By Teri Knight, News Director
Just before 6 o’clock this morning Faribault fire responded to a vehicle fire inside the Jennie-O-Turkey Store feed mill on Cabot Ave.Faribault Fire Chief Dustin Dienst said a tractor-trailer was on fire. His Department spoke with both the driver and employees present. They stated that they heard a small boom in the loading bay and saw flames coming out from under the engine compartment of the tractor. The driver of the tractor-trailer stated that the vehicle was running fine and had no idea why the fire started. The cause of the fire will be documented as a failure of equipment. Dienst commented, “Thankfully nobody was standing near the vehicle when the fire started. Employees acted fast by calling 911 and evacuating the building quickly. The design of
the building and materials used to construct this facility played an important role in limiting fire damage.” Crews cleared the scene at 8:25 am. The full press release is HERE.
A number of ways to vote
Northfield City Clerk Deb Little has had lots of questions from residents regarding absentee voting in the General Election. The Secretary of State website will walk you through the process. We have a link from our Election Guide to the website. Ballots for the November election will start being mailed out on September 18th but you can sign up now. Mayor Pownell explains, “read the instructions that come with the ballot and just make sure to return it as soon as possible to the county that you received it from. And they’re also making that very easy to do that because all requested mailed absentee ballots come from the county with a self-addressed postage paid envelope”. You can also drop your ballot off at the Northfield City Hall in the 2nd floor training room across from the Administrator’s office. Drop off your ballot by Monday, October 26th and it will be delivered to the County in which you live. You can also take it to the County seat. You CANNOT walk it in on November 3rd at your polling place. (this was erroneously reported). Pownell encourages citizens to take advantage of these options especially during the coronavirus pandemic. The process is simple online, you’ll need your driver’s license number and the last four numbers of your social security number. If you haven’t registered to vote, you must do that first. Another option is early voting at City Hall. It’s available starting September 18th through November 2nd Monday through Friday from 8am to 4:15pm. Pownell’s full interview is HERE. When asked about walking in your ballot, this was the response from City Clerk Deb Little: No you cannot drop off an absentee ballot at a polling place on Election Day. Here’s a link to my most current press release on absentee voting: https://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1321
There is information on where you can drop off your ballot as well as information on mailing and early voting in person.
Nfld EDA awards microgrants to 2 businesses
In their four years of ownership, Liz and Jonathan Reppe, have remodeled nearly every space of Armory Square. The one space lacking in comfort was the large event space, the old basketball court, has no air conditioning. They sought help from the Northfield EDA for a microgrant to purchase air-conditioning units. The members unanimously approved $5,000 on the estimated $30,000 project. The Reppes will use all local contractors for the job. They also approved $5,000 to Kris Layman of Prema Studio for online physical and mental wellbeing classes. Layman, who teaches at Carleton, closed her studio on Division St. earlier this year. She said, “it’s challenging to figure out all the technical things but we really can create a community and taking time to come together. So I’ve really been excited about that and it’s inspired this next transition that the grant would really be helpful with”. It will be a membership based program, creating an online community. The grant dollars will help in purchasing video equipment, updating her website and advertising. The estimated total cost of the investment is $16,000.
Federal and State covid funding offsets some School District spending
The pandemic is affecting finances for a number of people and businesses. That also includes schools. Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann noted this week the additional expenses due to covid-19. They did receive $380,000 in federal CARES Act funding however the unreimbursed cost of the emergency childcare they provided when the pandemic broke in March was $291,000. They will also receive additional funding from the State from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. Hillmann said, “we were notified that we have about a million dollars in funds, however, in true government fashion it all has to be spent between July 1st 2020 and December 3oth of 2020”. Those dollars can’t be used for the ongoing expenses through the school year including additional bus routes and staffing for the 550 students who have registered for all the time online classes called “Portage”. Hillmann said they’re working to reassign some staff for that school, if you will, but will need additional staff. He said, “we are also looking at adding outdoor hand washing stations. We are also looking at adding outdoor canopies so that students can be able to work outside. We’ve expanded some of our technology that we’ve been able to pay for” with those funds. Hillmann’s full interview is HERE.
