An emergency ordinance that would have required the wearing of face masks in all Northfield indoor public spaces failed 
to pass through the City Council last night.
Councilor Jami Reister, a trained physician, had requested the ordinance. Her comments during the meeting echoed the letter she sent to city leadership last week. Positive cases are on the rise. Hospitals and health care workers are taxed to the limit right now. And the idea that the Omicron variant is not a dangerous form of Covid is patently false. Reister said that she was asking for the mandate knowing full well what kind of resistance it would meet.
“I know this is not popular,” she said. “But I’m not here to be popular.”
Indeed, the measure met quite a bit of resistance in the public. The Chamber of Commerce ran a survey of business owners that showed 64% opposing the mandate. Two of the three members of the public who addressed the council regarding the mandate were in strong opposition as well. One person characterized the mandate as “illegal,” and said he would not comply. Another said, in her opinion, the council had no right to put such a mandate in place, and she would stop spending money in Northfield if it passed.
Councilor Suzie Nakasian voted in favor of the measure and noted her alarm at the amount of misinformation that was coming through in public comments and emails, and asked City Administrator Ben Martig for some clarifications. Martig said the city had been in conversation with City Attorney Chris Hood, and the council does indeed have the power to put a mask mandate in place.
As this was an emergency ordinance, it required a super majority, or five “yes” votes, to pass. Mayor Rhonda Pownell voted against the measure. Her preference was to strongly recommend but not require masking. In her estimation, and mask mandate requires a coordinated response to work. Without a statewide masking order, her concern was the mandate would alienate Northfield from other communities in Rice County. She did speak, however, in strong support of the safety measures in place at Northfield Hospital + Clinics and with the Northfield School District, as well as those in place at Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges.
With one council member absent from the meeting, the motion failed by a count of four votes in favor, and two votes against. Councilor Brad Ness joined Mayor Pownell as the other dissenting vote.
Historical Society will use bricks from Archer House as fundraiser
Demolition of the Archer House began in earnest yesterday as heavy equipment took down the walls of the area most damaged by the fire that destroyed the interior of the building. Crews are working carefully to save as many of the bricks as possible, because Rebound Partners, the company that owns the building, has plans for those bricks.
Cathy Osterman, the Executive Director of the Northfield Historical Society, said Rebound approached her organization months ago. In the event that the building would have to be torn down, she said the company had offered to donate the bricks to the Historical Society to use as a fundraiser, which the NHS quickly and gladly accepted. Osterman said the public will indeed have an opportunity to purchase one – or several – of those bricks, but there is quite a bit of work that must be done before that happens.
The demolition site is not a safe place for most people right now, and before the bricks can be salvaged much of the building’s deconstruction will have to be complete. Once they are given the okay, she said a salvage crew will collect the bricks and deliver them to the Historical Society, where they will be sold in what she called a yet-to-be-determined-but-thoughtful way.
Osterman said that Rebound has removed a number of artifacts and features from the building already, with the intent of offering something to tie the Archer House River Inn back to whatever will be developed on that space in the future. There will be donations made to other organizations around town as well. Just because the building is coming down, Osterman said, does not mean the Archer House will be lost to history.
“That history never goes away. Rebound is saying that this is not the end of the book for the Archer House. This is the next chapter. There will be something else. There will be something to reflect on, and original pieces from the Archer House will be able to be seen by the public, and still loved.”
The initial plan, she said, is to use the funds generated by the sale of the Archer House bricks for the refurbishment and maintenance of the Scriver Building which houses the Historical Society Museum and, of course, was the site of the First National Bank of Northfield that was the target of the James/Younger Gang during their ill-fated raid.
“We’re going to make the best of a sad situation,” said Osterman, “by reinvesting that money back into another historic Northfield site.”
The Historical Society has yet to completely develop the plan for putting the bricks on sale. No date has been set for an onsale as of yet. Osterman said they will not be reserving any bricks and asked that the public refrain from contacting them for that purpose. She did say that once a plan is in place, they will make several announcements, and give the public plenty of time to make plans and arrangements so that everybody can own a piece of Northfield’s history.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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