On Tuesday night during the work session portion of the City Council meeting, City Engineer Dave Bennett and City Engineering Manager
Sean Simonson updated the council on a presentation from last November that talked about the possibility of the city paying for modifications to private homes that are in danger of flooding based on new data gathered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Originally thirteen local properties had been identified as candidates for home conversion. The engineering department has done a deeper study into the issue and found – with additional improvements to different areas of the storm sewer infrastructure – they would be able to reduce the number of properties to be modified from thirteen to five.
The council had questions on Tuesday night, as they did in November, about the appropriateness of the city making improvements to private property. Bennett said the idea has become more common in the past few years in other municipalities. There is always a public infrastructure solution to flooding issues, he said, but those solutions, as is the case with these five properties, are not always as cost effective as fixing individual situations.
Mayor Rhonda Pownell said the problems the city is looking at are not simply standard water-in-the-basement issues.
“We’re not talking about someone’s basement flooding because their sump pump didn’t work. We’re talking about storm water runoff, which is traditionally handled by the city. That’s not something that we ask individual property owners to govern or take care of. That is primarily handled by our city engineering department.”
Still, the council had deep misgivings about paying for work on private homes. Questions were raised about liability and precedent. Councilor Jami Reister had concerns about fixing a list of homes one year, only to have another group of homeowners come forward later wanting their issues to be resolved by the city. In one case, the city would actually acquire a home and remove it from the flood plain, which led to questions of appraisal and market value.
Councilor Bread Ness, who works in the insurance industry, expressed deep reluctance about the program in November, and that reluctance appeared to have become resolve by Tuesday night.
“The city’s obligation is to improve infrastructure to mitigate flood issues,” he said. “It is not the city’s place to fix basements. You can buy some of these houses for less money than it would take to fix them.”
Councilor Jessica Peterson White, Councilor Riester and Mayor Pownell expressed their concerns to varying degrees, but all three agreed that for the city to engage in a program like this one, there will have to be policy direction and clarity on the parameters of when the city would step in.
While both Mayor Pownell and City Administrator Ben Martig said it would be premature to develop an official city policy, the mayor did say this is an important conversation.
“This is something new,” she said. “Documenting it for the future will be beneficial for all involved.”
New master plan for the high school in development
The Northfield School District is beginning a process to revise and update the Master Facility Plan for the Northfield High School. 
The building, which was originally built in the 1960’s and has been renovated and added on to several times over the years needs further updates and more renovations. Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann said the process the district has begun will help to determine the most glaring needs and give the building a top-to-bottom evaluation to best determine its future.
Wold Architects has been engaged by the city to manage the process. Already, they have met with several groups comprised of different student groups and other stakeholders for more than 30 hours of listening sessions. Discussions have ranged from the need to upgrade athletic facilities and the music department, to more mundane, yet very important areas like maintenance to the building’s exterior.
Hillmann said there have been major upgrades over the years, pointing to a complete overhaul of the electrical system just in the last 15-20 years, but there is still work that needs to be done. For example, he said, the temperature in the building can vary widely. The building can be very cold in some areas, and very warm, in others.
“Students have to dress in layers in that building,” he said. “it’s not uncommon to see someone wearing a t-shirt, a shirt over that and a jacket.”
Hillmann said he understands that talking about renovations and major upgrades to a building at a time when the district is also finding ways to reduce the programming budget by $4.5 million dollars due to declining enrollment can be confusing. However, the topics are basically unrelated to each other. The school district controls several different groups of funds, which by state statute, are meant for different things. The money designated to the long-term maintenance fund, for example, is not eligible to be used for student programming, classroom projects or employee salaries. Nor is the money in the programming budget available to be used for repairs to the building. Hillmann said, he understands how that can sound like bureaucratic red tape, but there are specific reasons the money is kept separate.
“We do have to talk about both of them at the same time. And I can certainly understand when people hear this next part about us having to prioritize our expenditures, they might say ‘Well, why are you thinking about a building?’ We can’t keep pushing things off. So, these are two important conversations. They sound very similar in a lot of ways, but the funding strategy and the funding stream is different. Now, to be clear, they come from a very similar place in our tax base, but we have to take care of both.”
In 2018, a referendum to build a new high school was voted down by the people of the school district, but conversation for a new high school has persisted. Hillmann said the focus group that will convene to make many of the decisions on how to proceed with the school will be instructed to focus on addition and renovation. That does not mean, however, that another referendum for a new building is completely off of the table. Hillmann said, the conversation will include all options
“This does not necessarily mean that it would result in a bond referendum for a new school,” he said. “But it could.”
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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