by Rich Larson
Father Dennis Dempsey, a beloved figure at the Church of St. Dominic in Northfield, was killed on Monday in a bicycle accident at the
intersection of County Road 42 and 145th Street in Rosemount.
Father Denny, as he liked to be called, was the pastor at St. Dominic’s from 2004-2019.
Dempsey grew up in South Minneapolis. Writing about his life for the website of the Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville, Dempsey said he had been moved to join the seminary as a teenager and did so in 1962. After more than 8 years of study, he decided that the priesthood was not the life he was supposed to lead. He spent the next ten years as an educator, hitchhiking and bicycling around the country. Eventually he became a youth minister with a program called Manalive in St. Paul, where he met a woman who encouraged him to become a priest.
“’Not my vocation,’” Dempsey wrote, “’but one evening, to get her off my back, I told her I would pray about it if she promised never to bring it up again. I did, and three weeks later I called the seminary.
“After starting in the seminary in 1962, I was finally ordained in 1980.’”
Dempsey spent five years working in the St. Paul Archdiocese Mission in Venezuela where he became fluent in Spanish. After returning to Minnesota in 1999 he spent time in St. Francis and St. James Parishes before coming to Northfield, largely because there was a need for Spanish speaking clergy.
In 2019, Dempsey said he felt a deep need to return to Venezuela, and served there for two years, before returning to Minnesota in June and taking the position of Pastor at the Church of the Risen Savior.
Reached for comment, Dave Hutton, a trustee with Risen savior said Dempsey made a large impression in a very short time and would be remembered “very, very fondly.”
“He was such an amazing person,” Hutton said, “and he made such a positive impact. Five minutes after meeting him, you couldn’t help but love the guy. He had genuine love for other people, especially people who lived in the margins.”
The driver of the vehicle that collided with Dempsey’s bicycle has been taken into custody and is likely to be charged with vehicular manslaughter.
Farther Dennis Dempsey was 73 years old.
Northfield Hospitals + Clinics expands booster wait list eligibility to all vaccinated people
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced expanded eligibility on Monday for vaccination booster shots. The CDC is now allowing boosters for anyone who has been vaccinated no matter which vaccine they received and are allowing for the mixing of vaccines as the boosters. Therefore, someone who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could get a Pfizer or a Moderna booster, or a person vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine can receive a Pfizer of J&J vaccine. It makes no difference what was received in the past, the CDC is no longer regulating strict adherence to a vaccination brand.
Northfield Hospital + Clinics announced shortly after the CDC issued the new guidelines that eligibility for their waitlist for booster shots has been expanded to include anyone vaccinated with any of the vaccines.
The guidelines for those eligible for a booster shot say that anyone over the age of 65 is eligible. Anyone over the age of 18 living in a long-term care facility, those with certain medical conditions, or those who work or live in a high-risk setting are eligible as well.
NH+C said those who received a Pfizer or Moderna vaccination are eligible six months after receiving their second dose. Those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are eligible after two months.
NH+C asks that those on the waitlist not contact the clinic for an appointment until after they have been contacted by text or phone call. To join the list, visit northfieldhospital.org.
As expected, District Enrollment Report shows decline
The Northfield School Board received the enrollment report for the 2021-22 school year at their meeting on Monday night. Superintendent
of Public Schools, Dr. Matt Hillmann, said the numbers are down from last year, as has been predicted.
This year, there are 3,810 students enrolled in Northfield Public Schools, which is down by about 20 students from last year. Hillmann said the district commissioned an enrollment study almost eight years ago that predicted a loss of about 200 students over a ten-year period. As Northfield is an aging community, and is experiencing a severe housing shortage, there are fewer families in the district with school age children than there were even two years ago. The graduating classes have been larger than the incoming classes, and this is a trend, he said, that will continue.
The report looked at the education options for all students in the Northfield School District and found that 875 students are attending a school other than Northfield. Of those, 287 are in charter schools, 258 are attending school in another district, 180 are being home schooled, and 128 are attending a private school. There are 454 students in Northfield schools that live outside of the district, most of whom are coming in from Faribault.
Hillmann said the number of students in the district choosing to attend a school that is not a Northfield public school does not surprise him.
“When we take a look at this at the end of the day, we have improved in terms of the nest loss of students, but we are always going to have fewer students coming in than going out, because we have two thriving charter schools that we authorize, and we also have a great partner in the School of St. Dominic right here in Northfield that is another fine option.”
Hillmann has said in the past that the district has a plan to deal with the declining enrollment, and that will include budget cuts, or as he has said “budget prioritization,” for the 2022-23 school year.
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Rich Larson is the News Director at KYMN Radio. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
