The last couple of weeks have been busy for the Northfield Police department. Chief Monte Nelson commented, “lot of chemical addiction and mental health related stuff. We had several burglaries in one apartment building up on the north side of town here last week, arrested that subject”. Who is 34 year old Zachery Tussing. He’s accused of breaking down a door to one apartment, smashing items inside and injuring a 15 year old girl in the process. He’s charged with first degree burglary stemming from the incidents on December 20th. Tussing was pulled over by a Northfield Police officer shortly after breaking into
the 2nd apartment. Nelson added that it can really be a tough time of year for those suffering from addictions and mental health issues and they saw it these last couple of weeks.
Bank robbery suspect “not the one”
Premier Bank was robbed on the morning of October 26th. A few days later, the Northfield Police department released a suspect photo and description of a suspect. Sgt. PT Haider commented this morning, “as of now, we have nothing as far as a name. We looked into one person for a while, it ended up not being that person”. The FBI has taken over the investigation and Haider said he speaks with them on a regular basis. The suspect is not one they recognize as a serial bank robber. Information is traded frequently between law enforcement agencies. Chief Nelson said that’s the first thing they do, he said, “whether it’s a bank robbery or video from some other business burglary there’s more and more places that have their own videos now, it isn’t just convenient stores and banks like it always has been, now lots of businesses and homes even have it and our first round is always, hey guys and gals, does this look like someone we’re familiar with”. Before it even goes out to the public, it goes to law enforcement through their Crime Alert system. He said you may get a cop from an agency north of the Cities who knows the suspect. Haider added that, as for investigations, it’s often best to keep it quiet to the public until they have to. They don’t want to alert their suspect and then lose them.
Spring Creek II on hold
Despite plenty of support and nearly 2 years of preparing, Spring Creek II affordable housing project won’t get off the ground this year. Three Rivers Community Action, a Rice County non-profit developer, partnered with the Northfield HRA on the project to increase the number of affordable rental housing units at Spring Creek Townhomes. The HRA agreed to provide up to 4.5 acres of land and $20,000 to the project and the City Council lent their support approving a TIF District. The hitch was that Three Rivers was successful in obtaining tax credits through Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA). They received 36 multi-family unit applications with requests over $41 million in tax credits and $173 million in deferred loans. Three Rivers Community Development Director, Leah Hall told the HRA last month that thirteen projects were selected, Northfield’s was not one of them. Hall is working on a backup plan she’ll introduce this winter. Three Rivers plans to reapply for those dollars again in June.
