Lane closures on Highway 3 yesterday near 2nd and 3rd Streets caused more congestion than Northfielders are used to seeing, and there was a similar situation on Monday at the intersection of Highway 3 and Woodley Street. While these slowdowns are an inconvenience, they have become necessary as the city replaces the traffic signals along the highway.
A statement issued by the City of Northfield said residents can expect lane closures and traffic signal disruptions on Highway 3 at Second and Fifth streets through June 16th as the Highway 3 Signal Improvements Project moves into the final stages of construction.
Crews are adding an emergency vehicle traffic signal preemption system, flashing yellow left turn signals, and are replacing the standard light bulbs with with LED lights.
The statement said the project will continue along Highway 3 for several weeks and is expected to be complete by early August.
Arcadia’s 20th year comes to a close
Arcadia Charter School will celebrate the close of its 20th year on Friday night with a graduation ceremony. Arcadia Executive Director Laura Stelter said there will be 19 Graduating Seniors this year from the school known mostly for its approach to project-based learning.
Originally founded in 2001 as the Northfield School of Arts and Technology, or ARTech for short, the school changed its name to Arcadia in 2012 to better reflect the full spectrum of education it offers for students in grades 6-12. As a Charter School, Arcadia is founded on a charter that states students will learn in a project-based curriculum. Stelter said, alongside core classes in what would be considered traditional subjects, students complete at least one project every quarter. In Middle School, those projects are structured around themes with teachers watching over relatively closely as the students develop some independent learning skills. High school students, she said, have more independence and usually select their own projects. The school does not have a list of projects to choose from. Instead, the students are encouraged to find something about which they are curious.
It’s that curiosity, she said, that has led Arcadia to evolve into more of a hybrid education model where students use the education they receive in those core classes to inform the decisions they make about their project.
“The research around how people learn is pretty settled, actually, and there are sort of these pieces that have to be in place. If you don’t have deep factual knowledge of a subject, it’s very difficult to ask interesting questions about it. And it’s really hard to do a really interesting project on something that you can’t ask deep. Interesting questions about.”
The whole point, she said, is to get students to ask questions.
Stelter said there will be a small celebration on the last day of school to celebrate the end of the school’s 20th year, but the bigger celebration will come on August 8th, when the school hosts a reunion for every class. The event will honor all Arcadia students, past and present, as well as beloved theater teacher Bob Gregory-Bjorklund, who says he is retiring at the end of this school year.
Those who have interest in their student attending Arcadia should contact Laura Stelter at the school. She said there is space in the 6th and 8th grade levels, but the opportunities start to dwindle from there. However, as Arcadia is a public school they are always accepting applications, and no student will be turned away, as long as there is space.
For more information on Arcadia Charter School, visit arcadiacharterschool.org
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Laura Stelter of Arcadia Charter School can be heard here
Plenty of content, but NPB still happily accepting community productions
Summer has begun in Northfield, and with it comes a vast array of community events over the next few months. Sam Temple, the station manager of Northfield Public Broadcasting, said his organization will have a presence at nearly every one to help the members of the community see and remember what is going on around them.
Over the past month, Temple said, NPB has posted videos highlighting an open forum with the Staff from the Mexican Consulate in St. Paul, and a very entertaining conversation with St. Olaf alum Traci Lambrecht, who under the name P.J. Tracy has written more than a dozen very popular and successful mystery novel. Both events were filmed at the Northfield Public Library.
As May was National Preservation Month, Temple and his crew produced and posted a pair of videos centered on the restoration and preservation of the Lyceum and John Sitze buildings. Temple spoke with Kody Larson, the owner of Little Joy Coffee, who recently purchased the Sitze building and Aaron and Kelly Street, the owners of the Lyceum building, to get a sense of what the buildings mean to them and to Northfield.
“It’s fun to get the human side of the of these projects. So, speaking to the owners, interviewing them, asking what they are proudest of and what do you get the most joy out of. What’s the most daunting next piece? So those were a lot of fun to get. Those historic buildings, I think, are where you can really understand Northfield’s past coming with modern uses. So, it’s always, it’s always a very interesting discussion.”
Temple expects to be very busy this summer and into the fall. This being the first full year after the Covid-19 pandemic, there are more events happening in the area this summer than any one person can keep track of. He said he is relying on the Northfield Community Calendar, which is published on the Northfield City website, to help keep everything straight.
“The community events calendar is where anyone can submit events, and anyone can find events. You can filter them through family friendly events, adults only events, or a lot of other different layers. If want something more artsy, or if you want sports. There are all these different types of events you can filter down. It’s really a useful tool, so I encourage everyone to check that.”
And while he expects to have quite a bit of content for the NPB site this summer, he is still encouraging all community members who would be interested to send their own videos to be posted to NPB. For example, he said the various graduations that are happening this weekend at Arcadia, Carleton College and Northfield High School could be great sources of material. Each graduating entity, he said, has its own publicity arm so NPB will not broadcast the ceremonies live, but private footage of ceremonies and celebrations can be used to create something that would be interesting and entertaining, and he hopes to receive something like that.
Northfield Public Broadcasting is a service of the City of Northfield. It can be found on YouTube, Spectrum Channels 180 and 187 and on its own streaming site at npb.ci.mn.us/CablecastPublicSite/
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
