By Teri Knight, News Director
Northfield Firefighters responded to a house fire on the 800 block of Woodley St. yesterday just before 5pm. Capt. Sean Simonson reports that the fire was active when they arrived, appearing to have started near an exterior porch light. The fire went up then into the attic. Firefighters knocked a hole in the roof to vent the smoke. Four trucks and 20 personnel were at the scene. The home is uninhabitable with sustained water damage. There’s little smoke damage as they were able to vent the roof. No one was injured. While it’s not official, it appears the fire started at the porch light.
Man receives 12 years for rape of Northfield woman
While most of the court system is shut down, certain cases have been completed. In Rice County Court on March 23rd, 28 year old Tyler Douglas Murphy received 144 months in prison for brutally raping his ex-girlfriend, a Northfield woman. The complaint taken by Northfield police in December of 2018. The victim said Murphy, her ex-boyfriend, told her he was going to pay her money he owed but instead, raped her. He told Northfield police that he planned to assault and kidnap the woman to get money to pay a drug debt. He also admitted to a past sexual assault and staging an aggravated robbery at a hotel in Northfield. Murphy must serve a minimum of 10 years before conditional release.
“We have the supplies, why not”, Taggart making face shields
Northfield Superintendent Matt Hillmann had seen people making face shields on social media and thought of Steve Taggart, their Industrial Technology instructor. He asked if Taggart could make them. The answer was easy, “we had all the supplies so why not?”. There were three 3D printers between the schools. He gathered those and about 800 transparencies from when they used overhead projectors, and went to work. He and his wife use a 3 hole punch for the transparencies and then fasten them to the frame with knobs. Each halo-type frame takes 2 hours to print, Taggart can make 16 a day. The shields can be replaced. The frame is flexible, he explained, “you have to stretch it a little bit to get it on your head. And it kind of flexes back and stays on pretty well. It’s actually surprisingly comfortable”. Taggart wished his students could be there as it’s such a perfect real-life engineering problem and solution, “and we can’t be together to stamp them all out which is kind of a bummer because I think they would love it”. Taggart is making the shields for the Northfield Hospital and the Northfield Police Dept.If there are any other organizations that need shields, contact Taggart. Also if you have a 3D printer and want to help, he’ll give you the design. His email is staggart@northfieldschools.org. I’ll have it on our website at noon today. You can also find him on the Schools website.
Nfld EDA approves loan extension to businesses/Council holds reg mtg
In a unanimous vote last week, the Northfield Economic Development Authority (EDA) approved a resolution authorizing a 180-day loan payment extension for businesses severely impacted by COVID-19. EDA coordinator, Nate Carlson the encourages those businesses that have an EDA loan to contact staff for further information regarding the loan deferral.
The Northfield City Council will hold a regular meeting tomorrow night at 6pm. However, they will not be in the Chambers. It will be held via something like Go to Meeting. Members of the public can monitor the meeting by dialing a conference number (United States: +1 (571) 317-3112) and entering a code (Access Code: 895-656-581); or by watching a live stream on the City’s website https://northfield.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx). You can also eComment online on any of the items which include the proposed 2021 street reclamation project, a Professional Service Agreement with ISG Inc. for the Preliminary Design and Corridor Selection for the Mill Towns State Trail from Riverside Park to the Waterford Bridge and a Covid-19 Response report.
