Viking Terrace residents finalize HOA, ask city for help
Residents and supporters of Viking Terrace filled the City Council’s chambers at last night’s meeting because of concerns over how Lakeshore
Management has treated people since it took over the park earlier this year.
The residents have also successfully formed a homeowner’s association and elected the seven members of its leadership board.
Jorge Zuccolotto, the president of the new association, said many residents are terrified of losing their homes. A number of residents, including Zuccolotto, have received letters from Lakeshore Management that say if violations of the company’s new rules are not fixed quickly, Lakeshore will pursue evictions.
Zuccolotto said, “the storm’s coming and everybody can see it but you can’t get out of the way, you’re trapped.”
It’s a common misconception that mobile homes can easily be moved. And moving in the first place would require families to uproot their lives.
Zuccolotto pointed out that what’s happening to Viking Terrace is not unique.
“This also happened to a thousand people around the nation. This corporation’s trying to squish as much money as can from the poor people. And when they can no longer squish money from them, the people have to move out. They can’t take the trailer with them. You know, they can claim them and then fix them or move a new one in and get new people in. They’ve been doing this for years already and they’re going to continue to make money on us. On the people on the bottom.”
Ben Martig, the City Administrator, responded directly to residents’ concerns during last night’s meeting, and explained how the City of Northfield is working to determine how to best support the people of Viking Terrace. Northfield staff are in communication with state authorities, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, about potential legal violations committed by Lakeshore Management.
City Council member George Zuccolotto also took time to address the Viking Terrace members directly and said, “It’s going to be a fight but I’m here with you.”
For George Zuccolotto’s father, Jorge, that fight is exactly why he was motivated to serve as president of the Viking Terrace HOA.
“The reason I took this position is to, you know, give them voice to, you know, whatever is in me to step up and fight. If we talk about a fight a legal fight, put a face to it, you know, put a voice to it.”
Zuccolotto said everyone involved anticipates a long road ahead emotionally and legally.
School Board still wrestling with what to do about the high school building
The Northfield School Board held a meeting on Monday night, and the item on the agenda that received the most attention was the question
of what to do with the Northfield High School building.
A task force report from this past spring showed that the building is deficient in many areas from the HVAC system to the classrooms and learning spaces that are quickly becoming antiquated. While the building itself is in fine condition, much of the inner workings are in need of replacing or renovating.
The report features tiered recommendations that start with replacing the HVAC system and windows, along with other basic infrastructure fixes, followed by an upgrade of the classrooms and learning spaces, which is then followed by additions of a field house and a new space for the music department.
In order to pay for these things, the school district would have to issue bonds, which would require approval from the voters in the form of a referendum on the November ballot. The board has not yet come to a conclusion on what, if anything, to ask the voters to approve.
Opinions vary widely on the board. The options are to do nothing and simply keep the building up as they have, to accepting some of the recommendations, to accepting all of them, to asking the voters to approve a new high school building, all of which were discussed at the meeting on Monday night.
Northfield Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Matt Hillmann said there are funds in the budget to do things piecemeal, but some of the more pressing issues, like the temperature control of the school, would have to be done at once, and that would be a difficult task to accomplish without help from the voters.
“The issue with the things that we’re talking about, just using the HVAC system ad the windows as an example because I think if people listening are thinking about replacing their furnace in their home, or if they’re thinking about replacing the windows in there home, they know that that’s something they have. to plan for. They’re probably not just taking out of their savings. They’re planning and they’re saving specifically for that. It’s the same way with the school district.”
While several different ideas were floated and discussed during the meeting, Hillmann said the
board will have to make a decision at its next meeting on August 1 if a referendum is to be ready in time to go onto the November ballot.
New program allows residents to prepay for landfill services
Rice County has put a new program in place to help residents avoid long delays at the county landfill.
The county has developed a QR code that can be scanned in order to use a credit card to prepay for flat rate items residents want to discard, reducing wait time. Items that carry a flat fee include TVs, appliances, tires and electronics.
Wait times are expected to increase over the next few months following the Board of Commissioners’ approval of improvements at the Solid Waste Facility entrance. On Tuesday, the board awarded a bid of $638,500 to Healy Construction of Faribault. The bid is more than $55,000 less than engineers had estimated.
When complete, the work will add a new scale house and double the number of entrance and exit lanes to improve traffic flow and safety for those on site.
“I think it’s going to be a great improvement for traffic flow,” Commissioner Jeff Docken said Tuesday.
Though operations will continue during construction, Environmental Services Director Julie Runkel anticipates delays for residents for the foreseeable future. The work should be complete by mid-November, she said, but following that, the county plans to renovate the adjoining facility.
The Rice County Solid Waste Facility is open to county residents only from 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday to Friday, and from 7:30-11:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of the month (April through October) and the second Saturday of the month (November through March). For more information visit the Rice County website at co.rice.mn.us
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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