By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
Picture credit: Logan Wells/KYMN News
After an over two-hour-long debate, the Northfield City Council appeared again split on the issue of the Water Treatment Plant. After rejecting the initial construction bids in January, city staff returned with two alternative proposals with lower costs.
Table of Contents:
- Summary of the Four Options Presented to the Council on Tuesday
- A Summary of the Council Debate
- Next Steps
- How to Make Your Voice Heard
Previous Stories & Additional Resources
- KYMN News Story (1/21/2025): A Summary of the Water Treatment Plant Project: Northfield City Council Set To Approve Construction Bids Tonight
- KYMN News Story (1/23/2025): A Recap of the Northfield City Council Rejection of Construction Contracts for the Water Treatment Plant
- KYMN Podcasts (1/23/2025): Northfield Mayor Erica Zweifel and Ben Martig discuss the City Council meeting and water treatment plant bids
- KYMN Podcasts (2/11/2025): Logan Wells Explains the Drinking Water Treatment Plant situation 2/11/25
- KYMN Podcasts (2/12/2025): Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig
- City Townhall (10/29/2024): Watch the video here
You can listen to the story here:
Summary of the Four Options Presented to the Council on Tuesday
Four options were presented to the council including the original plans, ending the project entirely, or two alternatives with items cut from the project. Both of the alternative options proposed by staff would remove the Reverse Osmosis system, which would mean that the plant would no longer soften all of the city’s water or remove PFAS/Forever Chemicals. The plant in the two alternatives would remove Managanes from the water. The main difference in the two plans was the facility’s staff and storage space.
For the original plant, the average household in Northfield would see an increase in their water rate from $20 a month to $69 a month by 2030. However, for homes that have water softener, it would no longer need to operate, meaning that those homes would save an estimated $19 a month since they do not have to purchase salt.
The first alternative option would reduce the cost overall by, at most, $5 million, which would be a saving of about $2 for the average water user per month. The second alternative would reduce costs by at most $11 million, which would be a savings of about $5 per month in the average water rate per month. For both alternatives, homes would also have the additional cost of softening their own water. To reject the project outright, the city would still incur some costs, including roads the city has agreed to build. Furthermore, City Administrator Ben Martig estimated that $2 million of sunk costs have already been invested into this project. Martig stated at the council meeting that it would be unlikely the city would receive any significant new amount of money from the Federal or State government to help pay for the project.
“I don’t want to create false expectations, though. I would say that’s an outside chance to have substantial amounts of dollars come in. Maybe there are technology changes that happen in the future that could bring the cost down. Generally, though, cost on construction are just going to continue to go up.” – Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig on the KYMN Morning Show
From the 2/11/2025 City Council Packet
A more detailed listing of all four options presented to the council. In the left colum is the cost of each option and in the right colum is the details of what would be done. From the 2/11/2025 City Council Packet
A Summary of the Council Debate
During the meeting, the council was not asked to take any votes but rather to indicate their preference. The three councilors who initially voted yes for the project, Councilors Jessica Peterson-White, Kathleen Holmes, and Davin Sokup, continued to support the project in its entirety, Holmes argued that not acting proactively or choosing one of the alternative options would lead to more costs for the city later:
“And to me, in my mind everything but option 4 is a waste of our resources, if we stop and pause and try to go find more things or don’t do the reverse osmosis and then later on we have to add in all these things we. That is wasting our very limited and precious resources. I know this is a huge price tag. Know people have sticker shock with that. And I echo, the previous counselors who spoke, maybe it’s just my demographic. I happen to talk to a lot of pregnant people and people who have small children, so I know that there is support for this.” – Northfield City Councilor Kathleen Holmes at the 2/11/2025 City Council Meeitng
Sokup agreed, citing the importance of drinking water as something cities should provide:
“It’s difficult for me to think about how we’re also considering an ice arena that I believe would add $11.00 a month to people’s property tax bill. So we’re going to do that and then we’re not going to provide safe water. To people who don’t have access to it?”– Northfield City Councilor Davin Sokup at the 2/11/2025 City Council Meeitng
Councilors Brad Ness and Chad Beumer both raised concerns about the price of the original plant and the two alternatives, with Beumer raising concerns about policies like the Climate Action Plan and Art allowance, which he cited were raising the cost of the project:
“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot with it, with expenses by putting policies in that cost us more money. And if we need, you know, 1% for the arts is another one, you know, maybe we need to set a cap on the 1% for the arts on projects.” – Northfield City Councilor Chad Beumer at the 2/11/2025 City Council Meeitng
Ness stated the main priority right now he believes should be finding storage space for the Water Department equipment and that the treatment plant was not the immediate priority:
“The water everyone drinks is safe. Could some stuff be removed from it? Absolutely. But it is safe.” – Northfield City Councilor Brad Ness at the 2/11/2025 City Council Meeitng
This comment from Ness, drew a response from Peterson-White later in the meeting:
“People have said here we are providing safe drinking. That’s true for everyone in this room, but it’s not true for pregnant women and people under one year old, and each and everyone of you were an infant once. So and this is very clear, you can tell yourselves that the drinking water is safe because it’s safe for you.” – Northfield City Councilor Jessica Peterson White at the 2/11/2025 City Council Meeitng
Councilor Peter Dahlen was not in attendance at the meeting but had previously voted against the project. This left the council deadlocked, with 3 in favor of the project and 3 opposed to the project. The deciding vote appears to be up to Mayor Erica Zweifel, who previously has expressed support for the benefits of the treatment plant but stated that she was still struggling with the costs:
“I’m still struggling with the cost and as people have noted here tonight, it’s not just the cost of this project, but the cost of multiple projects that the city has going on the Ice Arena, double digit tax increases. So and and I’m struggling because I don’t feel that the numbers have been presented in a clear way.” – Northfield Mayor Erica Zwiefel at the 2/11/2025 City Council Meeitng
Zweifel stated that she “had not gotten answers or assurances that she would get answers” at the meeting. City Administrator Ben Martig said that he would work with the council to clarify the numbers and how they are presented.
Next Steps
The next steps for the project will be a final vote. As of recording this story Friday at 5am, the posted agenda for the next council meeting on the 18th has no items regarding the water treatment plant. This means that likely the issue will be taken up for a vote at the March 4th meeting.
The Northfield City Council meets Tuesday night at 6pm, in the council chambers of the Northfield City Hall.
How to Contact Your City Councilors
At one point or another during Tuesdays, almost every councilor referenced hearing from their constituents as the reason for their vote. Below find a few of the different ways you can have your voice heard.
Commenting on an Item on the Regular Agenda:
The following information is from the City of Northfield’s website
Persons that wish to speak on a regular agenda item must provide name and address by completing & submitting a sign up card. The Mayor will call up individuals to speak, based on preregistration and cards submitted, after the staff report on an item.
Commenting At the Open Public Comment Section (at the beginning of the meeting):
The following information is from the City of Northfield’s website
Open Public Comment is intended to receive public comment on matters of City business and/or topics under the jurisdiction of the City Council. Individuals who would like to have a question addressed may write their question on the back of the comment card and an appropriate person will follow up with them at another time. If the topic relates to an item later in the agenda individuals may speak at this time if that is their preference. However, they will be unable to comment again later on the same agenda item.
See this video (right) from the city with tips about speaking at the council meetings
If you can not attend the meeitng here are a few ways to comment beforehand:
- Find the email contacts for the Mayor and Coucil here
- Leave an E-comment on the agenda by clicking here.
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