On the day after Northfield Mayor Rhonda Pownell was eliminated from the November ballot, ensuring Northfield will have a new mayor in January, she, Dundas Mayor Glenn Switzer, and Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann came together to assure the community that the plans for a new ice arena have not been derailed, and the project remains full speed ahead.
After searching over the course of at least three decades to find a solution for the substandard building that serves as the Northfield Ice Arena, the Cities of Northfield and Dundas have come together with the Northfield Area School District and the Northfield Hockey Association to finance a new $49 million facility that will meet the needs of the people in the area with an interest in ice sports and ice recreation.
The plan calls for the Hockey Association to contribute $2 million to the construction costs and supply the land upon which the arena will be built. The Northfield School District will contribute $5 million to the arena through a twenty-year lease for the district’s hockey programs at an annual cost of $250,000. Northfield and Dundas will finance the rest of the costs through property tax levies, with each property in both cities paying the same prorated share.
Mayor Switzer said the City of Dundas is in full support of the project, noting that the Dundas City Council passed their participation unanimously, because there is an interest to see that the building is up to standards.
“The City of Dundas is not involved in the design meetings, but we are involved enough to make sure that the pieces that really need to be there for a successful building, like a dry land facility to get a better user experience. The Dundas City Council’s position is, if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right. So that’s what we’re pushing for.”
In discussing the many ways a new arena will benefit the community, Mayor Pownell focused on the retail and service businesses in the area, noting that the Northfield economy was boosted by more than $1.6 million in 2023 through hockey tourism. The new arena will only grow that number.
“When you look at how we can help local businesses and hotels to sustain themselves in this community, well this is one of the ways. You can find and bring in additional people from outside your community that will spend time in your hotels they’ll shop in your stores they’ll eat at your restaurants, and they’ll fill up with gas.”
Pownell and others have discussed the fact that a public/private partnership like this has never been attempted, but it is the only way to get a project like this done. Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann said it’s an example of different governmental agencies listening to their communities and acting on what they hear.
“What I hear from people all the time is, “How do we work across governmental agencies for the betterment of our community?” And I think the three of us sitting here today demonstrates that the governmental agencies do listen. We did work through despite the different rules and the different regulations we have, we have been able to come together for this improvement for not just the community, but for the broader area.”
All three stressed that the decision to build the arena has been made, and that the work is in progress. An architect has been engaged, and the design work is almost complete. The job is expected to go out for bid before the end of the year.
Report shows Northfield High School’s success and areas for improvement
By Logan Wells
The Northfield High School administrators gave a presentation at Monday night’s school board meeting detailing some of the successes and areas for improvement among students in the last year. One of the high school’s focus areas has been an improvement in the number of students on track to graduate. While the high school has seen an improvement overall, Northfield Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said there have also been concerns about specific demographic groups.
“One of the key things that we’re trying to do is make sure that students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, that they’re being on track for graduation is similar to students who don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch, and so that typically has been a bigger gap, and we saw that gap close last year.”
Hillmann also noted that a positive learning environment was one of the contributing factors to the student’s improvement in the last year. Research has shown that schools with positive learning environments will have more engaged and successful students. Hillmann noted that this past year, less than 7% of all high school students were referred to the office for disciplinary issues more than once, and the majority had no disciplinary issues.
The report also highlighted how the high school has recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some areas have improved and in fact, are better than where they were from before the pandemic. For example, the number of Advanced Placement or AP Exams has increased since the pandemic. In 2019, 410 AP exams were taken at the Northfield High School, in 2024, 577 exams were taken.
However, as the new school year starts, attendance continues to be one of the main focuses for improvement. In the past school year 93% of students were in school on any given day, however, among the students who miss school, there has been an increase in chronic absences. A chronic absence is when a student misses 10% of the school year or about 17 school days. Hillmann noted that the high school has seen improvement in recent years and that we will see improvements as the school continues to work on addressing the issue.
KYMN Daily News 8/15/24
Contact Rich Larson at rich@kymnradio.net
