By Rich Larson, News Director
The Northfield City Council met in a work session last night, to begin the process of creating the city’s next strategic plan. 
The council was joined by planning consultant Craig Rapp. He and City Administrator Ben Martig advised the council at the outset of the meeting that their role was to receive information, take notes and gather their thoughts for future planning sessions.
Administrator Martig presented what was termed the city’s environmental scan, outlining statistics in key areas of the city, including population, city services, city finances and community diversity. An extensive and detailed offering, Martig concluded by saying the city’s most important trends include an aging population, growing ethnic and racial diversity, and the need for increased environmental stewardship. The largest challenges facing the city include a needed expansion of the commercial and industrial tax base, and a growing need for affordable housing.
Mr. Rapp then presented the results of the surveys the city recently conducted in preparation for the strategic planning sessions. Rapp said the community survey found that overall, the majority of Northfielders are happy with the quality of life in their city and with city services. The community on the whole believes that economic development, affordable housing, and infrastructure should be the three major priorities of the new strategic plan. While board and commission members agreed in principle with the quality of life and city services, they felt that issues of diversity, racial equity and climate change, trumped infrastructure and economic development.
The council will now take this vast amount of information and begin to formulate their own ideas to shape the new strategic plan. Planning retreats are set for March 24th and March 30th.
School district staff to receive second vaccine dose
In another sure sign that the Covid-19 vaccination program is picking up momentum, Northfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said that today, more than half of the Northfield School District faculty and staff will receive their second vaccine shot. The second dose is an important milestone in the plan to return Middle and High school students to full time in-person learning.
Hillmann said that Northfield Hospital & Clinics has been a very helpful partner in getting the staff vaccinated. To his knowledge, he said, NH&C is the only medical center in the state that added educators and school staff into their vaccination priority base.
The second dose has been problematic for many people who begin to not feel well after the second course is completed. Dr. Hillmann said that while that is a good sign that the vaccine is working, he also said that there is no telling exactly how many district employees will succumb to those side effects. Due to that and factoring in that nearly all the district bus drivers will receive the second dose on Wednesday, Thursday will be a district-wide distance learning day. Hillmann said it’s a proactive move made from an abundance of caution.
“We’re being proactive. We think that that’s just good planning. We know that about a third of people have this kind of potential reaction. So, we do the math and wonder if we can run our buildings, and we just decided that we don’t want to surprise anybody. So, Thursday is a distance learning day for everybody.”
Dr. Hillmann said approximately 90% of the district faculty and staff have chosen to be vaccinated.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Dr. Matt Hillmann can be heard here
Senator Draheim says legal marijuana is a ‘hard no’
Senator Rich Draheim said on Monday he fully supports the expansion of cannabis for medical use, but he does not support the measures being
considered by the legislature that would legalize marijuana for recreational use.
The Senator said he sees the problem with the State’s medical program in the cost of the drug. He acknowledged that any prescription drug program should be regulated, but he wondered if some regulations were relaxed that that might make it easier for patients who would benefit from the use of cannabis to obtain it.
On the other side of the issue, he said, the potency of marijuana is much stronger that it was thirty years ago, and that can cause real problems, especially with drivers under the influence. There is no proven test that can be administered by law enforcement on potentially impaired drivers, he said, and until one is developed that has been tested in the courts, he will not support legalization.
Moreover, he said, until the federal government decriminalizes marijuana, he does not believe there is a financial benefit to the state.
“The people that promote this marijuana think that we can get this huge tax windfall. Well, it is illegal for any federally backed bank to take money for cannabis and deposit it in their bank. So there are some structural things that need to happen that most people don’t understand.”
Senator Draheim called himself a Libertarian at heart, and said he believes that people should be left to make their own decisions on what is best for themselves and their families, but for him there are too many questions about recreational marijuana to make its legalization palatable.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Senator Rich Draheim can be heard here
