The holiday weekend is here, and the vast majority of people in Northfield and Rice County will be celebrating over the next few days. Many will travel to see family and friends, and the last thing anyone wants is for this time to be ruined by an accident, or worse yet, irresponsible behavior.
Northfield Chief of Police Mark Elliott said this is a time of year when people have to be on guard and a little more vigilant for a lot of things, mentioning holiday scams that can come in the form of a fake charity, missed delivery notifications, or gift cards that have been tampered with.
He also said it is important to celebrate responsibly, and those who plan to have adult beverages need to have a plan for the night about how they will get home or where they are going to stay for the evening. Law enforcement has extra patrols out right now and they will continue to have extra patrols out through New Year’s Day, specifically looking for inebriated drivers, but there are plenty of other things police are paying attention to as well in the name of public safety.
“I can tell you, my officers say there’s a whole lot of people that are on their phones. I think we all see it traveling around; folks with that phone in their hand. Minnesota is a Hands-Free Law state, so you can’t have it in your hand no matter what your purpose is. We want folks to just put down the phone and pay attention to your driving. It can wait, as they say in the ads. Just travel safe.”
Another cause for concern this time of year is the sheer amount of traffic that will be on the roads. The American Auto Association is predicting 115.2 million travelers will head 50 miles or more from home across the country, which is a 2.2% increase over last year and the second highest year-end travel forecast since 2000, when AAA began tracking holiday travel. Chief Elliott said it is important to factor heavier traffic and longer travel times into any driving plans for the holiday, whether a person is doing some last-minute shopping, going to church, or driving to be with family. Safety has to remain a top priority.
“Your relatives, your pastor at church, they’ll all be okay if you’re a couple of minutes late. We want folks to plan ahead, leave early, and drive safely. Obey the speed limits. We know speed kills and people can be distracted with their other thoughts around the holidays. We really want them to concentrate on driving so everybody can get there safely and have a great holiday.”
The Chief, on behalf of the Northfield Police Department, wished everyone in the community a happy and safe holiday season.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield Chief of Police Mark Elliott can be heard here
City is looking for extremely inclusive Comprehensive Planning process, working for high participation
As the City of Northfield begins work on the next Comprehensive Plan, both Northfield Community Development Director Jake Reilly and Housing Coordinator Melissa Hanson said housing will be included as an integral component.
A Comprehensive Plan has been defined as the guidebook for forming a city’s future, giving an overarching vision for growth and development. The plans generally look twenty years ahead and are revised every ten years or so.
Housing has been a major issue in Northfield for many years, as it has been across the country, and the city is taking advantage of the comprehensive planning process to assess the situation and identify the best ways to resolve housing issues.
Hanson said the city has asked Maxfield Research to update a housing study done in Rice County in 2018, but putting the focus solely on Northfield, and asking how members of the community see their needs for housing evolving over the next twenty years. The study must show how many new housing units will need to be built in the next five, ten and twenty years, what types of housing will be needed, and what the market might support. But it also needs to go into much more detail. For example, she said, one of the issues she hopes the updated study will identify is which landlords do not accept housing subsidies, and what is the best way to incentivize them to do so.
“We’re trying to get to the nitty gritty and then find out from that analysis what tools can we use to incentivize landlords. And I’m not talking about with a stick. This is a community. Everybody should willingly participate in these types of programs. I don’t want to be punitive. Nobody wants that.”
The updated housing study will provide the city with the type of data necessary to not simply plan for future housing, but to be efficient and precise in finding the proper solutions. Reilly said the study’s results will be a foundation for the work done by the city over the next ten-to-twenty years.
“We’re looking at things like market analysis, forecasts associated with demand, and absorption. What does the rental landscape now, and what could the rental landscape look like in the future? That work will help us understand what the housing needs are for folks who are here in Northfield right now and what they think they will be in the future as well. Then we can wrap that up in a in a policy direction that the HRA and the Council and the Planning Commission can work together to prioritize.”
Northfield Mayor Rhonda Pownell said the information used to create the Comprehensive Plan will only be as good as the overall community participation it receives. She urged all members of the community who have not done so to take the Comprehensive Plan Survey, which can be found by clicking here.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
