The Northfield Historical Society is searching for new professional staff after former Executive Director Cathy Osterman and former Curator
Travis Farrington resigned earlier this month.
Details are vague, but it appears disagreements about the vision for the museum led to the departures. Neither Osterman’s nor Farrington’s employment was terminated.
Historical Society Board President Dan Neuger said the NHS museum and store remain open for visitors.
“The important thing is everything is as it was,” he said. “We have a solid core of volunteers who are making calls and working on research, we’re okay.”
In the meantime, noted local historian Jeff Sauve has been hired as the Interim Curator and Outreach Coordinator. Sauve served as an archivist with St. Olaf College for nearly twenty years and has written extensively about the history of the area and about St. Olaf.
Neuger said the organization is now going to begin the process of looking for a new executive director. He does expect they will hire someone to serve as an interim director in the meantime.
Osterman was hired as Executive Director in 2017 following the departure of Hayes Scriven, who is now the Executive Director of the Split Rock Lighthouse Museum in Two Harbors. During her five-year tenure Osterman worked to create more educational opportunities for a wider audience and age range. The museum also reinterpreted the James Younger Gang Raid exhibit to incorporate the voices and experiences of the townspeople, taking focus away from perpetrators of the raid, and focusing more on the heroes.
For his part, Neuger said the NHS is grateful for the things Osterman and Farrington accomplished.
“They are both good people who did good work,” he said. “We wish them nothing but the best.”
No timetable has been established for finding a new Executive Director.
Branding Commission survey asks for public input
With the creation of the new Branding Commission, the City of Northfield has made it clear that it intends to increase its efforts to 
attract more visitors, businesses and residents. Commision Chair Jennifer Sawyer has said the commission’s work could last up to 18 months, and there is quite a bit of work ahead of them.
The goal of the commission is to bring Northfield to life in a way that has never been expressed before. One of the first items on the commission’s agenda is to collect as much information and as many ideas as possible from the current residents of Northfield. To that end, the commission has created an online survey and is asking Northfielders to take five minutes out of their time and fill it out.
A statement released by the city said the goal of the survey is to receive strong and broad public input, and to help identify Northfield’s beauty, diversity, economic, social, and personal connections.
Sawyer said the Commission would like to identify “the story we tell ourselves, about who we are as one Northfield, and how we display that to the rest of the world.”
“We want to hear your voice!” said committee member Bob Thacker in the statement. “Consider what makes Northfield unique to you. Not necessarily what you’ve heard or what you think would be the ‘correct’ answer—what is Northfield to you?”
Those who are interested can follow the city’s website and social media channels for additional engagement opportunities.
Find the survey on the Northfield City website under the “Branding” heading on the Northfield city website.
Pursell preparing to represent District 58A in state House of Representatives
With the midterm elections now passed and certified, Northfielders know who will be representing them in St. Paul for at least the next two
While Pursell, who is the Executive Director of Clean River Partners, said she has always paid attention to politics, and has helped out on other people’s campaigns, she said having her name on the ballot was a completely different experience.
“It’s a little like the frog in the pot of slowly boiling water,” she said. “The temperature gets very hot, but it happens very slowly. It was a good way to enter politics, because if things had started out hot, I don’t know if I would have jumped into the race.”
Pursell said election night wasn’t quite what she had expected. Choosing to spend some time at the local Northfeld DFL headquarters that night, she said she was not told that she had won, but rather everybody seemed to think she had won.
“It was probably Todd Lippert – I can’t remember for sure – who said, ‘I think you won.’ And it was sort of like ‘Wait, what?’ I mean there was not quite like one moment of [victory.] Because I had to ask, ‘Do you think, or do you know?’ And then when the Webster Township numbers came in, those were the last ones, except for Dakota County. That was when it became reality, and I was able to think ‘Okay, this really happened.’”
Pursell said she began her orientation just two days later at the State Capital in St. Paul. There will be 47 new members of the House next year, and Pursell said each of them is a little bleary-eyed and tired, but there is still quite a bit to be learned before the new session begins.
“They tell you you’ll have an office and an email address in about a month,” she said. “But until then, it’s a matter of learning our way around the Capital building and making sure Human Resources has all of our paperwork.”
She said a DFL retreat is set for the weekend after Thanksgiving, and then there are two more days of orientation on December 5th and 6th.
The new session will begin on January 3rd.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Elect Krisit-Pursell can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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