Northfield Mayor Pownell won’t be going to the White House on the City taxpayer dime. Pownell, along with 24 other female mayors from Minnesota and hundreds more across the country were invited to the White House for a “Women Mayors of America” Conference on September 20th. Councilor Zweifel made the motion to approve $1350 but it was Colby who spoke first, saying, “I am very much opposed to this idea for a number of reasons. First of all they haven’t got enough detail yet to tell us and it’s less than 3 weeks away? That tells you something”. He questioned where the value was in it with just 2 hours devoted to breakout sessions, of which no detail was provided. He said, “the idea that the White house is going to listen to
Mayors out of rural Minnesota, rural Iowa, rural Wisconsin, strikes me as unlikely”. While Peterson White had every intention of sending the Mayor, she chose not to, saying, “I have to agree with Councilor Colby. I have serious concerns that this is, we really have no reason to believe that it’s a good use of funds”. Pownell asked if there were further due diligence, would council consider approval “with conditions”, adding, “and so if we were to look at ways to reduce cost, if then, or is the answer still a flat out no? Saying yes gives the flexibility to do further due dilligence”. Pownell added this morning that the conference is still in development. She called it,”just an opportunity to meet with the Secretaries, Cabinet Secretaries, their policy setters there at the White House and they really wanted to hear from the local that perspective on what we’re dealing with workforce or other community type issue”. That was not brought up at last night’s discussion. Pownell added, “when anyone on the Council is representing the City in their official capacity, I do feel like the City should cover the costs for that. If people choose not to do that, that’s certainly their personal choice but as of right now, no, I won’t be pursuing it”. None of the Councilors were in favor of giving taxpayer funds in any capacity for the Mayor to attend the conference. DeLong brought up an article in Politico about this Administrations outreach to affect election. Zweifel withdrew her motion. Pownell and Administrator Martig were in studio this morning with a full recap of the meeting, that is posted on kymn.net. 1- Invite – Women Mayors White House Conference updated (1)
Heineman hits the road for Little Canada
There was a farewell reception for Community Development Director Chris Heineman before the Council meeting last night. A number of the community including commission members and business leaders attended. He is leaving for a position as City Administrator in Little Canada with his last day on Friday! Over the last 6 years he’s accomplished seeing post-recession work and the housing development gradually picking back up, working with community members, long-standing developers such as Tom Gill and Steve Schmidt. Commercial development included the new Hotel, a project that really started in 2014. He said yesterday, that there are several other housing projects being contemplated with staff reviewing preliminary concept plans. As for the west side of the senior housing project across from the Northfield Hospital, an Advisory committee was formed to look at further development. Their direction is now looking at a smaller area than the entire 530 acres. There will be further information on this at a later date. We’ll have more on the process of replacing Heineman coming up.
JoyRide is back!
It went over so well last year, they’re bringing it back. Rice County Safe Roads Coalition Coordinator,Kathy Cooper, announced they will offer JoyRide on Saturday night during Defeat Days in an effort to deter drunk driving. She said, “you just can’t go wrong! We have the Coalition, we’ve got a Charter bus from Hiawathaland Transit for Saturday night from 10pm to 2am that will pick folks up at the Entertainment center and drop them at home. That is Northfield only. The bus will run about every 15 to 30 minutes. First Choice Shuttle will also be on hand, it’ll be $7 to Dundas. JOYRIDE Poster DJJD 2018 Northfield Police Chief Monte Nelson added that there will be extra DUI enforcement. Please plan ahead. Crash Facts 2013-2017 Preliminary DRAFT_NEW (1)
