By Rich Larson, News Director
A 35-year-old man is in custody after being charged with attempted burglary at the South Oaks Apartments 
in Northfield.
Authorities said Daniel Rick Krotzer of Puposky, Minnesota was arrested Monday night after a resident reported a suspicious person attempting to enter the building. When police arrived, they found Krotzer in the main floor laundry room. Krotzer first told them that he was visiting a friend who lived in the building, and then said he didn’t know anyone who lived there and had planned to sleep in the laundry room because he is homeless.
After searching Krotzer, police discovered several lock picking tools, a butterfly knife and a smaller blade. Evidence was found that the lock to the coin box on one washing machine had been tampered with, and the building manager told police that there has been an ongoing problem with money being stolen from laundry machines.
Krotzer has been charged with 2nd Degree Burglary and Possession of Burglary or Theft Tools. If convicted, he faces up to 13 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Dr. Ellen Iverson and Dr. Rob Hardy depart Northfield School Board
As the year winds down, so are the terms of two well-respected members of the Northfield School Board, Dr. Ellen Iverson and Dr. Rob Hardy.
In a letter posted to the Northfield Public Schools website last week, the district thanked both Iverson and Hardy for their service and praised them for their hard work as board members.
Iverson, who has served on the board since 2008, was very active with the District’s Youth Council during her service. And as board chair from 2013-2015, she was instrumental in steering the District Master Facilities Plan and is one of the people most responsible for putting an iPad into the hands of each Northfield Middle School and High School student.
Hardy has been a school board member since 2012. He worked closely with the TORCH program for students of color, students from low-income families, and first-generation college attendees, serving as a member of the TORCH Advisory Committee. His interests on the board have been wide-ranging. Well known as Northfield’s first official poet-laureate, Hardy also has a keen interest in STEM education and supporting science-based curriculum.
Northfield Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said that while he is very excited about the newly elected members of the School Board, Iverson and Hardy will be tough acts to follow.
“When you think of Rob and Ellen, you think of board members who are truly student centered. They really come at decision making by asking what is best for students, but they are also very serious about the stewardship to the taxpayer. They have this really thoughtful and deliberate decision making process, thinking through ‘what’s good for kids, how does this affect our staff, is this responsible to our taxpayers?’ And in Minnesota, school boards are charged with the governance of a school district, not the day-to-day management of it – that’s what they hire administrators for. Ellen and Rob are just a model of understanding the governance model.”
For their parts Iverson and Hardy were grateful to the community for the opportunity to serve. “Board service provided me the privilege and honor to serve with [others]… who hold student learning at the center of their work and life,” said Iverson. Meanwhile, Hardy said that he is humbly grateful for the opportunity to have spent eight years on the council.
The first School Board meeting of 2021 will be on January 11th, at which time new members Claudia Gonzalez-George and Corey Butler will be sworn in.
