by Rich Larson
Last week the Northfield School Board approved a tentative agreement with the Northfield Education Association, which is the 
union that represents Northfield teachers and licensed staff.
Northfield Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said the new two-year contract includes a 2% salary increase for each year of the agreement, along with a 5% increase in the district’s health insurance contribution for each year.
Hillmann said the contract also makes adjustment to the district’s salary schedule, reducing the number of steps from fifteen to ten. The changes, he said, will help with the hiring of new teachers and will ensure that salaries are allotted fairly.
“It’s going to make our starting wage much more competitive, and it was also the result of something that we were working on to come into compliance with the state’s pay equity law, in terms of the total number of steps that all of our units have and is there a major difference between different groups and male and female.”
Additionally, he said, the contract rewards longevity with the district by adding an increment for those who have been with the district for more than 30 years. And there is language in the contract detailing how leave time can be used.
Overall, he said, the new contract would increase the district’s budget by 8%.
The NEA is expected to vote on the contract today.
City encouraging businesses to look at their lighting
As the City of Northfield works toward using only carbon free electricity by 2030, City Administrator Ben Martig said it is asking the local business community to help advance those community energy goals.
Northfield’s Climate Action Plan calls for the city to be completely carbon free by 2040 and reaching the carbon free electricity goal by 2030 is a key component in that plan. To that end, the city has partnered with Xcel Energy and the Center for Energy and Environment to offer a free evaluation of a business’ lighting situation. Auditors with the One Stop program will perform an energy audit and take a lighting inventory in order to understand that building’s needs. They will then make recommendations on changes that could be made to both improve the building’s energy efficiency and drop the business’ energy bill. They can also offer help with financing in the form of grants and low-interest loans, and rebates that are available through Xcel Energy. And they can even help find a contractor to do the necessary work.
Martig said the city takes the energy goals set in the Climate Action Plan very seriously. The One Stop program is just one of the steps they are taking to encourage businesses to be more energy efficient.
“One other thing related to some of our business work in the energy efficiency world. When the city offers some incentives for business loans or tax increment financing, we are looking at a potential new policy that would relate to requiring some sustainability design standards in the building design when the city gets involved in offering those types of incentives.”
He also said there are additional rebates available to businesses during the month of September. For more information, visit the Sustainability section of the Northfield city website.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Committee nearly ready for Defeat of Jesse James Days
As the Defeat of Jesse James Days approaches, all of the final pieces are being put into place. The annual Horseshoe Hunt is 
underway, ambassador candidates are making the rounds, the General Chair of the planning committee, Galen Malecha, said he has spent most of this week on the phone working out last minute details, and the various members of the planning committee are spending most of their waking hours working to ensure this year’s celebration will run smoothly.
This year has a more special feeling than most years because, of course, the Defeat of Jesse James Days was effectively canceled last year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic. For a year the committee members have been working under the assumption that the celebration would return this year without any public safety restrictions, and despite the nagging presence of the Covid Delta Variant, by and large those assumptions proved to be correct. One would also assume that, regardless of the committee’s optimism, working under the cloud of a pandemic would make the planning of an event as large and complicated as DJJD incredibly difficult. Malecha said that assumption is also a correct one.
“You know what, it has been [difficult.] The governor didn’t take the mandates off until May or June. So, we’re kind of crunching our planning into four of five months, versus when we would normally have a full year to plan.”
With that said, however, attendees to this year’s celebration can largely expect the same type of experiences that have been the celebration’s hallmarks. Events such as the rodeo, the carnival, the entertainment center, and the parade will all be back in their traditional forms. Vendors who have become staples of the event, after experiencing a year where they were scrambling to find any opportunity for business, will be back in force.
Malecha said that, due to the truncated amount of time there was to put things together, there will be very few changes to the regular schedule or new events. He did say the Sundowners Car Club has added a Thursday Night Classic Car Cruise to go with the annual Saturday Car Show, and the Ambassador Coronation Ceremony will now be held on Sunday night as the final event of the weekend.
The Defeat of Jesse James Days begins on Wednesday at noon with the graveside service honoring Joseph Lee Heywood and will run through Sunday the 12th. For more detailed information, visit djjd.org.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
