen. Draheim and Rep. Vogel will recap the 2018 legislative session, discuss state policies, and field questions from community members. Draheim said, “The most important job that we do as legislators is listen to the voices of our community members,”.
