More than a year’s worth of conversation, work and debate within the Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service 
will be resolved, most likely, within the next 60 days as the board prepares to make two major decisions.
The first will come at the October meeting when the board is scheduled to decide whether the position of fire chief, which has always been considered part-time, should be a full-time position.
Board chair Paul Liebenstein said the NAFRS Personnel Committee has been working hard on defining the role of a full-time Chief.
“They’ve been working overtime,” he said, “coming up with a job description and a compensation package should we decide to go that way.”
Regardless of that decision, there will be more work to do. Interim Chief Tom Nelson’s term will expire in mid-January and a permanent Chief, be it Nelson or another member of the firefighting staff, will have to be in place by then. Liebenstein said the plan is to post the position in-house first before they look outside of the organization.
Nelson has not yet said if he will apply for the full-time position but has indicated the full-time/part-time vote will affect his decision.
Meanwhile, the organization will most likely decide on the idea of forming a taxing district in November.
Liebenstein said there are still many details to be worked out, including the percentages of funds each entity within the joint powers – Northfield, Dundas, and the Rural Fire District – would be responsible for. They would also have to decide on board membership, and if the members could be appointed by the three entities, or if they would have to be elected officials.
Nelson said that as difficult as it is to work through this process, there are other fire districts in the state who have already set up taxing districts, and now there is a road map for how to do it.
“And so now, that process has become, I’ll say, easier with air quotes because at least there’s legislation that says, ‘Here’s how you become a taxing district.’ A lot of that work, it’s sort of like you don’t want to be bleeding edge, but you want to be leading edge. Let those people pay for the attorneys to get the legislation changed, so if we want to or other districts want to do that, at least now it should be a little more streamlined.”
The next two NAFRS meetings are scheduled for October 20th and November 17th.
Northfield Live providing ‘real world’ broadcast experience for students
During his State of the District Address last week, Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann singled out Northfield Live as an example of how the Northfield School District is working to get students out-of-the-classroom, “real world” experience.
Northfield Live is a venture started by Lance Reisseter, who has been the long-time sales manager at KYMN Radio, that creates video broadcasts of Northfield High School sporting events and some other local vents as well. Many of the events they broadcast on their website, northfieldlive.com, are staffed by Northfield students.
“We have them calling play-by-play and doing color, operating cameras, and producing,” he said. “It takes a minimum of four people to do a live video broadcast.”
The model for what Reisseter is doing was created by his son, Adam, who throughout high school, and even in middle school, conducted interviews with athletes and coaches for the very popular Saturday Morning show Raider Wrap here on KYMN, and then began calling any sport he was asked to broadcast from football and baseball to hockey and wrestling. Adam is now studying at the University of Iowa and calling Hawkeye football games for the student-run radio station.
Reisseter said Adam did an excellent job of recruiting younger students before he graduated and singled out Evan Loe and Liz Chamberlain for the work they are currently doing on Raider Wrap. He actually has twenty other students working with hm for the broadcasts, and said it is both fun and rewarding to watch them develop.
“Some of them, you can see it in their personality right away, and then they put the headset on, and that personality comes out. The really interesting ones are the kids where you don’t see it right away in their personality, and they shift into that personality when you put the headset on, or the game starts happening, especially when there’s some exciting stuff happening on the court or on the field.”
Reisseter pointed out that this is not an internship, and that the students who work the games get paid, but Dr. Hillmann and other members of the district staff are working to let the young broadcasters earn educational credit for the work they are doing.
“The communication demands of working with a hot mic in front of you is a great learning experience,” he said, “whether you want to go into broadcasting or not.”
The games produced by Northfield Live can be seen on their website, northfildlive.com, and they can be heard right here an AM 1080 and FM 95.1 KYMN radio, and on our website at kymnradio.net.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Lance Reisster of Northfield Live can be heard here
New Branding Committee up and running
And the City of Northfield is undertaking a new branding campaign, designed to enhance the city’s image for 
tourism, business recruiting and to highlight the facets of the community that make it such a wonderful place to live.
A new Branding Advisory Committee has been established. A statement issued by the city said the committee is inviting community stakeholders and all interested Northfielders to share their insights via interviews and an online survey.
The main responsibility of the committee, which held its first meeting on September 1st, will be to provide input into the selection of a branding consultant and then work with the consultant on brand development. Committee members will review existing research and create a list of current tactics where and how the brand will be used.
“This is a creative, engaging and resourceful committee,” said Committee Chair Jennifer Sawyer, pointing out that there is great professional experience in related fields among the members in branding, design and communications.
Opportunities for engagement will be shared with community partners and on the city’s website, as well as the Northfield Facebook and Instagram social media pages.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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