The City of Northfield announced yesterday that Dresden Avenue between Spring Street and Headley Street will be closed on Tuesday beginning at 7am and will remain shut down until Friday afternoon at approximately 4pm in order to repair a sewer line.
The Northfield Public Works Department will suggest a detour that will be posted using Spring Street, Greenvale Avenue, Highway 3, and Fremouw Avenue sending traffic around the closure area.
The City of Northfield urges motorists to always drive with caution, slow down in work zones, and never enter a road blocked with barriers or cones. For more information on the closure, visit the Northfield city website at northfieldmn.gov.
School district looking to engage the community about high school
Among the topics discussed at the Northfield School Board this week was the condition of the Northfield high school building and communicating to the community the exact state of things. The debate over what, if anything, to put on a ballot referendum next year would be a moot point if the voters of the district are unaware of the problems.
Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann said few of the problems are cosmetic, and they aren’t something general passersby would be able to identify. However, anyone who spends time in the school would be able to identify the issues immediately. Temperature control, insulation, and energy efficiency are major problems with the building. Some of the brick walls are not insulated. Many of the windows are single-paned and uninsulated. The HVAC system is on its last legs. Not only do these issues make the learning environment uncomfortable for the students, but they are also costing more money in energy bills to try to combat the situation.
There are accessibility issues, he said, pointing out that a student in a wheelchair cannot access the school’s weight room without going outside and using a different entrance than the one the students usually use.
Hillmann said the things that need to happen with the high school are the things that have to eventually be addressed with every building.
“Think about the work that you might do on your house. There are things that you can do on your own. You can save for some projects. But then there are times when you have to take out a loan if the need is more substantial. That’s the position that we’re really in. We’re not talking about wanting to add something that is extra. At the core of it, really, we’re talking about a lot of basic infrastructure pieces, which are the major drivers, and then some other things that we just know are good for kids.”
Among the things they would like to change to improve the learning environment is more natural light for classrooms, and updates to the metal and wood shop areas. Some of the science labs have not been updated since the original building opened in 1966, which is another problem the district would like to address.
Hillmann said the district has no intention of asking for opulence and luxury. The high school simply needs to be functional.
“And that’s not even the things that are behind the wall. People don’t see the rigging, they don’t see the other things. Our HVAC systems are in really desperate need of significant update. We’ve done all the preventive maintenance that we can do, we just aren’t able to do the kind of updates to those systems and there’s some complications in updating those systems in place. It’s just time to do some of those updates.”
The school district is hosting a series of opportunities to tour the school in order for people to see, feel, and understand the problems. The school board is holding a series of special work sessions to discuss the issues further. The next of those meetings will be on Monday at 5:30 in the High School Media Center.
A full listing of dates for the tours and when the special work sessions will be held can be found on the Northfield Public School District website at northfieldschools.org.
Ornament hunt coordinators inspired by DJJD Horseshoe Hunt
Northfield’s annual kickoff to the holiday season, Winter Walk, is next Thursday, and with the big night of gathering downtown comes the annual Winter Walk Ornament Hunt. This year the person who finds the ornament will win $1000 in Northfield Chamber of Commerce Chamber Bucks.
This year, the hunt will be administered by Melissa and Paul Bernhard. This is the second year the Bernhards have run the contest. In the past the hunt has been under the watch of Tim Freeland, who also runs the Defeat of Jesse James Days Horseshoe Hunt. The Bernhards were in charge of the contest two years ago, and this year, Freeland decided that he would like to be one of the people looking for the ornament, so he asked them to step in again.
Melissa said she and her husband Paul have been avid fans of the DJJD Horseshoe hunt, and that inspired them to give running the contest a try.
“We just fell in love, really with doing the Defeat of Jesse James Days horseshoe hunt ourselves. We really learned a lot about the city of Northfield because of the way that Tim writes his clues. So, because we have always enjoyed this we thought, ‘Well, let’s jump in on writing our own and do the winter one.’”
The contest, which, like Winter Walk itself, is a Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce event, will begin on Monday. Every morning Jeff Johnson will reveal a new clue by reading it on the air at 8am during the KYMN Morning Show. The clue will also be found on the KYMN website and Facebook page, the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce Website and Facebook page, the Northfield News website and various social media platforms, and on the Northfield happenings Facebook page.
As is the case every year, there will be a theme for the contest, and this year, Melissa said, that theme required a change be made to the ornament itself. Traditionally, it has been in the shape of a snowflake, but this year it will be something different.
“Well, we can tell you it’s not a snowflake. This year folks will be hunting for a Jingle Bell ornament. The clues have been written to the tune of Silver Bells, and that’s why we chose the jingle bell for the ornament.”
Paul said he is the person in charge of determining the overall theme and hiding the ornament, while Melissa is in charge of writing the clues. She said living up to the standards set by Freeland can be daunting, but she said once the theme was set, and she had Silver Bells to which she could write the clues, things became easier.
The Winter Walk Ornament Hunt will begin at 8:00 on Monday morning. For more information, visit the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce website at northfieldchamber.com.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Melissa and Paul Bernhard and Jane Bartho can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
