On Tuesday night, the Northfield City Council heard a presentation from Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce President Lisa Peterson
regarding the 2022 budget for the Northfield Convention & Visitors Bureau. Among the many industries that were hit hard by Covid-19, no industry was hit harder than tourism and Peterson’s presentation showed that in detail.
The Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce runs the Convention & Visitor’s Bureau on behalf of the City of Northfield. The purpose of the CVB, according to Peterson is to market and promote Northfield, and enhance the economic vitality of the community by attracting visitors, tour groups, corporate meetings, conferences, retreats and events to the city.
It is funded solely by the 3% lodging tax that is attached to all local hotel stays. Peterson said the city currently has 259 hotel rooms that, through August, had generated about $71,500 in tax revenue. That is a drop of 25% from 2019, which can be directly attributed, Peterson said, to the Covid-19 pandemic and the loss of 36 rooms in the Archer House.
The potential for tourism in Northfield, however, is extremely high. Peterson said the first quarter of 2020, was a on a high trajectory but dropped off dramatically when the state was given the shelter in-place order. This past June, when it appeared that the pandemic might be coming to an end, revenues were very high again, even besting the 2019 number, despite the fewer hotel rooms.
The CVB budget for 2022 has been set at $95,000, versus just over $78,000 in projected revenue. While that does create a $16,000 deficit, she said the number is based solely on projected lodging tax revenue. As the Covid threat begins to wane, there is every reason to believe that Northfield tourism will bounce back and could very well eclipse pre-covid numbers.
Despite the deficit, Peterson called the budget for 2022 conservative. She said she is confident that when the pandemic finally begins to subside, Northfield Tourism will once again flourish.
The budget was approved on the council’s consent agenda.
Fossum says his office is working to resolve backlogged cases
Rice County Attorney John Fossum said the county court system is moving though the backlog of cases that developed during the pandemic, but there are many more cases yet to be resolved.
Over the last month, the number of unresolved cases has been reduced from 369 cases to 313. The majority of the cases are resolved before they make it to trial, but not as many as the court system would like. To that end, the county will bring retired judge John Cajacob back to work as a senior judge in January. Working three days a week, three weeks a month, Judge Cajacob will handle simple criminal calendar hearings, such as first-appearances and non-contested hearings. This will allow the county to run two jury trials at the same time. Felony trials will be in the newly constructed Covid-safe Courtroom Five in the County Government Center, while misdemeanor trials will be in one of the standard court rooms in the courthouse.
Resolving fifty cases in a month is quite a few, and Fossum said his office is working hard to reduce the number further.
“We are doing our best to cooperate and work out ways to resolve cases, creatively sometimes. But we also have to make sure that we’re protecting public safety and we’re dealing [appropriately] with people who are threats. And there are some people who have several cases, and those are the people we’ve been kind of focusing on to see if we can resolve things.”
The backlog, of course, is a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, the pandemic caused the courts across the state to shut down for the spring and early summer. They were able to open and resume trials for a short time in the fall, but after cases began to spike across the state, Supreme Court Chief Justice Lori Gildea ordered a moratorium on all in-person trials until Mid-March, and the three county district judges extended that moratorium until the beginning of May. The courts had to shut down for a time again this summer when the county found itself without public defenders. During the shutdowns, however, crime kept the same pace it always has, so now the county is having to catch up.
With a jury trial and another court case scheduled for this week, Fossum was hopeful that at least two more cases would be resolved. Fossum has said he has never seen a court system that was completely caught up, but he is hopeful that things will be much more in balance by the end of 2022.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Rice County Attorney John Fossum can be heard here
Archer House demolition in the balance today
And the Northfield Heritage Preservation Commission will meet this afternoon with the demolition of the Archer House at the top of the
agenda.
Last month, when the company that owns the Archer House, Rebound Partners, applied for a Certificate of Appropriateness, which is a necessary step in getting a demolition permit, the commission chose to postpone a vote until more information can be supplied to them.
The Archer House was heavily damaged by a fire a year ago and was declared a total loss this spring after an extended insurance investigation. Because the building is in the city’s Historic District, a Certificate of Appropriateness must be issued by the HPC in order for demolition permits to be obtained.
At issue is the oldest section of the building, built in 1877, and whether it – or at least the front façade – can be saved or preserved within reasonable means.
The members of the commission are asking Rebound Partners to supply them with a better assessment of the original section of the building, whether it can be saved or adapted into the design of what Rebound would build on the site, the value of an historic building like that section of the Archer House, and if the costs of restoration are reasonable.
The Commission meeting today begins at 4pm.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net.
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