As the City of Northfield is working on completing a new Comprehensive Plan, Laura Baker Services Association has invited members of city staff to run a public meeting on the LBSA campus with a focus on people with disabilities.
A comprehensive plan is a document that outlines long-range plans for managing the growth of the community and covers areas like housing, economic development, parks and recreation, and transportation.
J.R. Larson, LBSA’s Director of Business Development, said the organization reached out to the city in order to ensure that people with disabilities are not marginalized or forgotten in the process.
“It’s a large group, a large subsection of our community. A lot of times people don’t realize that, you know, they’re the intersection between all the different subgroups and the minorities. People of color, transgender, everybody is affected by disabilities. So this is a very important group. And sometimes it gets forgotten.”
Attendees will join facilitated small group conversations in order to share their vision for the City of Northfield’s future. The questions that will be posed to the attendees are designed to understand the priorities of community members and to refine guiding principles for the Comprehensive Plan.
The public meeting will run from 4-6pm on Thursday, March 14th, in Millis Hall, 211 Oak Street, behind the main Administration Building on the east side of the campus. Attendees are asked to please park on the street in front of the campus. Food will be provided and participants will receive a gift card for their participation.
For more information about Laura Baker Services, please visit laurabaker.org
Riverside Lions Park up next in Parks Capital Improvement Plan
As the Northfield Park & Recreation Advisory Board works through the checklist on the City of Northfield’s adopted Parks Capital Improvement plan, it has begun to assemble a master plan for Riverside Lions Park.
This is an overall view of a series of projects that will ultimately have several facets and will not be executed all at once. Riverside Lions Park is a heavily used area, with several different stakeholders giving it significant use. In a recent presentation to the City Council, consultant Bruce Jacobson related it to a house with many rooms and said as the plan was developed each of those stakeholders was involved in the overall process. Becca Peterson, the Chair of the Park & Recreation Board said the working group that developed the plan spoke with the Veterans who own and operate Veterans Memorial Park, the Lions Club, the Northfield Garden Club, the Sundowners car club, Age Friendly Northfield, and the residents of Village on the Cannon.
The plan calls for several different projects, including updating and enhancing the playground equipment in the park, updating the restroom facilities, renovating – and possibly rebuilding – the Lions Pavilion, connecting with bike paths being built in the area, including the 8th Street Bikeway and the Mill Towns Trail, and providing better wayfinding signage.
Northfield City Councilor Kathleen Holmes, who serves as the city liaison to the Park Board, said there will be more organic changes made to the park as well.
“That stretch of park right now is pretty open, and I think part of the challenge we have with use is that there’s so much sun just beating down on it. So how can we add some more shade, make it more of a welcoming space, using some of the native landscaping, native trees, to make it feel like we’re not right next to the highway? Make it feel like we’re in nature. And do that responsibly.”
Peterson said each project, once identified and defined, will be executed as funding comes available, and the projects are deemed feasible. She said there are too many facets to the master plan to do everything at once. She also stressed that this is not a complete overhaul of the park, but instead more of a nuanced plan to slowly bring the park up to date.
“I think from the very start, nobody within the work group looked at this at Riverside Lions Park and said we’re going to do a major overhaul. That’s not what this is. It’s looking at what are the needs of the group, and what can be enhanced. We’re asking, how the park is currently being used and how we can make those small tweaks.”
Holmes echoed that strategy, saying a master plan defines the “what and the where” The “how and the when” come after the plan has been adopted.
The Park & Recreation Advisory Board could make their final recommendations to the City Council as soon as next week.
One –woman show will run at Guild Theater
This weekend, the Northfield Arts Guild will present the second of their “Lab” productions for the current season at the Northfield Arts Guild Theater.
Shakespeare’s Will, written by Vern Theissen, is a one-woman show about the woman who was married to William Shakespeare, Anne Hathaway. Directed by Tom Johnson, and starring Susan Dunhaupt, the play tells the story of the unconventional, progressive, and lonely life Hathaway led as Shakespeare’s wife.
Northfield Arts Guild Pauline Jennings said, while not a work of Shakespeare, the play does examine the unique relationship Hathaway shared with her husband.
“So, we have a lab series, and this is for experimental or small productions. This is a one woman show told from the perspective of Anne Hathaway, who was William Shakespeare’s wife. This is fabulous. I got to sit in on one of the rehearsals. Not only is the story told well, but you also learn all these things about Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway and their life together. It was very unusual.”
Shakespeare’s Will will run tomorrow night at 7:30pm, and again on Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are $15, or $12 for seniors and students. For more information, visit the Northfield Arts Guild website at northfieldartsguild.org
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
