The City of Northfield will begin the traffic signal improvements project on Highway 3 this week. The project will include upgrades to traffic lights from Second 
Street in Northfield to Hester Street in Dundas. The project will add emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption, flashing yellow left turn signals, and will replace standard traffic lights with LED lighting.
Emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption will allow emergency first responder vehicles to override a traffic signal allowing the signal to turn green as the vehicle approaches. Adding flashing yellow turn signals will allow drivers the option to turn left on the flashing yellow when it’s safe to do so. The combined effect of these improvements meets the City of Northfield strategic plan to improve service and reduce net carbon emissions through reduced energy consumption.
Drivers can expect disruptions to the traffic signals and additional, temporary traffic controls will be used throughout the duration of the project. A statement issued by the city said crews expect the project to be completed by early August.
The City of Northfield urges motorists to always drive with caution, slow down in work zones, and never enter a road blocked with barriers or cones.
Building permits, current alarms promote safety
The April 15th deck collapse in Northfield that injured half-a-dozen people, one severely, has Fire Chief Tom Nelson, who is also the area Fire Official, and Mike 
Morehouse, Northfield’s Building Official, reminding the community to be thinking about deficiencies that might be found in a home, and how to address those issues right away.
Morehouse said there was no permit issued to build the deck that collapsed. Despite having been on the house for more than 30 years, and having not been flagged by asesores and private inspectors during that time, it was not built to code. The ledger board, which attaches the deck to the house, had been improperly installed without any protection from water. Consequently, the board was rotten and could not hold the weight of the deck and the people standing on it.
He said permits are required for a reason. They might be an extra expense, he said, but there is obvious value in having a third-party inspect the installation, ensuring things are built to code, and are therefore safe.
He said the city only wants to help ensure the safety of all construction and remodeling projects, and there are resources for people who do not know if there is a problem in their home or not.
“If you notice something is amiss on your own deck or structure, if you have a soft spot on the deck or if the handrail is a little loose or something, feel free to contact a contractor that you’re that you know, maybe. Or if you’re concerned, you can always give a call down to the building office and we could stop out and make an advisory inspection and see what we can do to help you.”
Nelson, of course, expressed concern about smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the home. He said alarms should be replaced every ten years, and he is well aware of how they are simply removed, or batteries are taken out after they start beeping when they get older.
Rather than make a bad situation worse, he said, consider taking a look at the alarm and evaluating its effectiveness.
“Not only have the deck codes changed in recent years, so have smoke and CO locations. So be looking around your home and saying, ‘Hey, boy that one’s yellow, it must be about 20 years old,’ or, ‘It was in when we built the house.’ Think about replacing those alarms.”
Those with more questions should visit the building inspections page on the Northfield City website at northfieldmn.gov or contact Chief Tom Nelson through the Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service website at nafrs.org.
Nielsen, NRC, hoping for elder care funding help from state legislature
The Covid-19 pandemic is slowly becoming a memory for most segments of society, but not for everyone. Nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which suffered 
greatly during the pandemic, have still not bounced back like other segments of the economy. A lack of front-line workers has developed due to an inability to pay wages that other businesses can, and the problem is getting worse.
Tom Nielsen, the President and CEO of the Northfield Retirement Community said the problems go back to the beginning of the pandemic, when long term and elder care facilities had to essentially seal themselves off from the rest of the community. They could no longer take in as many people requiring care as before and started to lose employees at a frightening rate. Nielsen, in fact, estimates at one point during the pandemic they lost 80 employees.
As the rest of society has begun to bounce back, the problems with these essential facilities have persisted. Revenue is down because they can’t take more residents in until they have more employees. But they can’t hire more people until revenue comes back up, and that will not happen until they take in more residents. It’s a vicious cycle right now, and Nielsen said it is starting to take a severe toll.
“We’ve been too Minnesota Nice trying to do too much with too little for too long. It’s been three years of pandemic. At some point we just have to say we can’t do it anymore. We can only take so many people and it’s just hard to do. And its people in our own community that are looking for a place to be in the community, and it’s just tough to have to turn those people away.”
The problem is already starting to spill over into other facets of society.
“When we can’t take people in at nursing homes, they get backed up in the hospital. I’ve heard story after story of people being in the hospital 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks because they can’t find placement in a nursing home. We’ve got 22 beds at our facility and we’re only able to fill 15 right now due to staffing. And I know we’re coordinating things with three links in the hospital as well and the hospital is not at full capacity in their nursing home and three links isn’t either. And that’s happening all over the state.”
Backups in hospitals mean less ability to service Emergency Rooms, less space for elective surgeries, and less general capacity to care for the communities they serve.
Nielsen said he and top executives in the healthcare industry, particularly with long term and elder care facilities, are looking to the legislature for help this year. Reimbursement rates have not kept up with inflation, and the time it takes to receive reimbursements can be up to two years right now. He is hoping there is still space in the budget to help an organization like the Northfield Retirement Community this year. He said the help they need is urgent because for nursing homes and long-term care facilities in smaller towns, the situation has already become dire.
“A lot of facilities are tapping into their reserves, into their foundations, into what they’ve had and saved over the past. But there’s a lot of small towns that just don’t have those resources. There are a lot of small nursing homes. I know Kenyon is closed. Pine Island’s been in receivership. I read in the paper last weekend that said there are two more closures of nursing homes. And it’s just because we’re still looking for employees, or the funding that we need to hire employees to take care of our seniors.”
For those looking to help, Nielsen suggested they recommend NRC to those looking for a home as they or their loved ones get older. He also said to remind anyone looking for employment that NRC is hoping to hire 25 new employees in the next six months. Finally, he suggested that everyone call their Representative and Senator in St. Paul to advocate for better health care funding.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
