By Rich Larson, News Director
Northfield Hospital & Clinics announced this morning that they will offer vaccination appointments to individuals who are 80 and older. 
Current patients of NH&C will be contacted in order of age, with the oldest patients contacted first. The full number of appointments offered will depend on the amount of vaccine. NH&C will contact patients by phone call and text. Current patients do not need to contact the hospital or clinic to schedule an appointment. Current patients of Allina Clinic in Northfield who have also been patients of Northfield Hospital will be contacted in order of age, based on Allina criteria. Allina will contact its eligible patients by phone call or email with further instructions.
Those who are not an NH+C or Allina patient but live in NH+C’s service area and meet age and other criteria, will have an option to sign up on a waitlist based on age. An online form will be posted as soon as it can be done so securely. KYMN will update this information as it becomes available. For full details, click here.
City Council to discuss ‘Ole Ave’ project tonight
The Northfield City Council will meet tonight at 6pm. Among the items on the agenda will be a vote to begin take bids on street construction projects for 2021, and a review of the Council Rules of Business. The most interesting item, however, will be the further discussion of the St. Olaf College Ole Avenue student housing project.
St. Olaf College is proposing to build a residence hall and townhouse -style student housing on either side of the far West end of St. Olaf Ave, and a vote on whether to issue a Conditional Use Permit to the school is scheduled for the February 16th meeting. Questions about zoning, light pollution and excessive construction noise seem to have been addressed, leaving parking as the final major hurdle.
The City Planning Commission has objected to the proposed 188 stall parking lot that is part of the project, saying the number of parking spots is excessive. St. Olaf is countering that the lot is really more of a re-organization of existing parking stalls and will only add 25 new parking spots. The difference in perspectives will be the main topic of discussion this evening.
As always, the city is looking for public comment on all matters. The best way to register an opinion is through the eComment button on the City Council page within the city website. Click here to visit the page.
Draheim ‘troubled’ by Walz’s proposals
State Senator Rich Draheim is assessing Governor Walz’s budget proposals that were presented last week. He said he has not seen the specific language of the governor’s proposals, but there were things he heard that he found troubling.
As Vice-Chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Draheim has said the most important thing the state legislature can do this year in terms of health care is to renew the reinsurance program that has been credited with keeping the growth of health care costs down. He pointed out that Governor Walz’s budget would take money out of the reinsurance program and said that would be a mistake. He also does not like, as he put it, “all the new taxes,” using a newly proposed payroll tax as a prime example. He said so many small businesses are struggling right now, and so many people have either lost their jobs or are in a precarious position, that this is not an appropriate time to add a new payroll tax.
Overall, the Senator is displeased with the size of the state budget. He said Minnesota has a robust state government that can be hard to justify for the size of the state.
“We have a very high, steep budget. When you look at the federal funds that on a normal year would come in, I would guess this year would be over $100 billion, total all-fund budget. That is a lot for our small state. We only have 5.6 or 5.7 million people in it, and we spend a lot.”
Senator Draheim said he will continue to review the governor’s proposals as information is made available from state agencies.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Senator Draheim can be heard here.
