On Tuesday night, the Northfield City Council heard an update from consultants Bob Close and Bruce Jacobson regarding the city’s Riverfront Development plan, 
which is an ambitious undertaking involving new development downtown, adding amenities to some parks while re-developing others, encouraging private development along the riverfront to consider aesthetics and amenities on the riverside, and even looking at what can be done to make Highway 3 less of a barrier and dividing line through the city.
Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig said a question that comes up over and over again in conversations about the plan is how the city expects to pay for everything in the project. His point is, essentially, those who are worried about the price tag on the project are thinking about it in the wrong terms.
Quite often, he said, simply having a plan in place can lead to outside options to pay for aspects of the project. For example, he said, the City of Northfield and the Friends of Downtown Northfield recently received a grant of just over $1 million dollars from the state that was procured by the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation to help downtown business owners clean up, restore, and remodel the front facing and riverside facing facades of their buildings. That grant would not have come through, he said, had the city not had the Riverside Development Plan in place. The act of defining what the city wants, he said, can open some opportunities, and help to recognize others.
“Every project, I would say, whenever there are public dollars involved, will have to stand on its own merits. But if we want to know where we want to go, [having a plan] opens opportunities that sometimes are actually pretty cost effective. If you have no plan, it makes every little opportunity harder to do because we don’t have a strategy.”
There may well be some tax implications for certain phases of the project, he said, but the city will continue to look for grants and the ability to leverage private projects to include public improvements wherever it can.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Mental Health Crisis Team now embedded in Rice County
The South Central Community Based Initiative, the organization that operates a mental health crisis team serving Rice County, has expanded its physical footprint 
to better serve those in crisis in the local area.
The SCCBI crisis team has served Rice County, though it is based in Mankato, for several years. While the services have been very helpful over the years, having a crisis team based more than an hour away is not ideal.
That distance and area residents’ need for a quick, in-person response at all times of the day and week led Rice County Adult Services Manager Megan Thomas to convince SCCBI to open a satellite office in Faribault.
SCCBI operates in a 10-county area, with Rice County on the easternmost edge. The wait for a mobile crisis unit has been lengthy, especially when time is of the essence.
South Central Community Based Initiative applied for and received a $1 million federal grant to expand its mobile services last year and embedded a team in Rice County on April 1st.
The mobile crisis teams, operated by mental health services provider Horizon Homes, can also ensure individuals receive post-crisis services, help with additional resources including follow ups, check ins and referrals, and work collaboratively with Rice County’s Behavioral Health Unit, a team of social workers embedded with local law enforcement.
Services are offered in English, and a translation service is available as well.
As with all mental health professionals, confidentiality is guaranteed. If an individual has insurance, Horizon Homes will collect that information and bill. If a person does not, Horizon Homes will find other resources to provide the necessary care.
If you or someone you know needs support for a mental health or emotional crisis, call 877-399-3040, call or text the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 988. Visit the South Central Mobile Crisis Team website for more information.
Poling, Hatcher put creative spin on the tale of Jesse james
The History Theatre in St. Paul is currently featuring a brand-new musical called The Defeat of Jesse James. The musical, a creative take on a tale well known to 
Poling himself is well known to many Minnesota music fans as a founder of the legendary Twin Cities band The Suburbs, and one-third of the offbeat jazz trio, The New Standards.
Hatcher and Poling have worked together for many years on projects commissioned by the History Theatre, including the immensely popular musical Glensheen, based on the murder of heiress Elizabeth Congdon at her famous home in Duluth at the hands of her daughter and son-in-law, Marjorie and Roger Caldwell.
The Defeat of Jesse James, which Poling described as a rock/pop musical, is an imagined farewell concert given by James before he heads off to Northfield. Poling said he and Hatcher approached the project not wanting to simply tell a straight history story, and instead wanted to present it in an original and entertaining way. Hatcher had the idea of framing the story in a concert setting, and Poling said James’ persona fit that mold very well.
“I mean the concept is very simple. Jesse James was, in his time, a celebrity. And he was manipulated by the media to be this southern kind of hero outlaw. He was like Elvis and John Newman Edwards, the journalist, was kind of like his Colonel Tom Parker.”
The show, which opened at the end of April, has received very good reviews, both for the performance of the cast, including Adam Qualls who plays James, and for the creativity Hatcher and Poling have presented. One number that has received quite a bit of attention plays off of the photographs taken of Clell Miller and Bill Chadwell after they had been killed. Poling said he initially thought playing off of the 19th Century propensity for putting dead bodies on display would be an entertaining idea, but then had second thoughts.
“I thought, well, that’s gotta be a song. And then we were working on it, and the cadavers were up there singing, and I went, ‘Oh, my God. I can’t. We have to cut this. This is too weird. But Jeff [Hatcher] said, ‘Why don’t we leave it in and see what the audience says.’ Because there were a couple of previews before we officially opened. And they went crazy for the song. They just… a guy stood up and gave it a standing ovation.”
Poling said he and Hatcher did not know much about the story of the James Younger gang in Northfield and came to Northfield to do their research. After working on the show for four years, he is quite happy and proud of the final product and promised that all who attend will be well entertained by what he and Hatcher have created.
The Defeat of Jesse James will run at the History Theatre in St. Paul through the end of the month. For more information, visit historytheatre.com.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Chan Poling can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
