City Administrator Ben Martig said the preliminary tax levy, which was set at 18.5% by the City Council on Tuesday night, is a 
Wages and benefits make up 65% of the city budget and are on the rise. Martig said prior to when he became Administrator in 2015, Northfield was lagging far behind other comparable cities in the way it was compensating its employees. After completing one study, and beginning another, he said the goal has become finding the middle ground of those comparable cities.
“We want to be in the middle of the pack,” he said. “We don’t want to be the highest paying city, but we also can’t be where we were.”
Considering the state of the current labor market and the competition for good employees right now, he can’t imagine where the city would be right now had those increases not been put in place.
Another factor is, of course, inflation. He used infrastructure as an example, saying the costs for a sewer construction project are much higher than they were even two years ago.
He also pointed out that the City Parks and City Facilities maintenance funds have been underfunded for more than a decade. The budget to maintain the city parks is about 10% of what is necessary, he said, while the facilities budget is about 30%.
And that he said is indicative of a larger problem. Many funding decisions that should have been made years ago were not executed, and now the city is paying for the sins of the past. The council has made the decision to try to fix some of the problems that have dogged the community for several years.
Even with a double digit increase for the third straight year, he said, however, Northfield is still one of the least taxed cities in its peer group.
“In Northfield, we’re on the very low end of total city taxes in comparison to our peers. And we’ve been [monitoring] that regularly and we know right now, even with this increase, we’ve looked at our comparable peers and what they’re doing and we’re still in the lower quarter of the lowest taxes in our comparable group for city operations.”
The city is looking at ways to alleviate the problem he said through better long term financial planning and finding ways to increase the commercial industrial base, which would take some burden off of the residential taxpayer. However, he said, it is possible that Northfielders could be looking at further increases in the coming years.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Hispanic Heritage Festival will celebrate diversity of Northfield’s Latinx community
Today is the first day of National Hispanic Heritage month, and Northfield’s 5th annual Hispanic Heritage Festival is set for this 
Saturday. Created by the Northfield public library, the day will feature dancing, art, food, family activities, and a full immersion into Hispanic and Latino culture. Angelica Linder, the Outreach Coordinator at the Northfield Public Library called it an opportunity to highlight the diversity within the local Latinx community.
After starting as a presentation on a blocked off section of Washington Street in 2018, the festival has now moved to Central Park to accommodate crowds that have grown exponentially over the years. She said the entertainment this year will include a puppet show by The Little Coyote Puppet Theater called Martina the Cockroach and Perez the Mouse, Northfield Azteca dance troupe Kalpulli Ollin Ayacaxtly, Away Runakuna Ecuador, folk dancing by a Guatemalan Dance Group of Northfield, Danzas Colombianas en Minnesota, accordion player Aldo Tributo from Texas, Mariachi Alma de México and Los Chicos B Orquestra.
Linder said this is no longer simply a library event, but a full community event. And for the Latinx community, it is an opportunity to showcase several different facets of Latin and Hispanic culture. She said, in Northfield there are large groups of people from not just Mexico but from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Columbia, where she herself was born. And having that kind of diversity represented in one place is almost unprecedented.
“One of the main ideas is to highlight all of the diversity we have in little Northfield, but also [we want to] show how high-quality performances. So, people don’t need to go to the Cities or to another country to experience a traditional Colombian dance or a dance representing Ecuador. You’re going to have it right here in your backyard.”
Age Friendly Northfield will be on hand at the festival providing seating through the Red Chair Project.
Library Services Manager Laurie Kodet said the festival has been greatly enhanced by a grant the library received from the Minnesota State Arts Board from a legislative appropriation to the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. The library, she said, is very grateful to the organization, as well as to the City of Northfield, the Friends of the Northfield Public Library and many other community partners who all helped to make the day possible
The festival is scheduled to run from 11am-6pm on Saturday.
Thomas announces Sheriff’s Association scholarship program
On Monday, Rice County Sheriff Jesse Thomas announced the 2022 Law Enforcement Scholarship Program, sponsored by the Minnesota 
Sheriff’s Association. In an effort to boost the ranks of an already depleted law enforcement community, the program will award up to twenty $2,000 scholarships this year.
“The Board of Directors feels peace officers in our democratic society have complex duties to perform,” said Thomas. “MSA recognizes the importance of pre-entry training for people considering law enforcement as their career choice and that some students need outside help in meeting the costs of such training.”
The Scholarship Committee, in making the awards, intends to achieve representation from all geographical areas of the state. Scholarship awards will be announced by Dec. 28, 2022. Application forms and a statement of procedures are available at the Rice County Sheriff’s Office.
Students that meet the proper criteria are invited to obtain a scholarship application form in person from the Rice County Sheriff’s Office or online at www.mnsheriffs.org. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 19.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net.
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