As the city moves along in the budgeting process for 2024, the City Council and City Staff are, for the first time, looking at long range forecasting as a part of the process. This is something City Administrator Ben Martig and Finance Director Brenda Angelstad have wanted for some time and is now possible after the city made a significant upgrade in its operating software.
Currently, the 2024 budget sits at $41.7 million, with a tax levy at $15.6 million, increased by $1.6 million, or 11.5%, over 2023. Discussions at recent City Council meetings indicate the budget and levy could be trimmed by $350,000, equating to a 9% levy increase when the final budget is approved in December.
Looming over the conversation is the potential levy increase for 2025. As things stand currently, the city plans to add the construction of a new ice arena and the costs of the Bridge Square redevelopment into the 2025 budget, resulting in a needed increase to the tax levy of nearly 20%. When presented with these numbers at different council meetings over the course of several months, there has not been a single member of the council that has reacted positively to an increase that large.
Last week during the final regular meeting in October, Martig presented the council with some options to consider that would already begin to reduce the 2025 tax levy.
One, he said, could be a natural occurrence. A routine archeological survey in preparation of the Bridge Square project may have discovered a section of the foundation that supported the first mill built by John North on the East side of the Cannon River. The historical significance of the discovery is still under review, but it could potentially create another delay of the long-planned Bridge Square redevelopment. Such a delay would at least reduce, if not eliminate, the line item from the 2025 budget.
For now, the Bridge Square project is expected to remain in the Capital Improvements Plan for 2024. The Council is also looking at options for the Ice Arena project, which we will detail in Tuesday’s news report.
Library Trivia Bee contributes to Friends and Foundation mission
The Friends and Foundation of the Northfield Public Library will present their annual Trivia Bee to raise funds for the library on Friday night at 7pm. Teams of up to four people will compete in multiple quiz rounds proctored by Northfield’s legendary Quiz Mistress, Jessica Peterson White. Bill North, the Vice-Chair of the Friends board said the money raised at the event will support the various initiatives and programs the library offers.
The Friends of the Northfield Public Library was formed in 1982 to support the library’s first expansion and offer ongoing support for both capital projects and programming. In 2011, the Friends began to look for ways to make their support more sustainable and began to think in terms of setting up a foundation. North said the process was a thoughtful and deliberate one, but eventually, they decided that Northfield Shares would be a good community partner to help with their mission.
“That took a good bit of research and planning, and then a variety of events happened like Covid, that influenced our plans in terms of when we actually established the foundation with Northfield Shares, but we do now have an endowment them and we’re very excited about that.”
The Friends have been active in helping the library acquire all three of the bookmobiles it has used throughout the years, as well as the Book Bike. They have assisted in the summer concert series, the summer reading program, and the most recent library expansion. North said the Library Oasis, which will open at the Northfield Community Resource Center very soon is the organization’s most recent project and accomplishment
The event will be held at the Grand Event Center. Teams of up to four people can register at $100 per team through Thursday evening. Teams may also register at the door prior to the event tomorrow night for $120. For more information, and to register, visit northfieldlibraryfriends.org
Historical Happy Hours help to build community through shared history
On Monday night, Jon Olson, the host of National Security this Week on KYMN Radio, who is a retired Naval Intelligence officer and an adjunct professor at Carleton College was hosted by the Northfield Historical Society for an informal question & answer session about the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The event was a special edition of the Historical Happy Hours program that the Historical Society has revived.
The events, which are regularly scheduled for the first Mondays of the month, are an opportunity for people to gather in the NHS Museum Archives, enjoy an adult beverage, and discuss topics that are of course historical, but can be related to the issues of today. Historical Society Community Outreach Coordinator Mark Thornton said the Historical Society should be a place where the community can come together with our collective past and use that to further build the community.
Executive Director Sean Allen said, with all of the resources that Northfield has to offer, it just makes sense to host something like this on a regular basis.
“This idea of history happy Hour came out of the last year or so when we’ve just been thinking about the resources that exist in this community. We live in a town with two colleges, Carleton and St Olaf, which means there are a lot of really smart people here, and people that have a lot of background in a variety of different subjects. And so that’s what we’re tapping into.”
Each event will feature a guest speaker presenting a topic that has historical significance from across the globe. On Monday, November 6th, St. Olaf Professor Steve Hahn, who specializes in Colonial American, Native American, and Atlantic world history, will give a presentation on the history of piracy. In December, Northfield High School Alumnus Ian Iverson, who recently received his PhD from the University of Virginia after studying history at Princeton, will talk about the formation of the Republican party in the 1850’s.
The Historical happy Hours are free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Northfield Historical Society website at northfieldhistory.org.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
