United States Senator Tina Smith is a co-sponsor of a bill that passed through the US Senate earlier this week, after also passing through the
US House of Representatives, that ensures the United States Post Office will be able to maintain its current level of service for years to come.
After Postmaster General Luis DeJoy was installed during the Trump administration, DeJoy has taken several steps to greatly reduce the post office’s ability to deliver mail and parcels. Smith said this bill will limit the scope of DeJoy’s reforms, while also freeing up necessary funds to maintain services DeJoy has sought to end.
Senator Smith said the bill repeals the requirement that the USPS annually prepay future retirement health benefits 75 years ahead of time, the windfall from which, she said will allow the post office to maintain services like Saturday mail delivery
“Much of the legislation will go into effect right away, and that will be a really good thing. I’m particularly glad to see that the post office will have the legal underpinning to be able to continue to provide six-day delivery permanently. This is something that was attempted to be cut back, especially in rural communities. And that’s something that folks really rely on.”
Senator Smith, a Democrat, is one of 27 co-sponsors of the bill in the senate, half of whom, she said proudly, are Republicans. With widespread bi-partisan support, the bill passed through the senate quite easily. President Biden is expected to sign the bill into law later next week.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Senator Tina Smith can be heard here
Underdahl says Northfield Hospital Covid numbers are in ‘good shape’
Northfield Hospital & Clinics President and CEO Steve Underdahl is not yet ready to sound the “All Clear” horn on the Covid-19 pandemic, just yet, however, he said things look much better in the second week of March than they did in the second week of February.
Underdahl said, the Omicron variant behaved just as had been predicted by scientists and epidemiologists.
“When there was almost no Omicron in the United States,” he said, “science told us that Omicron was going to spread like crazy, replace Delta, and be everywhere in a relatively short period of time. And that is what happened. The doubling rate was just almost magical
“It was nearly everywhere.”
Underdahl said that in the late fall and early winter, Northfield Hospital treated many more people for Omicron than it had for other Covid strains the year before. Part of that, he said was because, in the earlier stages of the pandemic, the sickest people required the kind of care and therapy Northfield Hospital cannot offer, and part of it was because during Omicron, there were plenty of patients whom he characterized as “appropriately sick” for a community hospital like Northfield, and also because all the other larger hospitals were full, and there would have been nowhere else to send them.
On the vaccination front, he said the hospital is still anticipating that Pfizer’s vaccine for children under five, which has been delayed as the number of shots that will be required to fully administer the vaccine is decided, will be approved by the FDA later this spring. In fact, he said, Dr. Ben Flannery, one of the hospital’s lead pediatricians, has been preparing educational videos and information to help parents understand how the vaccine will work for the youngest patients.
And while he still expects to see Covid-19 cases in the hospital moving forward, he said, by and large, things are looking to be in pretty good shape.
“Have we turned the corner? I’m not a superstitious person, but it makes me nervous to say yes. I think as mask restrictions [ease,] and back-to-normal life starts to occur, I wouldn’t be surprised to see outbreaks of Covid continue to happen just as more and more people have a higher level of exposure to one another. But overall, I think all of the kind of relevant metrics look good.”
Council hears update on downtown flood study
On Tuesday night, the Northfield City Council received an update from Joe Waln of Barr Engineering regarding the downtown flood
mitigation study and some of the ideas being considered to minimize the damage another event such as the floods of 2010 and 2016 could cause.
With flood plains and water tables shifting due to the effects of climate change, it is now more likely that another major flooding event of that proportion could happen in the years to come, so the council was asked to comment on several different concepts. Among the ideas Waln introduced is extending the flood wall on the west side of the riverwalk all the way to the Second Street Bridge, the construction of another flood wall near the Water Street retail properties south of the Fifth Street Bridge, the possible use of “wet flood proofing” on some buildings, which would allow for the water to move through the lower portions of the buildings in the area, and more traditional dry flood proofing techniques, like the use of sandbags and other temporary barriers.
Among the options not being considered is upstream water storage, which is something Councilor Suzie Nakasian questioned. With so much unused land just south of Northfield she asked why the city wouldn’t consider acquisition of some of that land to use when the Cannon River spills over its banks. City Engineer Dave Bennett said acquisition and use of that land would be cost prohibitive.
However, City Administrator Ben Martig said many of the solutions being considered have an eye to the future.
“Some of these things too – you can be prepared as you do further modeling on what we might see in the future, that might become more of a reality or, if, over time in certain areas where you aren’t completely sure, you might be prepared to move in that direction if you see some of the changes happening.”
Martig said with a 925-mile watershed, there is still plenty more to think about, and the study will continue.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
