Saturday is Christmas Day, which for most people is a day away from work to spend time with family and loved ones. For the ninth year in a
row, Joan and Jim Spaulding, the owners of the Hideaway Coffee House and Wine Bar, will be spending the day with their family as they always do, but they will be spending it once again this year with the doors to their café open, welcoming any and all for a free Christmas dinner.
Joan said the tradition started when they realized there are quite a few people in Northfield who are alone on Christmas, and they were in a unique position to address that.
“We celebrate Christmas eve, and on Christmas Day we’d just be hanging around in our pajamas not doing much of anything. And we were sort of saying how fortunate we are that we have this family that can just hang around and play games and have dinner and everything like that. There’s a lot of people who don’t have families around. So really, it’s for anyone who’s by themselves and the whole idea is feeding the soul on Christmas.”
The menu will have all of the traditional holiday fare including turkey ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberries, vegetables and Christmas cookies.
Last year, thanks to Covid, dinner had to be served to people curbside in their cars. This year, she said, they will be open for seating, but won’t be adding additional seats as they have in years past. They will also once again be offering take-out, curbside service as well.
The event has become a tradition in the Spaulding family.
“We’ve been doing this for nine years she said. Everyone comes along and pitches in. It’s just what we do on Christmas Day, now.”
She said they do not take reservations but does recommend calling ahead for a take-out order. The Spauldings will be serving from 1-5 pm.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Joan Spaulding can be heard here
Elliott says NPD is a great job for the right person
With two new positions set in the 2022 municipal budget, the Northfield Police Department is in position to be fully staffed from patrol officers to technicians and support staff sometime next year for the first time in Police Chief Mark Elliott’s tenure.
There are still obstacles, however.
Employers across the country are having difficulty filling job vacancies, and police departments are no different. Members of the local law enforcement community, including former Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn and current Sheriff Jesse Thomas, have expressed concern that the current social attitude toward police officers and law enforcement in general, are keeping good people from going into their industry. Incidents like the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin have caused many in society to call for extreme police reform. Dunn said shortly before his retirement in November that it is a mistake to blame the entire law enforcement community for a few bad actors, and Chief Elliott has agreed with him.
The Chief said the shortage of police officers has caused police departments to have to compete for new hires, and that is making staffing that much more difficult.
“Other police departments are offering hiring bonuses, increased pay and things like that. It’s no different than from the private sector. We’re seeing it as well. And we’re going to have to keep pace with that in order to attract good quality candidates.”
Elliott said Northfield is a very good place to be a police officer for the right person. His department focuses on what he called “customer service,” and crime prevention efforts as much as anything else. He said the officer who wants to be busy going from felony call to felony call, or work as a full-time homicide investigator, probably wouldn’t be happy in Northfield because there isn’t much of that sort of activity. His department works to get to know businesses and people, because interacting with the community is important.
“We look for people who are interested in those prevention activities,” he said, “and people who are interested in equity. This is a community police force, and the people who want to be that sort of police officer are the people we try to attract.”
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield Police Chief Mark Elliott can be heard here
Draheim optimistic for housing reform
State Senator Rich Draheim is hoping to see real progress in housing finance reform in the coming legislative session.
Draheim, the Chair of the Senate Housing Finance Committee, said in the five years he has been in the state Senate, 2022 will offer the best chance he has seen to pass some of the things he has been trying to accomplish.
In a hearing last week, his committee discussed Housing Infrastructure Bonds, and how they might be used for the first time to help make single family homes more affordable. He said the legislature has set aside almost $30 million dollars for that exact purpose, and he is troubled that the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency has yet to put any sort of program together to deal with the issue.
Draheim also sees a disconnect between the purpose of local zoning ordinances and building codes, and the practical results of more and more regulation. Many of the specialized building codes only add to the cost to build a home, and those cost increases are passed on to the home buyer.
“For every $1000 we add in red-tape and bureaucracy,” he said, “we eliminate 3000-4000 Minnesotans who can afford to buy a house.”
The hope he sees for the coming session is in a bill sponsored by Representative Steve Elkins, a Democrat from Bloomington, who is proposing a bill that would allow cities to charge development fees in exchange for making building codes across the state more uniform.
“Representative Elkins has a bill that he is proposing that takes a lot of the ideas that I have been trying to get done the last few years. So, I think his bill will be the main energy in the housing area, and how do we accomplish some of the goals.”
The new legislative session is set to begin January 31st.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with State Senator Rich Draheim can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net.
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