After more than a year of emotion filled conversation and debate, as well as some significant community wide mourning, demolition crews
have begun the process to take down what is left of the Archer House River Inn.
The hotel, which was constructed and opened in 1877, was heavily damaged by a fire in November of 2020 that began in the kitchen of a restaurant located in the Northeast section of the building. Fire crews used more than 2 million gallons of water over the course of 24 hours to put the fire out. After an extensive insurance investigation, the building was declared a complete loss.
The City and Rebound Partners, the organization that owns the building, went through a long and exhaustive process in deciding how, and even if, the building should be demolished. After thorough consideration, the Heritage Preservation Commission approved a certificate of appropriateness for the demolition, and the proper permits have now been issued.
The city is urging motorists to always drive with caution, slow down in work zones, and never enter a road blocked with barriers or cones. The demolition is expected to take about four weeks.
Council discusses relationships with Boards and Commissions
A major portion of the discussion during the City Council’s work session on Tuesday night was the relationship the council has with the city’s various boards and commissions.
The role of those groups varies widely. All have an advisory role to the council, but some like the Planning Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission are often asked to sit in a quasi-judicial role as well and make decisions that can have real effect on the community and its people.
Recently, the council reached a decision about the Kraewood Development that was at odds with a unanimous recommendation that had been made to them by the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission, in turn invoked a seldom used clause in the City Charter that gives them the power to ask for the reasons the council rejected the commission’s recommendation, in writing. The council debated their options and, in the end, decided that the record was clear on why the decision was made, and taking the time to set that out in writing set a bad precedent for the future.
At the same time, city staff, at the request of the City Council, put together a survey for all Commissioners and Board Members, asking them to rate the effectiveness of the Board and Commission system, the effectiveness of their group, and asked for suggestions on how to improve things.
The return was not very high, with only about 26% of all Board & Commission members answering the survey. That in and of itself would seem to speak volumes about the state of communications with the council, city staff, and these important groups. But the information received from the people who did take the time to answer the survey showed that there are problems within the commissions. Some are overworked, some are unsure of their roles, and overall, there is a dissatisfaction with the state of communication with both city staff and the council.
Councilor Jessica Peterson White made a prolonged statement about the things she saw in the survey results. Her main point being that Boards and Commissions should be better respected.
“If we’re asking this many people in our community to have this level of involvement in policy making for their community, then we owe them our best. If we’re asking them to show up every month at a meeting for six years of your life – or even three years – we better be damn sure that we are going to make the highest and best use of their time.”
City Administrator Ben Martig pointed out that the reason the survey had been generated in the first place is because improving the effectiveness of the relationships with the boards and commissions is an explicit goal laid out in the city’s strategic plan. The survey was the first step toward that goal, and this will be an ongoing concern and discussion.
Hillmann says Charter Schools make Northfield a better place
The Northfield School Board received presentations on Monday night from Prairie Creek Community School Director Simon Tyler and
Arcadia Charter School Executive Director Laura Stelter.
The Northfield School District is one of two districts in the state that are certified to authorize charter schools. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann said the relationship between the district and the two local charter schools is better than most people would think, and not just because they’re authorized by the Northfield District.
“The relationship between charter schools and traditional public schools ca, a lot of times, be at loggerheads, because there is some perceived competition. And Arcadia and Prairie Creek certainly make our school system better. They make our community richer. Northfield has public school choice its DNA. It’s just something that our community expects. We’re very proud to be able to authorize those two charter schools.”
Hillmann said the two schools gave the board an update on the past year. Like every other school in the country both Prairie Creek and Arcadia dealt with a lot of uncertainty over the last twelve months due to the global pandemic. Hillmann said the two directors shared how they had responded to the challenges, and where they focused.
Both Prairie Creek and Arcadia use project based and experiential-learning-based models, far more so than any of the Northfield Public Schools, and because of that, the way the students’ progress is measured and reported is different from the way standard public schools are evaluated. And, Hillmann said, student performance has been down across the country due to the challenges Covid-19 presents to education. However, the schools have shown positive results in the past year. Hillmann said both are performing very well in reading, and they both outpaced the state averages in math.
He said both schools are great assets to the community, and the district, which recently was recertified as an authorizing body for another five years, is proud to work with them.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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