By Teri Knight, News Director
The Northfield Council held their first work session on the 2021 budget. Administrator Ben Martig called it a “data dump” as department heads laid out budgets. Utility rates will be set in September, Martig said, “water rates will increase by 1% for next year, wastewater rates about 1.75% increase, stormwater rates a 5% increase, of course those are fairly low, garbage fund no changes”. Martig said there might be a need for a water tower out by the hospital. They’re also looking at a water plant. Martig said that’s the big one and there will be a lot of discussion with council and the community. They’re exploring federal partnerships regarding downtown flood
management. NAFRS construction fund finally closed with $200,000 in contingency funds left over, those will transfer into the debt fund. Finance Director Brenda Angelstad told Council the starting percent for a tax levy would be 5.3. Martig shared yesterday, “there’s a whole list of things that aren’t included in the budget, that aren’t included in that number that we talked about with the council”. They are doing contingency planning as Local Government Aid may be less due to covid. Staff is recommending council reserve $650,000 as a rainy day fund. Martig said, “we’re really trying to hold it. We’re not looking at adding any more new staff, any kind of permanent operating expenses. There were a number of staffing positions we discussed, so ultimately that’s a policy question for the council but I think we’re going in with a little bit of reservation and caution as we go into the budget year”. Council will hold a 2nd work session in September before adopting the preliminary levy.
Busing students will be a challenge
Busing students will be a challenge. Benjamin Bus is working diligently to figure out all the logistics that include disinfecting the buses after each drop off. Northfield Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said start times could be affected with a 20 to 30 minute swing possible. With the buses having to run at 50% capacity, he said, it looks like they’ll pick up the rural kids first, drop them off and then disinfect the bus and then pick up the city kids. Benjamin Bus is looking at how they might tighten that up. He said they’ll need more patience as they identify those routes. Hillmann added, wash your hands, wear your mask and stay home if you’re sick. His full interview is on kymnradio.net
Loon liquors launch Loonman!
Mark Schiller and Simeon Rossi have had an eventful year so far, starting out with things going well at their local Loon Liquor Distillery, ready to start making new liquors to making hand sanitizer. They found themselves getting requests from the Hospital, Police, Fire, EMS Departments, Allina Health, FedEx and more, for their sanitizer. Schiller said, “so we just basically took all of the spirit that we were planning on pushing into our new line and we put it all into sanitizer”. They did that for 4 months, now the market is catching up and the ethanol plants are able to make sanitizer. Now they’re back to making the fun stuff. They launched their name all Minnesota, all organic Gin, Rum, Vodka and Aquavit today. Listen to the full interview to find out more and learn about their process of blending a whiskey for our retired Police Chief Monte Nelson.
Recalled peaches
State health and food safety officials are warning Minnesota consumers not to eat fresh, whole peaches supplied by Wawona Packing Company and purchased at retail locations including Aldi and Target after linking Salmonella infections to the produce. On August 19, Aldi announced a recall of both loose and bagged peaches. Target is also in the process of removing peaches from its stores. The full press release is HERE.
Crazy daze crazy deals
It’s crazy daze in Northfield today. With the pandemic, there was a chance it wouldn’t happen, but Chamber President Lisa Peterson and Jane Bartho worked with the Be Local Buy Local committee and came up with ideas to be safe, have fun and sell stuff. Peterson said please wear your mask and don’t stand too close to folks not in your family. Crazy daze won’t be as crazy except for the prices. Peterson said they have a partnership with Post Brands and will be selling cereal for a buck a bag on Bridge Square. Crazy daze goes from 7am to 5pm today and there are deals to be had!
