Northfield High School Activities Director John Mahal announced yesterday that Rochester Century High School has chosen to forfeit the football game scheduled against the Northfield Raiders for this Friday, due to the death of a member of the Century football team.
On Saturday, 16-year-old Davin Tukua of Rochester was killed when his vehicle collided head on with an oncoming vehicle and both were then struck by a third vehicle.
In his letter to Northfield School District Families, Mahal said Tukua’s death has “greatly impacted not only the football team but the entire Rochester Century community.”
Mahal wrote that the Northfield football program “empathizes with the Rochester Century community and understands and supports this difficult decision.”
He expressed his condolences along with those of the Northfield School District and asked all in the Northfield Community to keep the Century community in their hearts.
City Council, Staff looking for ways to avoid double-digit levy increase
On Tuesday night during the City Council work session, Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig gave a presentation highlighting some options for the 2024 budget that could reduce the preliminary tax levy increase by $350,000.
Last month, the City Council set the preliminary budget for 2024 with a $15.6 million dollar increase to the levy. While the overall tax rate increase is about 2%, the levy increase comes to 11.5%.
Martig said the reductions would involve eliminating one of two intersection studies on Highway 3, carrying over some of the unused money in the budget this year for funding the Comprehensive Planning process next year, doing some of the pre-planning for the Strategic Plan in 2025 in-house rather than outsourcing it, along with other cuts here and there.
At 11.5% the levy increase would be the third double digit increase in four years. Martig said the increases are the results of poor planning by earlier city administrations and the reality of harder economic times. Inflation, wage adjustments, increasing infrastructure costs, he said, are forcing cities of the same size across the state to increase their levies as well, and Northfield is actually close to the bottom of those comparisons.
“It might surprise people, I know I say this regularly, but when we look at our peer group, Northfield is at the low end of the total city taxes that are spent for city government in comparison to other cities. And actually, even with the preliminary levy we set, we dropped down further in comparison to the other cities. Why? Because other cities are facing the same issues we are.”
Trimming 2.5% from the increase will help to tighten the belt, but Martig cautioned against doing too much. Having just returned from the National City Administrators Conference in Austin, Texas, he said there were warnings during meetings he attended from experienced people about not tending to the necessary requirements of running a city, which is a problem he recognized.
“We definitely heard cautionary tales from some of the speakers about how kicking the can down the road can come back to bite you. And I think a little bit of that has happened here. If you look back a decade or so ago – and it’s always easier to look back in the rearview mirror – I think there were a lot of years where there were 0% increases [to the tax levy]. It really sets you back and you pay for it later.”
Specifically, he pointed to the Parks Improvement Plan. The park system, he said, has been neglected over the years to the point where it is only funded at about 10% of where it should be. He also mentioned necessary upgrades included in the Capital Improvement and Capital Equipment Plans as necessities. Deferring something like a road construction project can cost the city even more money in the long run, he said, especially with infrastructure costs regularly increasing every year by double digits.
This was new information given to the Council, so there was not much feedback on his presentation. Martig said his presentation has been made public and emailed to each Councilor. They will discuss things further at their next regular meeting on Tuesday.
Rich Larson’s full conversation with Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
District will work with Morris Leatherman on high school facility poll
During the Northfield School Board meeting on Monday night, Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann made a presentation to the board suggesting the school district once again work with the firm of Morris Leatherman to conduct a poll of district voters asking what they believe should be done about the Northfield High School facility.
The issue has dogged the school district for several years. Part of the building is more than 60 years old, and there are mechanical and physical aspects of the facility that need to be replaced. Moreover, Hillmann said, the high school would not be considered a modern learning facility, and the district must decide if the existing facility is adequate for the students of Northfield.
The poll would be conducted with the intention of learning what – if anything – should be included on a funding referendum that would be placed on the November 2024 ballot. The data collected would tell them what the voters of the district are willing to support and what the financial tolerance is to remodel or even replace the high school. Hillmann said having that information is very important, and Morris Leatherman is highly regarded for the accuracy of the polls they conduct.
“The sample would be demographically representative of the voters of Northfield, and a survey conducted in this way has a margin of error rate of 4.8%, and that’s very good data. Morris Leatherman has a strong track record of successfully modeling their voter surveys, and they are good predictors of election outcomes.”
The district worked with Morris Leatherman last year in partnership with the City of Northfield on a survey regarding the Northfield ice Arena, as well as other school facility related questions. Hillmann said some of those same questions would be a part of this survey as well.
The poll would consist of 35 questions put to 400 respondents and would be conducted over the telephone. Dr. Hillmann acknowledged skepticism that 400 people would even answer their phones, but he said the firm uses a model that works, and when people learn the poll is about a local issue, they become much more receptive to having the conversation.
“If they’re doing more of a national public opinion poll, people will not take the time to talk with them. They love doing local polls like this because people do want to talk about what’s happening in their local community and they said people will really engage and give them the time that they need to try to understand their perspective.”
Hillmann said the cost of the poll would be $23,500. The board will be asked to approve it at their next meeting on October 23rd.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
