By Rich Larson, News Director
In a statement released yesterday, Northfield Hospital & Clinics said they would begin to vaccinate patients 73 and older today, dropping the age
requirement by two years. NH&C will vaccinate 300 people today and is now scheduling appointments for both tomorrow and next Tuesday.
For patients 65 and older, they have established a waitlist on their website. The link to that waitlist can be found here.
NH&C is also encouraging people to seek as many vaccine options as possible. The state has created a website called Vaccine Connector for Minnesotans 18 and older. The Vaccine Connector will alert you when you are eligible to receive a vaccine, connect you to resources to schedule a vaccine appointment, and notify you if there are vaccine opportunities in your area. Insurance and identification are not needed. The website can be found at vaccineconnector.mn.gov.
As for the new vaccination protocol, aside from the lower age requirement, the program remains largely unchanged. Patients will be contacted via phone call or text message, with a phone number to call to make a vaccination appointment. Allina Clinic patients 73 and older will also be contacted according to Allina criteria. Please do not call the clinic to make an appointment. The staff at NH&C will get to everyone.
Police Policy Task Force makes final report to city council
On Tuesday night the city council heard a report from the Northfield Police Policy Task Force that had been put together in the wake of the George Floyd riots last summer. Thirteen people from across the community were asked to meet over the course of four months to review approximately 30 Northfield police department policies having to do with enforcement.
Chief Mark Elliott said through the course of eight meetings, the thing that became very apparent was that the community has a lot of questions about police work, and how policies are executed. Quite often the questions were about the training police officers receive in areas like mental health and implicit bias. He said that the work of the task force became a conversation about what police do.
Another question was about the genesis of the policies, and where they come from. Chief Elliott said that Northfield PD contracts with a company called Lexipol, that helps law enforcement agencies across the country form policies in many different areas. They receive the basic language from Lexipol, and then that language is reviewed and specifically tailored to the Northfield department. The task force found that most policies were fundamentally sound and did not actually recommend any major changes in policy.
Changes were recommended in some of the language used for the written policies. For example, Elliott said there was discussion of the policy for homelessness. Members of the task force suggested that talking about “Homeless People,” was not the best approach to take.
“It’s addressing people experiencing homelessness. Instead of ‘Homeless Persons,’ it should be people experiencing that. Because a lot of times, it’s someone experiencing that for a short period of time. So having that wording in there, so that our officers are thinking in that regard as they’re going into these calls and handling it, is important.”
In the end, the Chief said, he has realized the need for as much transparency as possible. He said he expects the policy manual to be finished in April, and when it is done the entire manual will be published online. He hopes that will be done sometime in May.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Chief Mark Elliott can be heard here.
Art & Culture Commission puts out call for 2020 inspired work
And after a year unlike any other in modern memory, the Northfield Arts & Culture Commission is inviting artists to share work they have done in reaction to anything and everything that was 2020.
The Commission will curate an art exhibition called ‘Artists Respond,’ to be presented at City Hall. The Commission is asking for both two-dimensional and three-dimensional that reflects on how 2020 changed everything. The commission is looking for submissions that were created as a coping mechanism, or as a reaction to social unrest, or as a new skill acquired during quarantine.
In a statement requesting the submissions, the Commission said, “Art can be a starting point for difficult conversations and help us make sense of all that we are witnessing and experiencing. This exhibit will hopefully show viewers something that is thought provoking or recognizable, even though we may have different experiences.”
Submissions are due by Sunday. Artists may submit up to three pieces on a cd, a thumb drive, or electronically via email. All art must be ready to install. Two-dimensional art should be framed and include all necessary mounting hardware. The ‘Artists Respond’ exhibition will open on March 5. For more information, visit the News section of the city’s website.
