Northfielders will vote on a proposed Cannon River Civic Center, a 2 sheet ice arena that will allow for other events 6 months out of the year. Harry Weilage, retired Marshall Community Services Director and current board member of the MN Amateur Sports Commission talked with Jeff Johnson last week. He was part of the process of building a new multi-million dollar facility in Marshall, where City Administrator Ben Martig came from. Named the “Red Baron Arena and Expo”, it’s a 2 sheet arena that hosts a variety of other events from April to October on the 2nd sheet. He added that they had 323 events out of 365 days last year. When asked if the arenas cover the cost of operations, Weilage said, “No, and no facility does that. So that’s
why the support of the local community is so needed”. He did say that, “for your community, the businesses benefit from that. The hotels, the restaurants, the gas stations. I mean all of those things end up being an economic driver for the Northfield community”. The proposal to Northfield and Dundas residents is a ½ cent sales tax and a $20 excise tax on a newly purchased vehicle. Additionally, Northfield residents will see an increase on their property taxes. For complete information on the impact, go to the City of Northfield website. City Administrator Martig, Mayor Pownell and Ice Arena Assistant Manager, Tom Spooner held a facebook live q&a session on Friday. That video is on the city’s facebook page. (scroll down the page to find it). If you have questions, call Administrator Martig at 507-645-3009. Or go to cannonriverciviccenter.org. Weilage’s full interview is here.
School District referendums
As for local school referendums, the Northfield school district is asking for $41 million for Early childhood learning including a new elementary school. For more information go to the Northfield District website. The Randolph school district is asking taxpayers for $6.8 million to fund an expansion project at the district’s K-12 school. Most of the dollars will go toward a 12-classroom addition and school safety. The estimated tax impact on a $150,000 property is about $68 annually over 20 years. For more information go to the school’s website. http://www.randolph.k12.mn.us/ and Waterville-Elysian-Morristown is seeking $19.3 mil for security, HVAC and maintenance. Click on those links for information.
Voting: “An act of citizenship”
Senator Amy Klobuchar visited Carleton Campus on Saturday along with local DFL candidates, Angie Craig, Todd Lippert and Marla Vagts, who’s running in Dakota County. They gathered at Sayles-Hill Center for a get out the vote rally. The Senator touched on subjects including cyber attacks, our judiciary system, soybean tariffs and big pharma. She spoke of President Trump saying he treats the Country as his audience, she said, “well guess what, on Tuesday you’re no longer the audience, you are a citizen. Tuesday is an act of citizenship”. As she left she took time to greet the people, shake hands and take pictures, and say hello to KYMN, “hello to the radio audience, it’s great to be here in Northfield. We have an incredible crowd here. I’ve never seen anything like it in the middle of the day on Saturday. We don’t have any outside national guests, it’s just me and Angie and I just think it bodes well that people are going to go out there and vote”. Voting takes place tomorrow. You can vote early through Monday at City Hall or go to your polling place tomorrow. Information on voting, including sample ballots for every area, is on the Secretary of State website and, locally, on ci.northfield.mn.us. Candidates for Northfield City council interviews with jeff Johnson are on kymn.net.
[envira-gallery id=”74364″]
