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By Griff Wigley, on May 15, 2012, 8:03 am
 Saturday’s Northfield News carried a front page story titled Concerns arise over Fire Department expenses; Northfield officials fear funding is going toward non-firefighting expenses. (The headline used for the online version: Ethical questions arise over Northfield Fire Relief Association expenses.)
 I’ve done four fire department/association-related blog posts since January (here, here, here, and here) as well as a three more on attorney David Hvistendahl (here, here, and here) who’s representing the fire and rescue squad associations. It’s a complex and constantly evolving issue.
So it’s really helpful to have a someone else, in this case, Northfield News reporter Suzy Rook, digging into the story, too. And for the first time, the paper cited Locally Grown (twice) in a story:
Fire Department officials, including Fire Chief Gerry Franek, did not respond to several requests from the News for association financial records or comment. Assistant Fire Chief Tom Nelson at an April 24 City Council meeting said documents posted on the blog Locally Grown are 2010 and 2011 relief association check registers. But those registers don’t clearly state how and where monies were spent, and are likely a listing of transactions from several accounts compiled into a single document…
The association had a net revenue of $14,263 in 2011, according to a Gambling Control Board report to the Legislature. Of that, $4,110 was used for what’s termed lawful purpose expenditures. In 2010, its net receipts were $17,730. Of that, $8,354 was used for lawful expenditures. Figures provided to the state Gambling Control Board don’t match the association’s 2010 tax return, a document Assistant Fire Chief Tom Nelson says he provided Locally Grown. According to that document, the association lost $2,209 in 2010.
I appreciate that. Follow Suzy Rook on Twitter @rooksuzy.
By Griff Wigley, on May 14, 2012, 7:32 am
I’m appreciative of Northfield’s media organizations who have been very helpful in drawing attention to Tuesday night’s (May 15) information meeting for the new Cannon Valley Mountain Bike Racing Team for area high school students.
   
Northfield News reporter Jordan Osterman: Northfield high school mountain bike team forming
KYMN News Morning Show host Jeff Johnson: Griff Wigley and Peter Behm on C.V. Mountain Bike Racing (blog post with streaming audio). Alternate: download/listen to MP3. (Peter Behm is a student at ARTech.)
Northfield Patch reporter Michael Garlitz: Cannon Valley Biking Team Pedaling Toward Starting Line
One point Wigley stresses when talking about forming the team is that the activity is open to girls, as well as boys.
“The big push nationally is to get girls involved,” he said. “And, there is an incentive for having girls on your team. Points earned by girls are worth more, which helps in recruiting.
Can’t make the May 15 meeting? Area student-athletes who are interested can now fill out a form on the CVMTBT website to be kept informed on next steps on the team’s formation.
By Griff Wigley, on April 22, 2012, 7:33 am
 Last Monday, the Northfield News launched a new website using a new content management system for all its regional newspapers, putting all of them under the domain name southernminn.com. So the Northfield News site is now at southernminn.com/northfield_news (there’s an underscore between the ‘d’ and the ‘n’).
I have no problem with this change on the face of it.
Currently, none of the old articles are available. Presumably—hopefully–they will be restored in some type of online archive. But just like in Feb. 2011, the URL’s for those articles will change and the old ones will evidently not redirect. Last year, I wrote to Publisher Sam Gett:
At Locally Grown, we have linked to hundreds of your articles over the years and now, none of the those links work any longer. As you know, we drive a lot of traffic to your site. (And likewise, our discussions benefit from your content.) So it seems like you’d want to continue to maintain the old URL’s, if for no other reason than to continue generating pageviews.
I never heard back. So I again wrote to him early last week, resending that paragraph. He said he’d look into it, but I’ve not heard back.
And this morning, if you go to NorthfieldNews.com, you don’t even get redirected to the new site. Instead, you end up at a GoDaddy.com page that says:
Want to buy this domain? Our Domain Buy Service can help you get it. This page is parked free, courtesy of GoDaddy.com
See the above screenshot. This may be a temporary situation, an oversight on someone’s part, but it’s certainly startling.
Lastly, the changeover also removed all previous usernames and comments. People are being asked to re-register. I’ve never like the paper’s policy of allowing anonymous comments so I don’t consider this a great loss. But it’s indicative that they don’t value their readers’ comments either.
By Griff Wigley, on March 20, 2012, 8:48 pm
After my confrontations with Northfielder David Hvistendahl over the weekend, I emailed him a request to be a guest on his KYMN Law Review radio show this week. He replied:
U R hereby invited to a verbal smackdown, 6 pm, KYMN. Will B War of the Worlds II. Will expose U as a royalist and rumor monger.
 We did the show tonight. KYMN emperor Jeff Johnson was on hand to moderate (he used a digital referee whistle) but only had to use it a couple times.
The audio of the show is now available in this mistitled KYMN blog post by Jeff:
Law Review | SMACKDOWN! Wigley cries UNCLE!!
(For the culturally deprived, see the Wikipedia entry for Uncle Wiggily.)
By Griff Wigley, on March 16, 2012, 8:31 am
   
Northfield Assistant Fire Chief Tom Nelson stopped by my corner office at GBM yesterday. We mostly argued, hence the scowls in the left photo. (Feel free to sort through the 180+ comments to my blog post to find my criticisms of the Northfield Fire Department. More to come?)
But one thing we did agree on (hence the smiles in the right photo) was that the two versions of the Northfield News stories about the firefighters’ pension contained some misleading information. In the March 6 version, Northfield firefighters: paid or volunteers?, reporter Suzy Rook wrote:
According to a state auditor’s report for 2009, the city’s firefighters, who also serve the Northfield Rural Fire District, have $7,500 apiece placed in the fund annually;
In the sidebar:
$7,500 — Northfield’s annual pension contribution per firefighter
After the March 6 story appeared, Tom’s email to me and Suzy included this:
Northfield Fire Relief is presently at $7500/yr of service. This is not to be confused with “The City pays each member $7500/year” as was stated in the Northfield News e-edition last week. The impact on the annual budget is only the Municipal Contribution amount. For this year, the impact is slightly more than $900/fire fighter.
Likewise, in the comment thread attached to the March 6 story, firefighter Aramis Wells argued with her about this issue. But to no avail, as this week’s March 13 version, Northfield’s firefighter wages, pensions among highest in state, contained the same text and sidebar.
My take
Individual firefighter pension obligations DO NOT cost the City of Northfield/taxpayers $7,500/year, as the Northfield News’ stories indicate.
Rather, if they stay on the job for 20 years or more (and past the age of 50), the pension fund pays them $7,500 per year of service. Big difference.
The amount in the fund fluctuates with the stock market and so the City’s annual contribution to the fund fluctuates. Back in 2008, the City contributed nearly $100,000 to the fund. In 2009 it was half that. This year, Tom says it’ll be about $29,000.
I think the City of Northfield and we citizens get a good deal with this arrangement because the pension encourages firefighters to stay on the job. Lack of turnover is generally a good thing when it comes to firefighting and I think we’re better served by having so many firefighters with so many years of experience.
But we need not worry too much that the current turmoil with the City and the Northfield Fire Department will cause many firefighters to quit. Fire Chief Gerry Franek’s attorney David Hvistendahl, Northfield Area Rural Fire District administrator Jerry Anderson and others are wrong to, um, fan these flames.
Why?
The firefighters get a good deal, too. If they stick with it for 20 years, they get a decent lump sum payout of $150,000. A few are going get twice that as they been on the job for nearly 40 years. Plus, they have an interesting and challenging part-time job in which they get to make a real difference in people’s lives, contribute measurably in the community’s quality of life, and earn our respect for doing so. Not many $21/hr part-time jobs offer all this.
I’m glad the Northfield News did the story because it has helped raise awareness of the issue. But I think they owe it to the firefighters and to the citizens to run a correction.
By Griff Wigley, on February 9, 2012, 6:26 am
Or did Newt Gingrich’s campaign pull a fast one on Ron Paul’s campaign? Inquiring minds want to know. Click the screenshot of the Northfield News front page for a closer look.
By Griff Wigley, on January 18, 2012, 12:05 am
 Like many newspapers around the state, the Northfield News regularly publishes articles via an arrangement with MPR News.
On Monday, the paper ran an MPR story titled More Minnesota lakes and rivers added to impaired list. The paper chose this photo (click to enlarge) to accompany the article.
I’ve lived in Minnesota my whole life and I’ll be damned if I can identify where this picturesque lake might be.
Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?
By Griff Wigley, on January 9, 2012, 6:32 am
By Griff Wigley, on December 30, 2011, 8:54 pm
  About four years ago, I blogged about how you could stop the Northfield Area Shopper from being delivered at your residence or at a nearby residence that was vacant.
The way to do it now is the same way: contact Northfield News publisher Sam Gett via the Northfield News Contact Us page.
By Griff Wigley, on May 29, 2011, 8:46 am
It irritates me that, year after year, the only detailed information about the 9 am Memorial Day ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park is via a big paid advertisement in the print edition of Northfield News. Nothing online, that I can find:
 Northfield Area Veterans Memorial: hasn’t been updated in years- VFW Post 4393 – Northfield: last updated 2008
- Northfield.org: no blog post, nothing on the calendar for 5/30
- Northfield Patch: no story, nothing on the events calendar, only a brief blurb here
- Northfield News: no info, only a sidebar with brief info to their story, Trumpeting our fallen heroes
- Facebook: There is a person (not a group, not a page, just a person) whose first name is Northfield and last name is Vfw. “Has worked at Veterans of Foreign Wars VFW, Lives in Northfield, Minnesota, Married From Northfield, Minnesota, Born on January 1, 1945.” This anonymous person put up an event titled Veterans of Foriegn [sic] Wars and American Legion Memorial Day Service but without any detailed info.
Why the dearth of information online? Is there some sort of exclusive arrangement that the vets organizations have with the Northfield News? It’s maddening.
(To see a large version of the print ad, right-click on the image and open in a new tab/window or view it here.)
By Griff Wigley, on May 26, 2011, 12:37 pm
  Paul Krause, Paul Krause Creative, stopped by my corner office at the GBM this morning to inform me that his documentary ‘Harvest’ will air on TPT’s Minnesota Channel (2.2) this weekend.
Scheduled times are Saturday, May 28 at 7pm, Sunday at 1am, 3am and 1pm.
Harvest sculptor Ray ‘Jake’ Jacobson is recovering at Three Links Transitional Care unit from recent back surgery. Paul expects that Jake will soon be back to work on another exciting project for Northfield that he’s got in the works.
Here are three photos from my October 2008 Harvest Sculpture Dedication album:
  
By Griff Wigley, on May 22, 2011, 7:30 am
  
This weekend, the Northfield News used a photo of the trees cut down on N. Linden St. to illustrate its Talk comes too late for trees story about the N. Plum St. trees, despite the fact that the trees on N. Plum have not yet been cut down. The photo was used for both the print and online versions of the story.
It’s not an insignificant issue, as the residents of N. Plum St. are still pleading (at last Tuesday’s Council meeting and online, e.g. here and here) with city officials to halt plans to cut down the trees, evidently scheduled to begin on Monday.
Although the text of the article doesn’t mention whether or not the trees have already been cut down, the accompanying tag line of the photo in the print version reads:
The widening of Plum Street cost residents decades-old trees.
The past tense of the verb ‘cost’ indicates to the reader that the widening and the cutting have already been done.
The print version of the story has the photo byline "News photo by Suzanne Rook." The file name/URL of the photo is 5-21-plum-street-trees.jpg
The online version of the story indicates that it was submitted by Managing Editor Jerry Smith on Friday night at 10:30:
Submitted by Jerry Smith on Fri, 05/20/2011 – 22:30
Also, the information provided in this paragraph is puzzling:
City maps show 12 trees will be removed during construction. Two are ash trees, which are susceptible to emerald ash borer, an invasive species known to be in Ramsey County. Another 24 ash trees may also be removed, while the survival of 132 trees is construction dependent.
The Plum St. tree map on page 8 of the city’s slide presentation on the project shows at least 29 trees marked with an X which the legend says means ‘Remove.’ Page 9 says:
31 trees are currently noted for removal with 32’ street width;
6 Trees could potentially be left with 30’ street width
I’m not implying that the Northfield New has any hidden agenda on this issue. But it’s difficult to see how the use of the photo and the accompany tag line could be just a simple mistake or oversight.
By Griff Wigley, on March 31, 2011, 7:57 am
 I noticed last week that the Northfield News editorial, Your voice could help save the post office, didn’t mention the fact that Northfield Patch had launched an online petition a couple days earlier, Save the Northfield Post Office! Sign the Online Petition.
No surprise there. The Northfield News won’t link to needy area non-profit organizations in their stories (see this week’s story on the Community Action Center’s Food Shelf as an example), let alone their media competitors or any area bloggers.
But yesterday the Northfield News behaved very badly by putting up their own Save the Northfield Post Office Online Petition, linking to it from their Facebook Wall, and using nearly the exact wording of Patch’s petition. The minor wording changes:
Patch: We, as Northfield residents, stand strongly opposed to the consideration of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to close the downtown Northfield Post Office.
News: As Northfield residents, we stand strongly opposed to the consideration of the United States Postal Service (USPS) to close the downtown Northfield Post Office.
And:
Patch: The downtown post office has been at its current location since 1936 and has become as much a symbol of Northfield as anything else in our community.
News: The downtown post office has sat majestically overlooking the Cannon River at its current location since 1936 and is considered a symbol of Northfield as much as anything else in our community.
Everything else is word-for-word the same.
 I don’t know if this plagiarism but it’s a shitty thing for Northfield News Publisher/Editor Sam Gett, Managing Editor Jerry Smith, and Associate Editor Suzy (Suzanne) Rook to do.
It’s this type of bullying behavior that makes me root for Goliath (media giant AOL is the owner of Patch) against David (Michigan-based Huckle Media LLC is the owner of the Northfield News and 16 other hometown newspapers).
If you know know former Northfielder Renee Huckle Mittelstaedt, now president and co-owner of Huckle Media LLC, consider contacting her about this. No, Huckle Media doesn’t have a website (aarrgghh!) but Renee can be reached via her LinkedIn account and her Facebook account.
By Griff Wigley, on March 7, 2011, 6:27 pm
 I normally prefer more narrowly focused blog posts. And any one of the three subjects in the blog post title would typically suffice.
But Jane McWilliams is teaching a Cannon Valley Elder Collegium course this spring titled The Future of Journalism (4 slots left as I write this) and local media moguls from KYMN, the Northfield News, Northfield Patch, Northfield.org, and yes, even Locally Grown are among the guests she’s having attend various class sessions.
- Since Northfield Patch is the new kid on the block here in town, its time to scrutinize their effort, both locally and nationally. What has been their impact on Northfield thus far? What do you like about what they’re doing? What’s disappointing or problematic?
 Patch is a national chain of hyperlocal news sites owned by AOL. There have been many other high profile hyperlocal news projects launched, with many failures already. What’s being learned out there?- Journalism (local, state, national, international) continues to be in a state of extreme flux. What do you like and not like about what you’re seeing?
If you come across interesting resources related to these issues, be sure to post them in a comment with a link and, if you’re up for it, an excerpt.
By Griff Wigley, on February 22, 2011, 6:27 am
In yesterday’s StarTribune: Time may be right to move public notices to the Web. Governments want to save cost of running them in newspapers. Opponents say public will be harmed.
The law requires notices in newspapers of board proceedings, tax levies, forfeited properties, financial statements and project bids. Against the rising tide of Internet use, many see dumping newspaper notices as a cost saver whose time has come.
Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, has introduced a bill to let local governments skip the papers and publish such notices only on their websites. Drazkowski, who is leading a GOP charge against several state mandates, said using websites will help jurisdictions make up for cuts in state aid. "This is a way to allow local governments the freedom and flexibility to do the best job they can," he said. The bill has six sponsors, including Bloomington DFLer Ann Lenczewski. It has not been introduced in the Senate.
 Bill Name: HF0162. "Political subdivisions authorized to publish proceedings, official notices, and summaries on their Web sites in lieu of newspaper publication."
Anyone know how much the City of Northfield, the Northfield School District, and Rice County pay the Northfield News to publish public notices every year?
By Griff Wigley, on February 1, 2011, 10:26 am
The editors at the NEG have done the tallying and we now have the results of the Northfield Entertainment Guide and Locally Grown readers’ poll of the
Best of Northfield 2010
(6-page PDF)
 The official announcement was made today at 8:45 am when Mr. NEG, Rob Schanilec and I announced the winners on KYMN Radio 1080 with Jeff Johnson.
The Feb. 2011 issue of the Northfield Entertainment Guide includes the results and is now available throughout Northfield, and in Flash and PDF format on the NEG site. Here’s the intro to the Best of 2010 section:
Here it is, loyal Entertainment Guide readers, the long-awaited results to Northfield’s Best of 2010! Our dedicated team of vote counters was wowed by the number of responses we received, but not surprised by the varieties of winners you found for each category.
It confirms our belief that Northfield is a talent-filled town with delights to be found around each and every corner. Though some categories were close, a winner shone through in each and we present them here, with the steady runners-up in italics just behind. Looking at the field of choices, one thing became quite clear to us: the true winner in this poll is the town of Northfield. Congratulations to everyone involved, and here’s to another year!
By Griff Wigley, on January 28, 2011, 11:00 pm
This animated ad is currently appearing in rotation throughout the Northfield News website. The book is titled The Rising Cannon, but half of the ad trumpets The Raising Cannon.
 
Ironically, the misspelled ad appears in rotation adjacent to a stories about A) the book itself; and B) the Middle School Spelling Bee.
By Griff Wigley, on January 5, 2011, 11:36 pm
The Jan-Feb 2011 issue of Redoux Home is out. The bi-monthly publication, which debuted last summer, is published by Nichole Day Diggins, Flying Pan Productions. Elizabeth Child is the editor.
 redoux home is an innovative home and garden lifestyle magazine that speaks to where you live.
Our goal is to bring fresh perspectives, inspiration and sustainable ideas to readers in the Northfield, Faribault, Dundas, Cannon Falls and Red Wing areas.
The new issue includes some hoar frost photos by Patsy Dew and yours truly.
By Tim Freeland, on November 30, 2010, 5:35 pm
 After years on hiatus, we are re-launching “Light up Northfield,” a residential, exterior Christmas light contest.
We will be judging Christmas-light & decorations within the Northfield city limits or a maximum of 5 miles from the city borders. We will be announcing 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners on December 17th, 2010. Winners will receive a prize package full of great tickets and passes to regional events. Winning names will be announced and photos of their homes will be displayed on KYMN’s website.
Entrants are encouraged to upgrade their lighting displays with eco-friendly and cost saving LED lights, but is not required. Winners will be judged on overall creativity and showmanship.
Enter your exterior residential Christmas light display and win. See all the details at KYMN!
By Griff Wigley, on November 28, 2010, 2:59 pm
 In a town with a thousand PhD’s, nobody refers to or addresses any of them with ‘Dr.’ or ‘Doctor.’
But for some reason, KYMN (example here) and the League of Women Voters of Northfield (example here) use it with the superintendent of schools. The Northfield News used to do it (2008 example here) but appears to have discontinued it. I was glad to see that Northfield Patch did NOT do this last week in its first district-related story. Not even the school district itself does it, sticking instead to "Superintendent Richardson" in its minutes, though some school board members have a tendency to address him as ‘Doctor’ during the course of a board meeting.
I have nothing against Chris Richardson or the previous Northfield District superintendents, but IMHO, only medical physicians should be addressed as ‘Doctor’ or have the ‘Dr.’ in front of their names. Why treat superintendents as if they’re somehow special?
Our local college presidents (one has a Doctor of Philosophy/PhD, the other a Juris Doctor/JD) don’t get the Doctor/Dr. treatment from KYMN (example here). Not even former school superintendent Charlie Kyte (example here) does. So if they don’t, then neither should Richardson.
How about it, Jeff? How about it, Jessica?
By Griff Wigley, on October 28, 2010, 4:59 pm
 
AOL has hired former Northfield News reporter Corey Butler Jr. to be its new editor of Northfield Patch (not yet open). The corporate Patch About page says that it’s "a community-specific news and information platform dedicated to providing comprehensive and trusted local coverage for individual towns and communities."
Patch is also soon launching in Eagan, Edina, Golden Valley, Richfield, and St. Louis Park. I was to meet with Minnesota Patch regional editor Don Wyatt today in Apple Valley but he had to cancel.
MinnPost’s David Brauer has blogged about Patch’s arrival in MN (see his posts: July, Aug, Sept, and Oct). There’s plenty more to read online about Patch, as it’s commonly seen as the most well-funded of the national hyperlocal community news ventures. AOL has deep pockets.
Since Patch goes after local advertising dollars, I see them as a competitor to the Northfield News, KYMN, and the Northfield Entertainment Guide. Since Patch does community event info and seeks content from citizens, they’re also a competitor to Northfield.org. Some of their sites have discussion threads on their stories so in that sense, they’re a competitor to Locally Grown.
Competition is good though, right?
By Griff Wigley, on October 21, 2010, 2:37 pm
 It’s all over the MSM, blogosphere and twittersphere today. MPR’s News Cut blog has a good overview: Should Juan Williams have been fired?
The story of the day today seems to be NPR’s firing of Juan Williams, who exercised the poor judgment to go on Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox to admit to being concerned when he sees Muslims on an airplane, but cautioned O’Reilly not to brand Muslims as terrorists.
Lots of Fox and NPR fans in Northfield so this should be a good discussion.
By Griff Wigley, on July 16, 2010, 7:21 am
 This week’s Northfield News has a story titled Price increase creates rush for passports (see Rice County’s announcement, New Passport Fees, Effective July 13, 2010.)
At the end of the article is this curious one-liner:
The cost to renounce your U.S. citizenship is $450.
Huh?
If you’re really interested (yikes!), see the Wikipedia entry Renunciation of citizenship and the US Gov. page, Renunciation of U.S. Citizenship.
By Griff Wigley, on July 15, 2010, 6:40 am
 Prairie’s Edge Humane Society (PEHS) has a new segment on KYMN called “Animal Attractions.” Kathy Jasnoch and Sandy Vesledahl are live on Jeff Johnson’s Morning Show every 2 weeks at 6:50 am on Thursdays. Sandy emailed me this:
We discuss 4-5 animals that we would like to highlight that are available for adoption and then any upcoming events or projects or whatever happenings at PEHS.
7:10 am update: I’ve added an in-studio photo above. And the dog that they seemed most eager to find a home for: Chance!
 
By Griff Wigley, on June 27, 2010, 10:34 am
 
I noticed yesterday that proprietor Tim Sellers has a sign in the window of Tiny’s that reads:
Yes, Tiny’s is open
Tues-Sat 9:30 to 5:00
No thanks to the Nfld News
The Northfield News ran an article back in April titled: Locals try to save a Northfield landmark.
A longtime downtown business is expected to close in the coming months. Tiny’s Hot Dogs at 321 Division St. is set for a sheriff’s sale June 3, according to a legal notice published last week. Owner Timothy Sellers has until Dec. 3 to rework his mortgage or come up with the necessary funds to cover the debt. Sellers declined to comment, but support of the longtime Northfield shop has quickly grown.
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I’ve done four fire department/association-related blog posts since January (here, here, here, and here) as well as a three more on attorney David Hvistendahl (here, here, and here) who’s representing the fire and rescue squad associations. It’s a complex and constantly evolving issue. 
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