By Rich Larson, News Director
Last night the City of Northfield unveiled Mayor Rhonda Pownell’s 2021 State of the City Presentation. Normally an address would be given discussing the progress of various city projects and programs while the mayor lays out her vision for the next year.
This year, however, is no ordinary one, nor was the year preceding it. With Covid-19 pandemic protocols and restrictions still in place, making an address nearly impossible, the city, in collaboration with Northfield Public Broadcasting, produced a slick and informative video, that found the mayor speaking on a number of Northfield luminaries discussing different aspects of the city itself.
Among the Mayor’s Special guests were Chief of Police Mark Elliott, the new director of library operations Natalie Drape, Northfield Chamber of Commerce President Lisa Peterson and City Administrator Ben Martig. The Mayor touched many different facets of city governance, from Housing and the EDA to the City’s Racial Equity Plan and the Climate Action Plan.
Overall, the Mayor’s message is a positive one. After a year of enduring the global pandemic, the mayor said she is fully confident that the city will come together to recover from the challenges Covid-19 has brought.
“The people of Northfield have experienced great suffering in the last year. Trauma from illness and lost experiences take a lifetime to heal. But we will heal. Our community and all its members can heal, and we will heal together.”
The 2021 State of the City Address can be found on the city’s YouTube channel. You can find a link to the YouTube video in English by clicking here.
You can find a link to the 2021 State of the City video in Spanish by clicking here.
Draheim critical of Walz and emergency powers
The State of Minnesota Executive Council voted yesterday to extend Governor Tim Walz’s peacetime emergency powers for another month, while at the same time the Republican controlled Senate passed yet another bill that would make the extension of those powers much more difficult. Republicans have been trying to find a way to limit or remove the governor’s emergency powers since the beginning of the current legislative session.
While all that was going on, some significant rollbacks of Covid-19 restrictions went into effect yesterday after Governor Walz had announced them on Friday. Among the relaxed guidelines, the limit on outdoor public gatherings has grown from 15 to 50 people, with no limit on the number of households at such a gathering, outdoor venues will be allowed to operate at 25% capacity with mask and distance protocols in place, and bars and restaurants may now operate at 75% capacity.
All of these issues have been on Senator Rich Draheim’s mind for some time. Draheim, who owns several businesses, including an event center in New Ulm, has been a vocal critic of Governor Walz’s use of the peacetime emergency powers, saying that he believes they give the governor too much power, creating an imbalance between the executive and legislative branches of the state government. As a business owner, he said he was happy to see some restrictions removed, but, he said, he is still unhappy that they had been there in the first place.
“It’s very frustrating for me, having my business shut down for a year, with really no rationale behind it. At the least I thought we should have been compared to a restaurant. So I’m very glad he’s opening things up. I still don’t like the process and that’s something we’re going to have to look at in the next year.”
Draheim said there are 201 elected officials in the state legislature who are more in touch with their constituents than Governor Walz, which is the way the system was designed. He would like to see the governor start listening more to what the legislature has to say.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Senator Rich Draheim can be heard here.
Northfield Historical Society to present a ‘Prohibition Party’
And the Northfield Historical Society will host its annual spring fundraiser on Saturday night with a virtual Prohibition Party. 
Like so many non-profit organizations who have been affected by the global pandemic, NHS has had to get creative with their annual fundraiser this year, and they have done that by creating a night of stories about Northfield during Prohibition. NHS executive director Cathy Osterman said that the idea was formed because people are prohibited from getting together.
The evening will feature an auction, which is underway right now, a cocktail demonstration given by Loon Liquors, a Charleston dance lesson, and skits that have been pre-recorded depicting some of the things that happened in Northfield during the Roaring Twenties. Osterman said that the research they did on life in Northfield at that time showed that things around here were maybe not quite as roaring as in other parts of the country.
“Obviously, we’re thinking, y’know, Gatsby. We’re thinking flappers and speakeasies and gangsters and moonshine, and… Northfield wasn’t really like that. You look through the newspapers and there was a lot of what the cows were doing.”
Regardless, Osterman said, the skits, which she called “more Saturday Night Live than Broadway,” were created from some really interesting stories.
The Prohibition Party is Saturday night, March 20, beginning at 7pm. The cost to attend is $25 per household. Attendees may register at northfieldhistory.org. You can find a link to that registration page by clicking here.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with NHS Executive Director Cathy Osterman can be heard here.
