Wednesday morning, workers and equipment from the Cannon Valley Tree Service began working on the log jam and had cleaned the debris from the river by midday. Images of several fallen trees and tree limbs that had been removed from the river began to populate local social media pages, accompanied by expressions of relief and praise to the workers.
The massive log jam that had collected on the Cannon River at the Ames Mill Dam was cleared on Wednesday, eliminating a situation that the city had called unsafe and about which many community residents had complained for weeks.
After the city issued a safety warning last week and made a statement saying there was no timetable for the cleanup, the appearance of the tree service crew was a surprise, and welcome, event.
The log jam had been building in the river since May. Many residents had questioned who was responsible for the cleanup. The City of Northfield coordinated with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Post Consumer Brands, who owns and operates the dam, about removing the debris.
A study is currently underway looking at the usefulness of the Ames Mill Dam, and how removing it could affect the river and other aspects of the community.
Council authorizes police pay raise, looks to mitigate retirement problems next year
Prior to their regular meeting on Tuesday night, the Northfield City Council met in closed session to discuss a proposed increase to the pay of Northfield Police Officers.
Northfield Chief of Police Mark Elliott gave a presentation to the council in May discussing the national law enforcement hiring crisis, and at that time, he told the council that Northfield was feeling the same problems as law enforcement agencies across the country. Over the last few years, for several reasons, the interest in law enforcement careers has been in decline. As an example, Elliott said during one hiring process in 2019, the Northfield Police Department had 55 candidates for one open position. During the most recent hiring process in 2023 they had ten applicants, which, as Elliott pointed out, is an 80% drop.
Some of this, Elliott said, was expected. In 2019 studies showed that younger people entering the workforce were not as motivated by making money as previous generations were and put more value on work/life balance. Time off and having the ability to work from home has become more important to younger workers. Elliott said those values can work in opposition to law enforcement which does not afford the ability to work from home and has often used a model where overtime compensation and working more than 40 hours in a week has been a cornerstone. With a slew of retirements in the Northfield Police Department in 2024, including several people in key leadership roles, recruitment and retention within the NPD has become an acute problem.
The Minnesota State Legislature authorized a one-time payment to law enforcement agencies across the state to help with recruitment and retention this year, and City Administrator Ben Martig said Northfield will receive about $900,000 from that program. He said the city is hopeful to use some of that money to slow down, and possibly delay some of those retirements.
“We might be looking at other things to help delay and extend some of these officers. We haven’t had any individual discussions, but with these dollars maybe there are incentives and ways to extend some of the people coming off, to provide more time to recruit officers. Either way we’ll be prepared, and we’ll be looking at starting the recruiting process.”
The City of Northfield uses an 11-Step pay scale for all of its workers, police included. An increase of three steps, which was authorized by the council last night, to most Northfield Police Officers will equate to about a 6% raise, according to Martig. He also said the officers will benefit from moving three steps forward on the pay scale as well.
Money for new school nurse will come from a specific section of Education Bill
On Monday night, the Northfield School Board authorized the creation of a new full-time nurse’s position at the Northfield Community Education Center.
Northfield Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Matt Hillmann said the school district is preparing to take advantage of several different elements of the K-12 Education bill passed by the legislature, including the section specifying Categorical Aid. He said the section that allows for new hires in Student Support Personnel will be used to hire the new nurse.
The district has put great support behind the hiring of school counselors and a school psychologist over the years, including three new school counselors who were added to the permanent budget after the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Hillmann said, the nursing staff throughout the district has been put under quite a bit of stress.
The NCEC is home to the district’s licensed childcare program, the preschool program and the summer school program, and Hillmann said the District Nurse has been serving there in what he characterized as “double duty.” Hiring a full-time nurse for the NCEC will free up the district nurse to concentrate on other areas of the medical services, which, he said, has become increasingly important as the medical situations for many students become more complex.
“There is a diverse range of complicated health issues that we serve in many students, and it’s more than just the things like you’re not feeling well, or you fell down on the playground. It’s so much more than that. We have several students who have health plans for things like diabetes or asthma. We have a number of students who have severe health disabilities, who need regular support to be able to just have certain medications. So, the school nurses are far more than Band Aids and upset stomachs.”
With money earmarked specifically for a new hire such as this, Hillmann said it just makes sense to add a full-time nurse to the staff immediately, even if the position will not be fully funded for two years. He said he is also hopeful that the new earmarked money will help the district to hire health aides who work to assist the school nurses as well.
Hillmann said the posting should be up on the Northfield School District website very soon. Those interested in the position with an RN degree should contact the district human resources department for more information.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
