By Teri Knight, News Director
A Northfield man with a long history of threats and violence toward his family and police, as well as mental illness and substance abuse issues, will be extradited to Illinois. In the most significant incident, which happened in 2015, the now 50 year old Mark Hawanchak was the focus of a stand-off with local law enforcement and SWAT lasting more than 3 hours. He had threatened the life of his mother and police officers who tried to stop him. That incident ended peaceably when Hawanchak was found several miles away in a parking lot. All five charges in that case were dropped due to mental illness. The warrant out of Illinois says he is wanted for Aggravated Battery, a Class 2 Criminal Felony and Resisting a Police Officer on April 15, 2019. The Warrant was issued on July 23, 2020. He’s currently in the Rice County jail until Illinois can pick him up. In 2012, Hawanchak, then 42, was involved in a car crash where his vehicle collided with two others head on.
Chief Elliott discusses meeting the needs of the community and how the mask mandate is going
Northfield Police Chief Mark Elliott was in studio last week as we said goodbye to the now retired Monte Nelson. Having had 15 months to work with Nelson and get some institutional knowledge from him, Elliott believes, prepared him for the Northfield Community. Of course his resume includes Chief of Police in Prior Lake and 22 years with the Bloomington Police Department. As an Administrator he said that, while some things are the same in most communities, there is also a uniqueness to each community in how they want things done. He said, “it’s just adjusting to those and trying to make sure we’re meeting the needs of the community. It’s a really good thing for the community to have their own Police department because they can do things that are individualized to what’s important to that community and for us to address the issues that that community deals with”. Elliott was asked about how the community is complying with the mask mandate so far, he said Officers are seeing cooperation, “and I think it’s speaks a little bit to the community that we live in, people care about each other here and even those that might grumble or they don’t feel that it’s important for themselves, they care enough about their neighbor that they’ll go ahead and follow it”. With Elliott’s promotion, that left the Deputy Chief position. And as reported previously, P.T Haider has filled those shoes. Nelson noted last week, “PT will do a great job. He chose to come here and chose to stay here in Northfield and lives down here. He has a passion for Northfield, for the community. He will have a great mentor in Mark (Elliott) to help him learn some of that administrative side”. Haider’s been attending professional development training as well. Listen to the full interview with more from Elliott HERE.
Denison discusses City finances, Ice Arena, Transit Hub and more
Northfield will hold a Primary on August 11th for the Mayoral race. Incumbent Rhonda Pownell and challengers David Ludescher and Jon Denison will all be on the air this week. Denison was on the air yesterday morning. He was born and raised in Northfield, works at Three Links as a Nursing Assistant and has a passion for the community. He’s a former Councilor and discussed his time there and also on the Library Board during the expansion and on the Charter Commission with David Ludescher, a passionate supporter of the Charter while Denison has a different view. He’s running for Mayor to bring a different voice to the Council. His big issue right now is our City finances, saying, “there’s going to be a big budget problem, there’s going to be a hole in the budget, I’m predicting, to the tune of millions. And what is the City Council going to do? In the years that Mayor Pownell has been in Office, it always seems that the tax levy goes up”. He believes the City should live within its means. Most of the budget is staff salary and benefits, Denison questioned Mayor Pownell’s ability to make tough decisions regarding cuts, “she seems to want to just hold everybody’s hand, give them an award and a nice ceremony at The Grand and say everybody’s doing a wonderful job. And I think there are some tough decisions that need to be made and tough people need to make those decisions”. He discusses the Ice Arena, the Transit Hub, and who pays for maintaining all the amenities. The narrowing of the 4th St. Bridge and much more in his interview HERE. We encourage the community to listen to all of the interviews. David Ludescher will be on at 8:45 Thursday morning and Rhonda Pownell will be on Friday morning at 8:45.
Nfld Council decision on closure and channelizers comes tonight
The Northfield Council meets at 6 o’clock tonight. Their decision to close Water St. at Bridge Square and place channelizers on the 4th St. bridge will expire on Friday. They will discuss whether to extend the closure and narrowing into November. You have until 4 o’clock this afternoon to let your voice be heard on the issue through eComment on the City’s website.
