Growing up in North Dakota during the 50s and 60s, I was privileged to experience something that's all too rare now - the old-fashioned family doctor. "Doc" delivered babies, set broken bones, treated pneumonia, and helped Grandpa with his newfangled hearing aid. Doc knew the community, the families, and the individuals whose basic medical needs he treated from birth through the end of life. Some of you who grew up in that time, and perhaps in smaller communities, may remember a Doc of your own. . . . → Read More: The Marcus Welby of law, by Lance Heisler | Lampe Law Group
Let’s talk about cats, cats and more cats! Why?? Because Prairie’s Edge Humane Society is full of cats and we have many more arriving daily. As of today, there are 44 cats on the adoption floor with more awaiting their surgeries so they are ready for adoption. There are cats in every corner of the shelter who need homes! We are in desperate need of homes for these cats. We cannot emphasize this enough. So we are having a cat sale and we are calling it Kitty Mania !
The free market does many things well, but we know it does not do everything. Even market fundamentalists concede that the public must build roads, put out fires, police streets, and provide national defense. Most people, at least those to the left of the Tea Party edge of political spectrum, accept that the government must also be involved in education, disaster relief, and health care. That is, certain services must be rendered — necessary services, universal services — whether or not those services are financially profitable. If your house is on fire, you do not have time to . . . → Read More: On Watermelons and Widgets, by Tom Swift
Okay, so most of the news about the Vintage Band Festival so far has been about the bands. But there’s a number of other events during the weekend. Like the VBF Contra Dance, for instance.
The Vintage Band Festival Contra Dance will feature music by The Dodworth Saxhorn Band of Ann Arbor, Michigan and will be led by dance instructor/caller Robin Nelson.
Dancing will begin at 8:30 p.m. with a “Grand March” led by 60 costumed members of the 1st Wisconsin Infantry Brigade, followed by a variety of period dances including polkas, contra dances, schottisches, reels and waltzes.
Even before I read the first word of this article I had a visceral reaction to it. The accompanying photographs — my eyes tend to skip over photographs in magazines — affected me in a manner that is difficult to articulate. I knew, immediately I knew, I was not going to like what I was about to read. In fact, for that reason I put the piece aside. Not now, I thought. Maybe tomorrow, I said to myself. But, then, I couldn’t not read it, either. If you have not done so already, I hope you will read . . . → Read More: The Animal-Cruelty Syndrome, by Tom Swift
June may be Adopt A Cat month here at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society and we have lots of wonderful cats, but we also have PUPPIES!
We have a male Newfoundland mix named Chong who is 6 months old, he was a stray so we don’t know a lot about him. He loves to play! We also have three Australian Cattle Dog mixes who are two months old. Marcia, Bobby and Cindy were born at the shelter and spent some time in one of our fabulous foster homes. They are now back at the shelter and ready to find . . . → Read More: Puppies! Puppies! Puppies! by Kathy Jasnoch
The American Cancer Society Relay for Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. At Relay for Life, teams of people camp out at local parks or fairgrounds and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events.
Now Showing! Live Kittens playing! You can now watch our adoptable animals at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society (PEHS) live 24/7 on the new Critter Cam installed in conjunction with KYMN Radio. Thanks to the fine folks at KYMN radio we now have a live feed of our adoptable animals showing on our website and KYMN’s website, Tim and Jeff are AWESOME!
Currently the Critter Cam is featuring kittens available for adoption. Watch them play, sleep, eat, and everything else they do 24 hours a day 7 days a week! It’s better than anything you can see on TV! . . . → Read More: Critter Cam live from Prairie’s Edge Humane Society, by Sandy Vesledahl
A BIG Thanks to all of you who came to last Monday’s Volunteer Organization Meeting, and to those who contacted us saying you wanted to help but could not make the meeting.
We have pretty full support for Communications and Design and Build sub-committees, and we got a web graphic designer to help with the site. Alice Thomas is facilitating the Communications group, and Steve Edwins is facilitating the Design and Build group.
Thank you to all of those who came to Alexander Park on a beautiful Saturday morning in May to help support Prairie’s Edge Humane Society!
I have placed all of the fun photographs on my Bridgette Hallcock Photography Facebook page so that everyone can see how much fun we had! See the two 2010 Walk for the Animals albums here and here.
If you would like a print, please contact me, as the proceeds will benefit the animals at PEHS.
Here is the second of a series of 10-minute videos during which the Northfield mayoral candidates tell voters a little bit about their campaigns. City Councilor Jon Denison spoke with me on Monday morning and our discussion occured both on and off camera. I asked him before the camera rolled about his current unemployment and the recent disputes he has had with former landlords over unpaid rent. Denison said he believed personal matters such as those do not detract from his ability to work effectively on the City Council, or as mayor.
Great interview. Jon is a good guy and it’s obvious that he’s a committed council member. It’s been fun to watch his evolution since his election. As a public librarian, I liked what he had to say about the current state of things regarding a new building. I also appreciate his honesty regarding the community’s priorities when it comes to getting the new Safety Center in place. Let’s just get this liquor store figured out so a hophead can have a little more choice. In short, I can listen to Jon and be a little less disturbed about some of the other shenanigans going on in my hometown.
I think it’s fantastic that you’re doing these interviews with the candidates. I watched this Denison interview with great interest, as I have found him to be a curious character in city government. I come away from it with a more positive view of Mr. Denison than I had coming in. He does seem like a good guy who cares about Northfield and has a basic grasp of the issues. And I am always impressed by elected representatives when they can admit that their views have evolved or changed based on what they’ve learned; he talks about that in connection with his view of the relative merits of a library project vs. a public safety center. So all that is good.
The interview did not, though, assuage my doubts about Mr. Denison as a council member or a prospective Mayor. I have not seen any evidence that he has accomplished anything other than winning elective office on his third try. If he has had a job and done well at it, or if he has made a difference in some other endeavor besides winning a council seat, that information has not reached me. As a general proposition, it strikes me that city government is better off if the people running the show have excelled at something in their lives or at least demonstrated some type of talent or accomplishment. As far as I can tell (and I acknowledge that there may be information I don’t know), Mr. Denison has not.
Mr. Denison seems like a likable enough person, but not impressive in any relevant way. His long, fumbling, rambling discussion in response to the question about what he believes people should be thinking about when they consider him, or why they ought to vote for him, was really quite painful. At one point he pretty much flat-out said that he’s got nothing to lose by running for Mayor this year (since his seat isn’t up this time), and that if people want him, great, and if they don’t want him, that’s OK too. Good for him to have some humility, but I’d prefer to have a Mayor who has a greater sense of personal motivation and ambition (in the positive sense) for himself and the city. Someone who aspires to greatness is more likely to achieve it than someone who looks around, shrugs his shoulders, and says (figuratively) “well, I’ve got nothing better to do, so maybe I’ll see if they’ll elect me Mayor.”
One final point. As a bit of constructive feedback, I had a strong negative reaction to the lack of questions about Mr. Denison’s employment status and his record on paying his rent. If such questions were asked off-camera, that’s better than not asking at all, but I’d much rather have seen/heard his answers directly from him. If he really is unemployed (and I have no idea but am just picking up on the post’s introductory comment), that’s certainly relevant to my evaluation of him, and I’d want very much to know what he has to say about why he is unemployed. If he really has failed on multiple occasions to pay his rent, I definitely want to know why. Having a job and paying your rent are pretty basic parts of being a responsible grown-up, and it seems ludicrous to consider entrusting the Mayor’s office to someone who doesn’t do those things. It’s an easy answer, I suppose, to say that his personal business doesn’t affect his decisions in public office, but that really isn’t the point. The question is whether a candidate’s character and mettle are such that she or he ought to be entrusted with a leadership position. If these questions were discussed off-camera because of an editorial judgment that they weren’t important enough to be put on camera, I can respect that but certainly disagree with the judgment. If they were left off-camera out of some sort of worry about embarrassing the candidate, then I suggest that you reevaluate your approach. The man is running for Mayor. Whether he holds a job and pays his rent is obviously fair game.
I’m enjoying reading everyone’s comments. I decided not to include the question on videotape because I’m trying to keep these candidate presentations consistent. The mayor talked for about 10 minutes and Mr. Denison got the same. In that time, the mayor did not go into depth about the legal matters he is engaged in and so I did not pressure Mr. Denison to do so. These interviews are a chance for me to introduce myself to the candidates and learn the video technology as much as the videos are for the public to get to know the candidates a little bit better. If I put together a more investigative article, it will be after more thorough interviews and editing etc. As for asking the public for questions for Mr. Denison, I did so at the end of the mayor’s interview comment thread. In the future, I’ll start a new thread for each candidate so it’s more visible.
Griff Wigley: This is comment #35,085 made on the last of 2,976 blog posts, with 187 podcast episodes tossed in for good measure. Now shut down for August. The LoGroNo office at GBM is vacant. But you can follow Ross, Tracy, and I on our...
Griff Wigley: Jane/William, I’m pretty sure I’ve trained you both to behave but I’d have a hard time during the sabbatical not paying attention to see if that was actually the case. I think the more places in Northfield...
Griff Wigley: Jeez, Ross. You adopted Chance? Now we’re going to have to add your new PEHS dog to our About page. No, we’re not changing from the Triumvirate to something four-related, ie, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Phil Poyner: Yes, but where would we put all the egos?
Phil Poyner: Ray, I believe 11 states or so have full military pension exemption, but many others (including MN) have some sort of partial exemption or tax credit. But I know for many veterans taxes are not the number one factor when...
Barry Cipra: Ray, here’s a thought that ties these threads together (and which I think will appeal to Paul): Let’s not tax the income of people with PhDs from accredited universities. When you don’t tax PhD income, you tend...
Ross Currier: Sorry Griff, but that article concludes with the inside-the-same-old-box type of ideas. I suppose that’s what you get when you ask people inside-the-municipal-box for solutions. Hopefully, there will be citizens,...
kiffi summa: Norman and Ross… let me be so bold as to add an observation about this ‘opportunity’̷ 0; I find it so bizarre that mr. Walinski would come up with this staff consolidation plan as a ‘going away...
Griff Wigley: Here’s a silent video of me walking the area around the Scriver Bldg. Note: * the cozy canopy that the trees provide * that there’s only one small tree nearby in Bridge Square * how nicely the two trees frame and...
norman butler: Hayes: Many thanks for the ADA costs, almost $750,000. I assume that additional to this is the remodelling of the second floor etc, at a total cost of, say, $1,000,000 to make this wonderful, ancient, iconic, historic,...
Griff Wigley: I’ve added a straw poll on the trees. See the upper left sidebar.
Griff Wigley: Straw poll results: How should the City solve the geese poop problem along the Cannon River in downtown Northfield? * Harvest the geese for area food shelves (36%, 24 Votes) * Use border collies to chase the geese away (24%, 16...
David Ludescher: Griff: It doesn’t make sense to me that we spent a half of million dollars on places where geese like to sh*t.
Phil Poyner: Excerpt from “Development of a Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard Program at Langley AFB, Virginia.” Canada geese- In June 1999, more than 225 resident Canada geese were molting at Eaglewood golf course adjacent to the...
Michelle Hawkins: As far as Mr Denison and past records of those serving or wishing to serve in public office, I think the public is smart enough to judge for themselves rather than rely on only what they find in a newspaper, for their...
Michelle Hawkins: If a person lives in a drug infested,alcoholic ridden apartment complex and also works on a one to one basis with such while at the same time receives threats as a result of that volunteer work and their work with battered...
Patrick Enders: Carol, Jerry was a plaintiff in a lawsuit in California which Scott found interesting. Scott posted about it here on LGN, and Jerry (Jerold) answered about it here.
Griff Wigley: I’ve added photos I took at the League of Women Voters candidates forum on 7/29 to the blog post above.
Griff Wigley: KYMN Radio video: 07/29/10 League of Women Voters Candidate Forum (Archived)
Griff Wigley: Nfld News: Council candidates weigh in at forum During the first half of the forum, which focused on the Fourth Ward candidates, Gehring expressed his support for an aggressive plan laid out by Mayor Mary Rossing to hire a new...
Sandy Vesledahl: Don’t miss out on “Kitty Mania” today at Prairie’s Edge Humane Society. If you have been thinking about adopting a cat now is the perfect time to do so!
Griff Wigley: Thanks, Tracy. I’ll look at that City Mgr blog in Ventura, CA. I’ll be interested to see if he’s better blogger than former Northfield City Administrator Scott Neal who’s been a blogger client of...
Jerry Bilek: I look at all of this technology as a tool. it has the potential to do good things or is a huge time waster. some blogs are amazingly helpful while others just a way to kill time. For business use, it can be beneficial, but it...
Bright Spencer: orange and yellows are the colors that draw people in, and stimulate intellectual inklings. But, like the sun, too much is not so good.
Bright Spencer: orange and yellows are the colors that draw people in, like the sun, too much is off putting though
Griff Wigley: Would there be a combination of colors that might make the site more agreeable to the eyes? Lots of gray and blue now. Tracy, want to take a whack at it?
norman butler: Tracy; the article you quoted above made mention of the city of Maywood’s services now being provided by a neighboring city: “…The [parking] ticket was issued by enforcement clerks for the neighboring city of...
kiffi summa: If you look at the disbursements in the Council packets, you will see the janitorial work IS being contracted out; here’s some numbers from the July 6 disbursement list: 6/11/10 May City Hall Cleaning – 1282.50...
Tracy Davis: From the Wall Street Journal, 7/19: Cities Rent Police, Janitors to Save Cash
Griff Wigley: A competitor to SeeClickFix is CitySourced: http://www.citysourced.com/
Griff Wigley: Phil, services like SeeClickFix take that into account, ie, people can weigh in to endorse what someone else has submitted. For example, see the service in action at this CT newspaper: http://www.journalinquirer.com / Click...
Phil Poyner: I see a downside to what you’re saying. Theoretically it may make sense to have a single problem submitted just once. But my experience has been that until a group of people submit the same problem, the problem can be...
Griff Wigley: Hey Don, great to hear from you… and that you’re still doing the outdoor thing. I’d never heard of water cycling.
Don Haugo: Cycle America was started in 1988. In 1997 Greg Walsh took it over and has been running it since. I live in Bloomington, Minnesota and am about to start marketing a couple of new outdoor adventure events for next year, the...
Sean Hayford O'Leary: That’s a shame, Erica. But since we now know that a (brief) crossing period can be accommodated without interrupting traffic at that particular intersection (which has the shortest crossing distance and relatively...
Erica Zweifel: It appears that the automatic crossing was temporary, this Saturday I had to push the button to get the pedestrian signal at 5th Street.
Griff Wigley: Sean, I’ll try to capture the audio at a low traffic time so everyone can hear the loud beep-beep and the quiet messages. And I’ll check the 5th St. intersection but all the improvements there look to be the same as...
Griff Wigley: MPR’s Question of the day: Do you depend on sirens to alert you to severe weather?
Griff Wigley: Jane/Josh, thanks for the reports. I’ve blogged your comments with some photos at: http://locallygrownnorthfield. org/post/18720/
Josh Dale: I live on the north-east corner of St. Olaf property, off Highland Ave. The power went out shortly after 1am. No power=no warnings, other than a lightning strike, blown transformers or downed power lines…it was a good...
Griff Wigley: You’re welcome, Jeanette. The slimy handshake was memorable!
Jeanette Nelson: Hi Griff, Thanks so much for receiving so graciously, however reluctantly, a hug from a fellow Norwegian! Oh, and also for the wet slimy handshake.
Kathie Galotti: What Rob said–about Crazy Days. I kinda like the new layout of LoGroNo, though, myself.
Rob Hardy: No. I LOVE downtown Northfield, but I prefer its charming everyday self, not the hyped-up crazy version. I grinchily observed Crazy Daze this year by riding my bike out to Target. Also: while I’m being a Grinch, I hate the...
Bright Spencer: You mean have Crazy,Crazy Daze? Always have a plan B and maybe even C. C?
kiffi summa: Jane: you are correct about the randomness of the discussion that followed… in some ways that is understandable as someone (MNDOT) had just thrown a big wrench into the works of the Council’s fast moving train. I...
Jane McWilliams: I was pleased to read that the council has decided against a November referendum, but I was dismayed at the randomness of the discussion which followed. It would serve them well to put the whole project on ice for a few...
David Ludescher: Ray, It might happen now with a number of new Council members and a new City Administrator, especially if this Division Street site is a real, and not a fanciful, option. It sounds as if the City Council still doesn’t...
Sandy Vesledahl: We will be selling luminaria’s on Bridge Square during Crazy Daze for Relay for Life of Rice County. If you would like to purchase one to be lit at this year’s event to honor a loved one who has been affected by...
kiffi summa: Forgot to mention that I believe this agenda item was titled specifically to avoid controversy. It is true that the position also entailed the Welcome Center duties , that may have been the majority of the job’s hours, but...
kiffi summa: Was doing the Observing for the LWV… so yeah… Council voted 4-3 to table ’til the Aug 3 meeting. C. Pownell had asked C. Zweifel to table the issue (Zweifel had asked for the reconsideration) because C. Pownell...
Tracy Davis: Funny, Griff, I posted this link on the wiki thread before I saw you put it here!
David Henson: Tom, food prices have fallen for years and years (decades and decades) in the USA (free market). And the government in every country mentioned for riots has grown so your cause and effect seems either driven by an emotional...
Griff Wigley: I forgot to tell Tom to link to his Writer’s Notebook blog: http://tom-swift.com/weblog/ I’ve added it to the bottom of his blog post above.
Griff Wigley: Kaufman has a blog and he’s got the pdf of his Food Bubble article on it. His blog has links to other media that have covered the article.
Tom Swift: Here’s one response to those numbers, Griff: “If we use the ratio from the last quarter, it implies Amazon has sold around 22 million Kindle books so far this year. That’s just the equivalent of 6 percent of the...
Griff Wigley: NY Times: E-Books Top Hardcovers at Amazon Amazon.com, one of the nation’s largest booksellers, announced Monday that for the last three months, sales of books for its e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover...
Bright Spencer: Rob, I read about half and skimmed thru the other, I have never liked to read through the excess of words that are often set before us because people are getting paid by each word they write. I will give myself a chance to...
Tracy Davis: I met with Rhonda Pownell yesterday on another issue and asked her about this. From her comments I wondered again whether the Council was given adequate and thorough enough information upon which to base their decision....
Jessica Paxton: Wow. These are stunning. Too bad the City didn’t consider looking in its own back yard and hire someone like Mark to produce its promotional video….
but I’d have a hard time during the sabbatical not paying attention to see if that was actually the case. I think the more places in Northfield...
Do you have a link to the video?
Here you go…
http://vimeo.com/1473019
There have been tech problems from Bonnie’s computer with adding videos, but it should now display in the post.
Great interview. Jon is a good guy and it’s obvious that he’s a committed council member. It’s been fun to watch his evolution since his election. As a public librarian, I liked what he had to say about the current state of things regarding a new building. I also appreciate his honesty regarding the community’s priorities when it comes to getting the new Safety Center in place. Let’s just get this liquor store figured out so a hophead can have a little more choice. In short, I can listen to Jon and be a little less disturbed about some of the other shenanigans going on in my hometown.
I think it’s fantastic that you’re doing these interviews with the candidates. I watched this Denison interview with great interest, as I have found him to be a curious character in city government. I come away from it with a more positive view of Mr. Denison than I had coming in. He does seem like a good guy who cares about Northfield and has a basic grasp of the issues. And I am always impressed by elected representatives when they can admit that their views have evolved or changed based on what they’ve learned; he talks about that in connection with his view of the relative merits of a library project vs. a public safety center. So all that is good.
The interview did not, though, assuage my doubts about Mr. Denison as a council member or a prospective Mayor. I have not seen any evidence that he has accomplished anything other than winning elective office on his third try. If he has had a job and done well at it, or if he has made a difference in some other endeavor besides winning a council seat, that information has not reached me. As a general proposition, it strikes me that city government is better off if the people running the show have excelled at something in their lives or at least demonstrated some type of talent or accomplishment. As far as I can tell (and I acknowledge that there may be information I don’t know), Mr. Denison has not.
Mr. Denison seems like a likable enough person, but not impressive in any relevant way. His long, fumbling, rambling discussion in response to the question about what he believes people should be thinking about when they consider him, or why they ought to vote for him, was really quite painful. At one point he pretty much flat-out said that he’s got nothing to lose by running for Mayor this year (since his seat isn’t up this time), and that if people want him, great, and if they don’t want him, that’s OK too. Good for him to have some humility, but I’d prefer to have a Mayor who has a greater sense of personal motivation and ambition (in the positive sense) for himself and the city. Someone who aspires to greatness is more likely to achieve it than someone who looks around, shrugs his shoulders, and says (figuratively) “well, I’ve got nothing better to do, so maybe I’ll see if they’ll elect me Mayor.”
One final point. As a bit of constructive feedback, I had a strong negative reaction to the lack of questions about Mr. Denison’s employment status and his record on paying his rent. If such questions were asked off-camera, that’s better than not asking at all, but I’d much rather have seen/heard his answers directly from him. If he really is unemployed (and I have no idea but am just picking up on the post’s introductory comment), that’s certainly relevant to my evaluation of him, and I’d want very much to know what he has to say about why he is unemployed. If he really has failed on multiple occasions to pay his rent, I definitely want to know why. Having a job and paying your rent are pretty basic parts of being a responsible grown-up, and it seems ludicrous to consider entrusting the Mayor’s office to someone who doesn’t do those things. It’s an easy answer, I suppose, to say that his personal business doesn’t affect his decisions in public office, but that really isn’t the point. The question is whether a candidate’s character and mettle are such that she or he ought to be entrusted with a leadership position. If these questions were discussed off-camera because of an editorial judgment that they weren’t important enough to be put on camera, I can respect that but certainly disagree with the judgment. If they were left off-camera out of some sort of worry about embarrassing the candidate, then I suggest that you reevaluate your approach. The man is running for Mayor. Whether he holds a job and pays his rent is obviously fair game.
Again, thanks for this interview series.
I’m enjoying reading everyone’s comments. I decided not to include the question on videotape because I’m trying to keep these candidate presentations consistent. The mayor talked for about 10 minutes and Mr. Denison got the same. In that time, the mayor did not go into depth about the legal matters he is engaged in and so I did not pressure Mr. Denison to do so. These interviews are a chance for me to introduce myself to the candidates and learn the video technology as much as the videos are for the public to get to know the candidates a little bit better. If I put together a more investigative article, it will be after more thorough interviews and editing etc. As for asking the public for questions for Mr. Denison, I did so at the end of the mayor’s interview comment thread. In the future, I’ll start a new thread for each candidate so it’s more visible.
[...] Jon Denison interview [...]