When the Northfield City Council approved the funding partnership for the Northfield ice arena on Tuesday night, the vote did more than merely solidify a consortium that has agreed to work together on a municipal project. While it is not explicitly laid out in the resolution, the acceptance of the agreement puts the building of a new ice arena in motion.
Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig said the Council vote is the green light to get the project started.
“This is moving in that direction, and I would say staff will be moving full steam ahead to bring this project to construction, based on the Council’s action. There are a lot of details within that approval, like the mayor said the architect agreement, the resolution adopted also creates and formalizes the financial framework of what’s been approved.”
Among the stipulations in the resolution, city staff is instructed to formalize the partnership with the City of Dundas, the Northfield School District and the Northfield Hockey Association. Staff will now begin to finalize the sale of the old building to a private group that intends to renovate it and create a recreation facility. Among the stipulations of the sale is a price of $1.225 million and a two-year lease back to the city so the various programs who use the arena can operate until the new building is ready.
The Economic Development Authority will get involved working on conduit financing for the project. A lease agreement will be worked out with both the City of Dundas and the Northfield School District. And they will work with the Northfield Hockey Association to acquire the seven acres of land that were donated for the express purpose of building a new arena.
The resolution also accepted the contract with the JLG architecture firm, which specializes in arena design. Martig said they have already moved through the conceptual design of the arena, so now the architects will begin to put the full design of the building together.
While he said the city is not going to fast track the project, the hope is to send it out for bid in the early part of 2025, and to break ground in the spring or summer of next year.
Lighten Up Garage Sale has permanently moved to Laird Stadium
The Carleton College Lighten Up Garage Sale starts today and will run through Saturday. The event, which has gained quite a bit of notoriety over the years, features collected belongings that Carleton students could not take home with them for various reasons on sale at bargain prices for anyone to come and buy.
Erica Zweifel, the Assistant Director for Community Impact with Carleton’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement, is the person in charge of the massive sale. She said in the last few weeks before school ends, pods are set up on the Carleton campus and students are encouraged to bring anything they have in their dorm rooms that they cannot or do not intend to take with them when they leave and deposit the items in the pods. Zweifel said the system has helped them dramatically speed up the collection process and saves her volunteers from having to scour dorm rooms.
The volunteers come from the organizations that benefit from the event, as the Lighten up Garage Sale is a fundraiser for The Northfield Union of Youth, Special Olympics, Project Friendship, Growing Up Healthy, and Community Action Center. Zweifel said the organizations benefit in different ways.
“Project Friendship, the Union of Youth and Special Olympics get a portion of the proceeds. With CAC, we take all of the school supplies and those go to Operation Backpack. Last year we gave them 800 pounds of school supplies. And then Growing Up Healthy comes and they take mostly toys and some household items to distribute with their Evenings in the Parks program, which is at all four mobile home parks in Rice County.”
After years in the West Gym, the sale has been moved to Laird Stadium. Zweifel said the space underneath the stands of the football stadium is perfect for them, as they are easily able to lay out each category – shoes, clothes, bedding, sporting goods, electronics, kitchen & household, books, and small furniture (including miniature refrigerators) in a way that makes sense.
The Garage Sale is open today, tomorrow and Saturday at 7:30, closing at 3:00 today and tomorrow, and at noon on Saturday. Saturday is also the day of the famous Bag Sale when patrons will be able to fill an IKEA bag with as much as they can hold and pay a flat fee of $15.
Zweifel said of the IKEA bags, patrons are welcome to use their own, or the IKEA bags will be made available throughout the time of the sale
“We’ll have IKEA bags there, but if you want to bring your own bag, we welcome you to do so. And we use the ALDI method where if you do want to use an IKEA bag, we ask you pay $2 for that bag as you enter. If you don’t want to keep that IKEA bag, we’ll give you your money back when you check out or you can choose to keep the bag.”
For more information, visit the Lighten Up page on the Carleton College website.
Tour of High School facility will precede Candidates Forum on Monday
The Northfield School District is offering another tour of the high school facility on Monday afternoon, prior to the Candidates Forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce.
Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann is heading up a campaign that will offer as much information as district voters would like to have regarding the referendum that will be on the ballot in November asking voters to approve a massive remodeling and renovation of Northfield High School. The tour will go through the plans for building a new classroom structure and other renovation, the reasons behind it, the costs, the individual tax impact, and anything else they might question.
The tour of Northfield High School is set for next Monday at 4pm and should run for about two hours. Hillmann said attendees should come to Door #10 at the high school. The tour will begin in the media center with a presentation, followed by the guided tour, and a time for questions.
Hillmann said it is important that people see and feel the problems with the building firsthand to truly understand why the renovations are necessary. For more information visit northfieldschools.org/reimagine.
The Chamber of Commerce Candidates Forum is set to begin at 6:00 in the Northfield High School Auditorium.
KYMN Daily News 6/20/24
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
