A statement released last night by the City of Northfield said Mayor Rhonda Pownell has declared a local emergency in response to this weekend’s flooding event. The mayor has the ability to declare a local emergency for three days, per a Minnesota state statute. The Northfield City Council will hold an emergency meeting to consider extending the declaration this afternoon at 3:30 in the Council Chambers at City Hall.
Governor Tim Walz declared a peacetime emergency on Saturday to assist with emergency flood operations. Rice County has a signed document declaring a State of Emergency that is expected to be ratified today.
Northfield Chief of Police Mark Elliott said by declaring emergency situations both the city and the county will be eligible for certain relief funds from the state, and likely from the Federal Government as well.
The statement said the city staff is monitoring the situation and will continue to identify options for state and federal assistance with the cleanup and ongoing mitigation efforts.
The river is expected to drop below major flood stage later this afternoon.
High property taxes main theme at Candidates Forum
The voters of Northfield had their first opportunity to hear and see many of the people running for local office on Monday night, when the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce hosted a candidates forum in the Northfield High School auditorium.
Five of the seven mayoral candidates, Adam Gebler, Ruth Dahl, Tim Babini, Erica Zweifel and Mayor Rhonda Pownell were seated at the table as were the three candidates for the Ward 2 City Counci seat, Chad Beumer, Emy Farley and Edward Molnar, and David DeLong, a candidate for City Council in the At Large seat on the ballot this fall. Missing from the event were mayoral candidates Michael Kirschling and City Councilor George Zuccolotto, and incumbent At Large City Councilor Brad Ness.
The panel was moderated by the Vice Chair of the Chamber Board of Directors, Laura Stelter, who is also the Executive Director of Arcadia Charter School
The panel was asked a question, and each candidate was given 90 seconds to answer. Topics ranged from describing their leadership style, to thoughts on the Comprehensive and Strategic plans, to bicycle lanes, the Riverfront Enhancement Activation Plan, and the Downtown Redevelopment plan. Of the nine candidates, at least seven spoke about high property taxes and the perception that the city government is unresponsive to the citizens of Northfield. Mayor Pownell was given the opportunity to defend her record and the record of the City Council as candidate after candidate offered criticism of the city’s recent spending policies.
As was expected, some candidates distinguished themselves. Others did not always appear to completely grasp the way municipal government is run. At least two did not seem to understand the separation of the City of Northfield and the Northfield School District as distinct taxing authorities.
Overall, the conversation on the stage was respectful, if pointed. The gathered audience of about 250 people leaned in support toward the anti-tax rhetoric, to which many of the candidates clearly played from the stage.
Those unable to attend will be able to stream the event in the coming days from the Northfield Chamber YouTube video.
Another candidates forum will be held on Thursday night, this one hosted by the League of Women Voters, at the Viking Theater in Buntrock Commons on the St. Olaf campus.
Comprehensive plan moving into ‘writing stage’
Northfield Director of Community Engagement Jake Reilly said the process of writing the city’s new Comprehensive Plan is shifting from the evaluating phase and into the actual writing phase. Reilly, one of the key figures in putting the new plan together, said the community should not be looking to see major policy shake-ups or paradigm shifts in the next plan, but instead should be looking for new, modern and creative ways to achieve those goals.
Since the city’s first Comprehensive Plan was written in 1963, he said, the policy direction that defines what the people of Northfield want the city to be has remained remarkably consistent in the realms of livability, commerce, education and caring for our natural resources. What has changed over the course of 60 years is technology, and the breadth of knowledge learned over that time, allowing for more efficient and, theoretically, more successful techniques and practices toward those ends.
Knowing more, he said, means doing better.
“That continues today with a few, you know, modern wrinkles to it. As we learn how to get things done differently or better or more efficiently, that has to come into play.”
With the lion’s share of the data collected, Reilly said they are taking it, adding it to the standards and beliefs the city has always had and mixing in some of the wisdom of the people who have worked on previous Northfield Comp Plans to evaluate where things stand, and create a plan that will reflect and make sense to the people who live and work here. He said the city has three separate consultant teams working on the plan at the moment, and all of that work will be filtered through the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, the Planning Commission, and Reilly himself to create what he hopes will be a plan that people will actually want to read.
He reiterated the idea that, as the plan is written, the values of the community will remain consistent, even as they are modernized.
“That policy direction is really solid and has been here in Northfield since 1966. But how it gets done and how we use that plan to guide how things get done, how we spend our dollars and where and when, that’s where the rubber meets the road in comp planning. And we’re about to get into that part.”
Reilly said they are still looking for input from the public, and the Comprehensive Plan Engagement Committee will be out at several civic events through the rest of the summer letting people know how things are going and asking for more feedback.
KYMN Daily News 6/25/24
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
