As the Northfield City Council prepares for upcoming 2025 budgeting discussions, Public Works Director and City Engineer David Bennett gave an update during the Council’s work session last week on the city’s Capital Improvement and Capital Equipment plans.
Bennett touched briefly on most of the planned street improvement projects, which are mostly decided and scheduled, and the planned Drinking Water Treatment Plant for which the city continues to seek federal funding. His focus however was on two projects upon which decisions will be required soon.
The first is the Bridge Square renovation. The project has been discussed on and off for ten years now. In 2023, it appeared that the city was ready to begin construction on a plan that would transform the park in the center of Downtown Northfield into a wider green space with more amenities and a larger riverfront coverage.
However, the project was once again delayed for several reasons, including what was thought might have been a significant archeological discovery, and a disagreement with the historic Preservation Commission over jurisdiction and decision-making powers.
The latest delay could push the project back another two years. The city was seeking a little more than $8.2 million from the state in bonding funds to cover 50% of project costs. However, the state legislature failed to agree on a bonding bill this year, and with construction planned to begin in 2025, City Administrator Ben Martig said the Council is considering waiting for the State to try again.
“Taking a look at our projects, we’ve had some larger street projects and capital projects that have driven up our tax levy, and as we project out over the next years with the debt that’s planned, we’re expecting that there could be an average of about 9% tax increases over the next five years. Bridge Square is one project where we talked about going back to seek state funding again.”
Another long-discussed project that Bennett brought up is the Northfield Community Resource Building that houses many local organizations, including Community Action Center, Healthy Community Initiative and FiftyNorth. As an aging building, there are updates required to the infrastructure, including the HVAC system, the floors and some plumbing concerns. Martig said that kind of maintenance is expensive, but the city has a responsibility to keep all of its facilities in decent shape.
“I would say these are chunks of significant cost, but when you look at the overall city, they’re manageable. You need to do it. To take care of this building and keep it going, we’re going to need to make some of these investments. They aren’t huge pieces, but obviously you don’t want to wait to the point of the failure of the HVAC system. A lot of times too, it can be more expensive if you do it in an emergency versus having planned for it.”
As the meeting on Tuesday night was a work session, no decisions were made on how to move forward with the projects, but Martig said the Council did have good discussions on both matters, and there will be more to come in July.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield City Administrator can be heard here
Cancer care accreditation to NH+C is significant
Northfield Hospital + Clinics enjoys a strong reputation as a top health care system, but NH+C President and CEO Steve Underdahl said that is not keeping the organization from working to improve on the care and service it provides to the community.
Two years ago, the organization acquired and re-opened the Urgent Care Clinic located off of Highway 3 on the South Side of Northfield. Underdahl said finding better and better ways to improve the experience for customers and patients has been a work-in-progress. Recently, the clinic expanded its hours of operation in an effort to make the clinic more convenient, and he said they have just added an online waiting time tracker on the NH+C website to give people what he called a “reasonably good estimate of the waiting time” in the clinic’s lobby. He said the response to the changes has been quite positive.
“I think we’re seeing more and more people that have something going on and really prefer to be seen that day. We’ve expanded our hours and the days of the week that we cover and we’re trying to get people some tools for self-guiding their experience a little bit. I think both of those things have been really helpful.”
Some of the more long-term changes at Northfield Hospital have received attention as well. Just in the last few weeks, he said, the Hospital’s Birth Center was honored by the Minnesota Hospital Association with the Perinatal Improvement Award, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has recognized the Birth Center on their website as a top-quality facility.
The Cancer Care Department has also been honored with an accreditation by the Commission on Cancer. Despite the non-descript name, Underdahl said the work they have done in collaboration with Mayo Oncology has been recognized by a highly respected group.
“Our Cancer Center was accredited by the Commission on Cancer, which I wish they had a different title or badge because it sounds underwhelming and it’s actually a really big deal. It’s this multi-year, very clinically and academically rigorous process that has lots of science and lots of medicine and lots of process analysis that has to take place even to be considered for this.”
According to the NH+C website, the formal recognition is for the excellent cancer care provided by the Cancer Care & Infusion Center and Breast Care Center surgeons, the imaging staff and many other supporting departments, along with their Mayo Clinic partners in oncology and radiation oncology.
Underdahl said because the Commission on Cancer is led by the American College of Surgeons, he and the organization are especially proud to be recognized.
For more information, visit the NH+C website at northfieldhospital.org.
Juneteenth celebration will be catered by Mama Sheila’s House of Soul
The Northfield School District is inviting the public to a free, community-wide Juneteenth celebration on Wednesday at Northfield High School.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture has called Juneteenth “America’s Second Independence Day,” as it commemorates the day slavery ended in the United States. While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued 1863, it took some two-and-a-half years for slaves in Texas to receive the news and be freed on June 19th, 1865.
The first 100 people to arrive at the event will be invited to enjoy a meal catered by Mama Sheila’s House of Soul of Minneapolis. Dr. Yolanda Williams, a professor of African American literature, art, and history at the University of Minnesota will give a lecture at the event.
The meal will be served at 5 pm in the High School’s lower cafeteria. Dr. Williams’ presentation and lecture will begin at 6pm in the auditorium. This is a free event, and no registration is needed.
KYMN Daily News 6-17-24
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
