By Rich Larson, News Director
The creation of a new City Strategic Plan took another step forward last night when the City Council met with members of the city staff to review an
initial draft of the plan and offer suggestions on some of the more detailed segments. Led by Strategic Planning Consultant Craig Rappe, the group reviewed the plan, which is broken into six priority areas, and while the members of the council made the majority of the comments all opinions were welcomed as they endeavored to address and define the needs of the City of Northfield for the next three years.
The goal of the meeting was to, as Rappe put it, “set the plan up for success,” by keeping the goals at a higher level and allowing for some creativity within the plan’s implementation while maintaining measurable success. The conversation was productive and robust. Rappe guided the group through each defined priority: Economic Vitality, Housing Availability, Quality Facilities, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Service Excellence and Climate Action. Within those areas, there were strong points made about the make-up of the city’s boards and commissions, transit within the city of Northfield, the need for diverse types of housing and the concept of making sure renters have a voice, and even a cursory discussion on a potential city branding campaign.
After the priorities had been discussed the assembly was shown a potential values statement which, as a concept, received a strong endorsement from Mayor Rhonda Pownell.
“These Values Statements just add another [level of] depth., and they go right along with the initiatives and priorities of our strategic plan. They create this cohesive, vision, mission, strategic plan, the values, they all go together to send a message to the community: ‘This is where we’re going, and this is who we want to be.”
While the statement itself was greeted with a generally positive reception, there were councilors who took issue with the idea that it had been created without much input from the city council. Rappe and City Administrator Ben Martig assured them that it is only a draft and will be given to revision with council input.
Another planning work session is set for some time in May. The expectation is that the plan will be in place by the beginning of June.
As students return to High School, Covid cases rise
As cases of Covid-19 continue to rise in Rice County and in Northfield, Superintendent of Public Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann acknowledged yesterday that new cases of Covid-19 have shown up in the schools as well.
High School and Middle School students returned to full time in-person learning two weeks ago, and with that, Hillmann said, came an immediate rise in the number of students infected with Covid-19. Hillmann said since March 31st, there have been twelve new cases reported.
The difference between what’s happening in the schools right now and where things were last fall when the district had to send students back into distance learning, he said, is the availability of on-demand testing. Having the ability to test students, and get rapid results is a good tool for keeping the virus at bay. He also said that the continued increase in the number of people vaccinated, including students as young as 16, is helpful as well.
Despite the better conditions, however, Hillmann said the district is watching the data very closely.
“We’re continuing to watch that data, we’re continuing to support our students we’re continuing to make sure we know that having kids on campus is great, and we’re continuing to do it in a way that is as safe as practicable. And should we need to, we are prepared to make other changes as the Spring goes on. But, right now we’re keeping a very close eye on the data and we’re making sure that we support our students and families as needed.”
Dr. Hillmann also said the Covid-19 problem is not going away anytime soon and he expects it will continue to affect things throughout the school year.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Dr. Matt Hillmann can be heard here
Dundas, Bridgwater request county look at Decker Ave
And on Monday night the Dundas City Council approved a resolution officially requesting that Rice County prepare a planning study of the Decker
Avenue corridor.
Earlier this month, Dundas city representatives had met with representatives from Bridgewater Township, where it was agreed that both would put resolutions in front of their governing bodies in a joint effort to get the county’s attention.
The requested study would look at the feasibility of extending Decker Ave from Highway 19 to County Road 1, evaluating the alignment of the road, and paving the sections that are not currently paved.
Dundas City Administrator Jenelle Teppen said the resolution is just the first step in a much larger project, and this was just to “get the conversation going.”
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Dundas City Administrator Jenelle Teppen can be heard here
