Beginning Monday, Northfielders will spend the rest of the spring navigating around a major inconvenience as what is possibly the busiest
bridge in the city will be closed until late June
Yesterday, the city announced that the 5th Street Bridge, located over the Cannon River just east of Highway 3, will close on Monday, in order to undergo a two-month maintenance project.
Crews will repair expansion joints, replace concrete approach panels, and complete other miscellaneous bridge repairs that were identified during its most recent inspection. The bridge, which was originally constructed in 1963, had a similar rehabilitation project performed in 1986.
A detour will be posted using Highway 3, Woodley Street and Water Street detouring traffic around the work area. Access to the Northfield Area Fire and Rescue building will be maintained to the public throughout the duration of the project.
The city is also reminding motorists to always drive with caution, slow down in work zones, and never enter a road blocked with barriers or cones.
Parks & Rec analysis shows lack of indoor recreation
Last night during a work session, the Northfield City Council heard a presentation from a group of consultants regarding the state of the
city’s park system in order to get a better understanding of how Northfield compares to other cities of similar size.
The city is in the process of examining and evaluating each of Northfield’s parks and indoor recreation facilities in order to form a Park and Recreation Capital Investment plan. After identifying problematic areas, this plan will determine if an existing facility should be replaced or if new amenities should be provided to meet the needs and expectations of the community.
The report looked at other park systems in Rosemount, Andover, Owatonna, Chaska and Shakopee and compared them to Northfield in several different categories. Overall, Northfield was found to be satisfactory in these comparisons, although it did identify areas where things could be improved.
While it is difficult to make an equal comparison from city to city for any number of reasons, the report showed that Northfield is lacking in certain areas, specifically in the amount of indoor recreation facilities it offers, and in the number of playgrounds suitable for children 2-5 years old.
In outdoor recreation, Northfield was found to have 13 of the 19 benchmark facilities that some of the comparable cities have, with more skating rinks and non-rental picnic shelters than the others. The report noted that Northfield does not have a bike park, a splash pad or an amphitheater or bandshell facility as do some of the other cities.
The report found the availability of indoor facilities to be lacking, with only three of the benchmark facilities offered by other cities. While FiftyNorth and its indoor pool were seen as two of the city’s assets, and the ice arena is another, Northfield does not have amenities like a municipal gym and weight room, an indoor playground, or a community recreation center.
With this initial analysis presented, the next step in the process, according to City Engineer Dave Bennett, is to look at the condition of the existing facilities, and then develop recommendations and initial plans for the future.
Bennett said those ideas will come before the council in the coming weeks.
District budget report due this week
The process of reducing the annual budget of the Northfield School District continues, and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann
said the initial proposals should be made public very soon.
The district expects to lose about 400 students over the next 8-10 years, so $4.5 million will have to be trimmed from the budget over the next two years.
The process began in February when the district convened a group of 60 people to form three separate consulting groups, each tasked with prioritizing programming for different education levels. As those groups have finished with their tasks, Hillmann said the district will offer a public report on the proposed cuts by Monday of next week. In advance of that report, he was blunt about the changes that are coming, and for the first time, he acknowledged that jobs will be trimmed from the budget as well.
“There are going to be programs that people have valued,” he said, “and positions that people have valued, that are going to have to be discontinued.”
Hillmann said that every program the school district has in place has value to someone, and because the cuts will be wide ranging, there will be a lot of people who will not be happy. He said the district has always tried to maintain a small number of people in administrative positions, and they have run out of options to cut anything from that area.
“Out of 502 Charter schools and traditional public-school districts in Minnesota, we rank 469th in the amount of money we spend per pupil on administration. We run the [district] with a very lean team, we put the vast majority of the money directly into the classroom – obviously, that’s what we’re here for. But we try to run the district very efficiently, with a focus on outcomes for the students. We just have to adjust to this new reality.”
Hillmann said the program reductions will be formally introduced to the school board during their next meeting on April 25th. Following that meeting, the district intends to arrange a public forum for the public to gather, discuss the reductions and give their feedback on the matter. Hillmann said that date has yet to be selected. It will be before the board makes its final vote on the budget on May 9th.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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