Four men have been federally charged in a case led by the Cannon River Drug and Violent Offender Task Force. The investigation led to the largest methamphetamine bust in State history. Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn shared information that, yesterday, the US Attorney’s Office announced that they will prosecute the case against Fernando Ramos-Meza, Peter Martin, Javier Lopez-Lopez, all of Minneapolis and Juan Daniel Valdez-Mendoza of Kansas City. Law enforcement seized several items of contraband, a sawed-off 12 gauge shotgun and 191 pounds of methamphetamine in a Minneapolis home. The men,
who range in age from 23 to 46, remain in custody. Full Press Release HERE.
Washington St. won’t get finished but Co. Rd. 1 scheduled to open
Crews are continuing concrete work on Washington St. as they button it up for winter. Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig said that they’ll probably be going into the Winter season with the existing pavement so they did some patching at the concrete bumpouts that were put in along with some curb replacements. The City will then open the street up fully until next Spring when the work will be completed. That work will include additional bumpouts on the north side of Washington at 4th, 3rd and 2nd. The City hopes to have concrete work finished on 7th street this week and paving next week. As for WHY there are delays, Martig said, it was/is a combination of weather conditions and, “capacity of the contractor, I guess, as far as their crews that they have and how much work that they have”. Good news, the newly reconstructed Co. Rd. 1 between Hwys 246 and 3, is scheduled to open at 2 this afternoon.
What’s next for Hockey Arena?
The question of what to do about the current condition of our existing ice arena is one of the City of Northfield’s strategic initiatives. In a press release, Mayor Pownell said the City will be revisiting the issue and determining next steps. Administrator Martig said they’ll continue to go back and see what didn’t work, what do they do from here to look at solutions. He added, “we had a lot of support for it but we also had some opposition and the voters spoke so we need to look at other options”. In the meantime, they welcome feedback from the community and encourage you to contact your City Councilor or Public Works Director David Bennett at (507) 645-3006.
Nfld District will begin the work of improvements and design
With the approval of voters, the Northfield School District will be building a new elementary school on the grounds of the current Greenvale Park, which will then become an Early Childhood Learning Center. Along with that, Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann laid out what else will happen, including, “the modifications are going to happen at Sibley School”. There will be a new cafeteria and music center. Every school in the District will have a secure front entrance and enhanced security. Now starts the process of securing an architectural partner and considering construction management firms. They’ll also be forming design teams of people from the community including teachers, parents and, perhaps, some high school students for their perspective. After the new school is built, which will hopefully be completed in 2020, they’ll repurpose the current Greenvale Park and move the District offices out of the high school and into Longfellow. That will give the High School an additional 3,000 sq. ft. The School District also had 3 open Board seats. Incumbents Julie Pritchard and Jeff Quinnell will remain and newly elected Tom Baraniak. Margaret Coangelo chose not to run again.
