By Teri Knight, News Director
The Northfield City council discussed their Emergency Operations Plan. Police Chief Monte Nelson explained that the last time the manual was updated was 2010. While the plan is directed by FEMA and the MN Dept. of Homeland Security and driven by the State and the counties. Nelson added, “but as part of it, all local jurisdictions, townships, cities are asked to identify known hazards in their jurisdictions, so in our case, many of those are river related”. When a hazard is identified in the document, there’s an opportunity for State, and possibly Federal dollars to mitigate those hazards. The Mayor and Council, tasked with policy decisions, can direct staff on mitigation projects such as raising the electrical boxes on both sides of the Cannon River. The Mayor is the one who must declare an emergency. Administrator Martig explains,
“which allows certain procedures to be expedited, like spending processes and other types of things”. The Council can vote to extend it. As for Operations, that’s all city staff led by the Police Chief, the Emergency Management Director and the Administrator. They also act as the Information Officer to get messaging out to the community. Social media, Nelson said, isn’t always the best source of reliable information, adding, “even if it’s not necessarily completely unreliable, we do need to make sure that from a City standpoint for what we do here locally, that we’re directing people to that information that does actually relate to us in Northfield versus if it’s a more, the pandemic is a good example, something someone’s doing in the next County over, the next State over”. One thing that Chief Nelson urged is that people don’t step out of their roles as it can be confusing to the public. The EOP specifically states the roles of Mayor, Council and Staff. In particular Nelson asked council to not get involved in the operational side. He explained, “if someone steps out of their role and steps literally into the middle of an Operational Response, one, it might not be their intended role and it can confuse the public about what is the City’s role in the response, it can also hinder and confuse the response of your staff who are in the middle of trying to deal with an emergency”. Soon to be Police Chief Mark Elliott will be leading the update on the EOP, which is expected to take 12 to 18 months. The State has recommended adding a pandemic to the plan. For now, issues related to covid-19 are all State driven. The document will be about four inches thick.
Rice Co. receives $8 mil in covid relief
Rice County received $8 million for Covid relief. Commissioner Galen Malecha explained that those dollars cannot be spent on just anything. Malecha said, “it’s certainly not a free-for-all, you can’t use it for road construction or things of such. What it has to be spent on is reimbursements for like overtime costs that were involved with covid, it can be used for buying sanitizer, face masks, body suits, sanitizing vehicles, buildings, courtrooms”. County Administrator, Sara Folstad, is gathering more information to present to the Board of Commissioners. The monies must be spent by the first of the year or what’s left goes back to the Federal government. Malecha said it will be a slow, thoughtful spend.
City of Dundas update
Construction for the new Kwik Trip in Dundas is complete, the Dundas Council, this week, approved their 3.2 liquor and tobacco licenses, they’re stocking the store and hiring employees. The City’s new City Hall is also complete, except for furniture. Dundas will hold the August 11th Primary at the new building. The Council considered an online bill pay system to pay utilities. Administrator Teppen said this would allow utility customers to access a portal from the City’s website to pay their utility bill with a credit card or e-check from their bank. Council directed staff to move ahead with a service agreement with one of the vendors. Right now the City doesn’t have the ability to accept credit cards or automatic payments. This will likely come back to Council on July 27th.
Reminder……..
Northfield Farmers Market is open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 11:45am to 1pm and Saturdays from 9am to 11am at Riverside Park.
