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By Griff Wigley, on September 26, 2011, 6:39 am
The Northfield News has a Remembering the Flood of 2010 feature in the Sept. 24 print edition. Only one of the four print articles is viewable from its online News category/section (and, strangely, none from its Flood of 2010 section). So I dug around and found them, as I think it’s a great follow-up to the flooding post-mortem blog post and discussion we had here on Locally Grown for several months starting a few days after the flood.
Nfld News series, Remembering the Flood of 2010, Sept. 24, 2011 edition:
See my photo album of the flood from Sept. 2010, the large slideshow (recommended), or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
By Griff Wigley, on September 23, 2011, 9:24 am
   
Waterford Township Supervisor Liz Messner and Bridgewater Township Clerk Janalee Cooper stopped by my morning corner office at Goodbye Blue Monday yesterday. They’re spreading the word about how the Waterford Iron Bridge is in the running for a portion of $1 million from Partners in Preservation. They’ve teamed up on their promotion efforts with Dakota County Historical Society and are encouraging people to vote one day for the Waterford Iron Bridge (Facebook page) and the next day for Historic Pilot Knob (PDF).
I’m conflicted. I grew up a mile from Historic Pilot Knob and have Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota ancestors. See my 2008 blog post when the site was purchased by the city of Mendota Heights, saving it from development.
 
But my affection is now for the Waterford Iron Bridge because I regularly visit there, biking and walking across it as it’s adjacent to the Carleton Arb. It was one year ago this weekend when the flood nearly washed it away.
Northfielder Paul Hager has produced this gorgeous Waterford Iron Bridge video:
The Waterford Iron Bridge from Paul Hager on Vimeo.
 
So 1) get your butt over to the Partners in Preservation Facebook page, 2) Like the page, 3) authorize their app so you can vote, and then 4) vote every day till Oct. 12.
You can also vote via your smartphone. Scan their QR code to make it easy.
See these links for local Waterford Iron Bridge media coverage:
By Griff Wigley, on September 22, 2011, 9:54 am
 On Tuesday night, I sat in on a meeting of citizens who are interested in taking the Northfield Roundtable’s Greening of the Commons to the next stage.
Those present (clockwise from the left): Steve Engler, Bonnie Jean Flom, EdDee Imm, Dave Van Wylen, Lynne Young, Pat Allen, Dale Gehring, Lynn Vincent, Ann Mosey.
There will be others at the next meeting who couldn’t be at this one.
Northfield Roundtable’s most recent document is Framework Planning in Northfield, Sept. 2011:
What is a Framework Plan?
A document of conceptual illustrations to inspire ideas, generate conversation and explore “what could be.” A Framework Plan supports a larger idea of the whole, that is easily lost when individual elements are only considered as separate entities or identities.
Intentions of the Framework Plan
The Framework Plan will always be a work in progress. It is a document designed to be inspirational rather than prescriptive, with an emphasis on what could be as opposed to what should be. The goal is to encourage long-range visioning that will keep Northfield, Minnesota, an attractive and vibrant place to live, learn, work and play…well into the future.
Other recent links related to the Northfield Roundtable and Greening of the Commons:
http://www.ci.northfield.mn.us/events/admin/2011/01/29/northfield_round_table
http://northfield.org/content/greening-commons-discussion-tonight
http://www.northfieldnews.com/content/greening-commons-community-conversation
http://northfieldnews.com/content/northfield-roundtable-hopes-encourage-what-could-be
http://northfield.patch.com/articles/northfield-commons-group-seeks-support-for-greening-plan
http://northfield.patch.com/articles/northfields-hwy-3-with-trees
http://locallygrownnorthfield.org/post/21456/
By Griff Wigley, on August 27, 2011, 7:46 am
 
In recent years, the downtown DJJD banners were hung by city street staff with no cost to the DJJD committee. But with the 2010 Community Events Policy, this changed. Community groups requiring support services from the City must pay for them.
So to save money this year, DJJD’ers found someone to donate the use of a boom truck. And last Sunday morning at 6 am, City of Northfield Streets and Parks Supervisor TJ Heinricy took off his staff hat and put on his volunteer hat to put up the DJJD banners with Hayes Scriven and Brad Ness. Nice.
By Griff Wigley, on August 25, 2011, 11:26 pm
  
I drove by the Peggy Prowe Pedestrian Bridge on Hwy 3 this morning and noticed that there was a banner hanging from it. I couldn’t read it from the highway but upon closer inspection, saw that it was promoting advanced DJJD ticket sales. For what? It doesn’t say, but I assume for the rodeo, to be held in the adjacent arena in Babcock Park.
I’m fine with the DJJD banner in Ames Park (right photo) since it’s just informative and that corner of the park has been traditionally used to promote non-profit community events. And I’m fine with Michelob Golden Light Draft and others (in this case, Econofoods and Community Resource Bank) sponsoring DJJD on their banners. But I don’t think City property, especially parks, should be used for commercial advertising of any kind, let alone beer.
Would someone let Peggy know so she can raise some hell about this?
By Griff Wigley, on August 25, 2011, 8:16 am
 
A month ago, I attended a Parks and Rec board meeting when the issue of geese droppings was discussed. I wrote:
There was also discussion about the pros and cons of an ordinance that would prohibit the feeding of ducks and geese, as that’s seen as a contributing factor to the problem on the Sesqui Plaza. In the meantime, the City will place some “Don’t feed the wildlife” signs there.
The signs are now up. Four of them. Some people aren’t happy. Nfld News’ Suzy Rook published an online column yesterday on the issue: Please don’t feed the animals:
 A few people, I’ve heard, aren’t happy with the signs the city posted along the Cannon River asking downtown visitors not to feed the wildlife. But there are good reasons for the request, said city Streets and Parks Supervisor T.J. Heinricy…
While the signs, he said, are getting the point across, he’s gotten complaints from those who want to bring their children to the river to feed the ducks and geese. And while Heinricy understands how much fun it can be for a kids to interact with wildlife, he’s asking that we all do our part to keep Northfield tidy and safe: Don’t feed the animals. We’ll all be better off for it.
By Griff Wigley, on August 13, 2011, 7:12 am
Ever since the Plum St. reconstruction debacle, the City Council has shown interest in rethinking our streets and roads.
Nfld News: City Council is considering new plans to make Northfield roads ‘complete’
The Minnesota Complete Streets Coalition is a cooperative effort that began in 2009 through the work of Fresh Energy, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and Transit for Livable Communities. The coalition “seeks to improve and ensure access to safe travel choices for Minnesotans” by encouraging cities to build their roads with all users in mind, not just cars.
For a street to be "complete," it must take into account what types of transportation the road is used for, how heavy the traffic is and what the surrounding area is like. Along with attending to the needs of road users, the coalition urges cities to make wise environmental choices during construction projects.
More at: National Complete Streets Coalition
By Griff Wigley, on July 31, 2011, 11:29 pm
The 2nd Annual Above the Clouds Pride March was held in St. Cloud on Friday morning, followed by a Marriage Equality Rally in the evening. See the Saturday St. Cloud Times: Parade, rally support GLBT community.
That’s a familiar family face in photo #4 of the gallery, holding a sign that says "Straight, not narrow."
 Caption: Gilly Wigley, 25, St. Cloud, waits for the start of the Above the Clouds Pride March Friday."
– St. Cloud Times photo by Kimm Anderson
In November 2012, Minnesota voters decide whether to approve an amendment to the constitution banning same-sex marriage. Those of us who are straight are especially needed to help defeat the amendment.
By Griff Wigley, on July 27, 2011, 9:38 am
Consideration of a Northfield area campground (RV park and tent camping) is now on the radar of the Parks & Rec Advisory Board (PRAB), the Northfield Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and soon the Northfield Economic Development Authority (EDA). (See the comment thread attached to the July 3rd blog post, Why doesn’t Northfield have a campground?)
So we can now start brainstorming possible locations and what the pros and cons might be of each. If the City creates a Campground Ad Hoc Task Force, the discussion here might be helpful to them.
For example, Sechler Park:
  
Sechler Park was one of the sites mentioned at last week’s PRAB meeting. I took the above two panoramic photos of the open space at the southern edge of the park, between the two ball fields and near the picnic shelter and playground. (See the aerial view image on the right, taken from page 5 of this Park Master Plan Appendix (PDF).
Advantages for tent camping:
- Flat grassy area
- Parking lot
- Water and bathrooms at the picnic shelter
- Adjacent to the Cannon River
- Adjacent to Mill Towns Trail
- Close to downtown
- Gates to the park would allow it to be restricted during off-season, high water, etc.
- Little needed for infrastructure improvements
- Other advantages?
Disadvantages for tent camping:
- Noisy railroad yard nearby
- Seasonal flooding
- Other disadvantages?
Attach a comment if you can think of other pros and cons for tent camping at Sechler. Would the site also work for RV camping?
Got another site you think suitable for tent camping and/or an RV park? Suggest it!
By Griff Wigley, on July 26, 2011, 7:30 am
Last Thursday, July 21, a contractor started laying erosion control blankets along the East Cannon River Trail and other areas of construction from the Babcock Park Lift Station & Interceptor Sewer Project.
   
When biking the trail, however, I noticed that the silt fence, washed out in more than a dozen places a week earlier by the heavy rains (5 inches?) on July 15, had not been fixed. With thunderstorms in the forecast for the weekend, I wrote to City street/engineering staffers Sean Simonson and TJ Heinricy:
Sean/TJ, I noticed yesterday that the silt fence along the East Cannon River Trail has been washed out in many places since last Friday’s heavy rains. I see the contractor is putting down the erosion blankets rather than repairing the silt fence. And at the south end of the trail, there’s no silt fence at all along the unpaved section of the trail, with several places where they’ve just pushed dirt up to the river’s edge. With the probability of more thunderstorms this weekend, what’s the plan to remedy this?
I got this email back from Brian Hilgardner, Senior Project Manager, for Bolton & Menk, an engineering consulting firm that works with the City:
Griff, Sean is out of town on vacation, however, I was made aware of your concerns for potential erosion control along the Cannon River Trail. The Contractor replaced much of the silt fence along the entire corridor approximately three weeks ago. Obviously, the heavy rains took its toll on some of the silt fence. The Contractor wasn’t able to get any equipment onto the site to make repairs earlier this week because they would have made conditions worse because the soil was still wet and soft.
They are currently placing seed/mulch and erosion control blanket to stabilize the entire site. They will also be repairing silt fence today. The erosion control blanket is actually a much better and preferred erosion control Best Management Practice (BMP’s) according to the Minnesota Stormwater Manual, and as indicated in my training for Erosion and Stormwater Management Certification. In fact, silt fence is one of the least preferred, yet still most commonly used because of its lower cost.
By the end of the day, everything should be stabilized again. Please call me if you have any further questions or comments.
I replied to Brian:
Thanks much for your detailed, quick response, Brian. Good to know that it’ll be stabilized by day’s end.
Will that include along the south, unpaved end of the trail by the old Village School? There’s no silt fence there at all and it doesn’t appear that that section will be ready for erosion blankets for a quite a while… probably until after it’s paved, right?
Brian:
I did instruct the contractor to get silt fence installed on that end today. You are correct, that end will not be fully stabilized until it is paved, hopefully sometime next week if the weather remains decent. I appreciate your concern for these issues and please feel free to contact me in the future if you have any comments or questions.
The contractor did fix the silt fence by the end of the day on Friday. I was thrilled. The weather did not "remain decent" however; we got nearly 2 inches of rain in about 30 minutes on Saturday morning. I rode the trail to see the results.
   
As you can see from the above photos, the silt fence along the unfinished south end of the trail did its job.
  
And with a few minor exceptions, the erosion control blankets did their job.
  
But on all the inclined areas where the contractor had not placed blankets, the straw/seeding just washed away. In most places, the repaired silt fence caught the runoff.
I wrote to Brian yesterday:
Brian, Nice work! The erosion blankets did their job during Saturday’s deluge, with a few minor exceptions. And the silt fence at the far south end did its job. But all the slightly inclined places where erosion blankets were NOT used, the straw was just washed away/ruined. What’s the plant to fix that?
Brian:
We are actually driving the site right now. We will likely have them overseed the entire project and mulch again. I will keep you posted.
Kudos to Brian and City Hall for the handling of a challenging situation.
By Griff Wigley, on July 25, 2011, 10:43 am
  
The heavy rain on Saturday morning has collapsed part of the pavement at 4th & Division. Unlike the hole in the street that opened up on 6th & Division a couple weeks ago, this problem has occurred on a portion of 4th St. that was completely replaced last year.
Will the contractor be held accountable for the repair?
Update, 8 am, 07/26:
It’s worse than I thought. The pavement has develop a large bulge along the white stripe parallel to the crosswalk, as well as along the concrete edge near the curb, right in front of First National Bank of Northfield.
  
Update, 11 am, 07/28:
The street was repaired yesterday, with costs born by the City. See the discussion thread. Photo below courtesy of Hayes Scriven.
By Griff Wigley, on July 25, 2011, 9:39 am
 
I took these panoramic photos of Grant Park on Saturday morning after the thunderstorm deluge. The pond is normally tiny and often completely dry. Click the thumbnails to view normally or right-click to see larger versions.
By Griff Wigley, on July 24, 2011, 11:26 pm
I attended a meeting of the City of Northfield Park & Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) last week because of my interest in two items on their agenda: A) seeing what could be done to get a campground (tent and RV) in Northfield; and B) what to do about the goose poop problem. See my notes (campground here; goose poop here).
Do you know who’s on the PRAB? I didn’t know everyone there so I thought I’d post these photos of not quite all of them (Eric Hong and Neil Lutsky were absent) sitting around the table in the Library meeting room.
 
PRAB members: Grace Clark, Erik Hong, Nathan Knutson, David Hvistendahl, Dick Johnson, Dale Gehring, Neil Lutsky. City staff Liaison: Lynne Young.
Also in the above photos for the meeting: City of Northfield Streets and Parks Supervisor TJ Heinricy, Northfield Public Schools Community Services Recreation Coordinator Erin Mayberry, City of Northfield Recreation Manager Allison Watkins, City of Northfield / Maintenance Facility Administrative Assistant Barbara Thompson.
By Griff Wigley, on July 21, 2011, 12:00 pm
    
Hayes Scriven invited me to witness Bridgette from Graphic Mailbox do the installation of a ‘public restrooms inside’ sign on the door of the Northfield Historical Society this morning.
Why me? I’ve been whining about the need for public toilet signage when the toilets are paid for with public dollars, as is the case for the Archer House and now the NHS. So I had to go. Everything worked out in the end. What a relief.
Hopefully now the Downtown Streetscape Taskforce will do its part to make the changes to the wayfinding signs to point people to the public toilets at the Archer House, the NHS, and Public Library.
When that happens, like Dr. Humphrey C. Cornholt, it will give me "great pleasure to be able to release all that I’ve been holding inside me for so long."
By Griff Wigley, on July 18, 2011, 11:43 am
 I noticed workers cleaning out the Sheldahl anniversary fountain on Bridge Square this morning. (Yes, it’ll be ready for today’s 105+ heat index.)
It reminded me that Northfielder Brenton Balvin tweeted this question a couple of weeks ago:
#northfield friends, quick poll: is it ok for kids to wade / walk in downtown fountain?
I replied with an emphatic YES but Northfield.org board chair Nate White tweeted:
i’d say not okay on a typical day but I certainly wouldn’t fault anybody for taking a dip today!
 I’ve never known it to NOT be okay for anyone to wade in the fountain, kids or adults. I’ve taken more than a few photos of kids wading there, eg, this photo from my Taste of Northfield 2010 album.
But maybe TPTB just look the other way when it happens.
Is there any question on what Ray "Jake" Jacobson would say about folks wading in one of his public fountains?
By Griff Wigley, on July 15, 2011, 9:48 am
By Griff Wigley, on July 10, 2011, 10:35 am
An article in today’s Strib lists our Northfield-area legislators, Sen. Al DeKruif and Rep. Kelby Woodard, as among the 139 who are collecting paychecks during MN gov’t shutdown.
Maybe I’m missing it but I don’t see anything about their rationale for doing so. Here are the links:
Sen. Al DeKruif:
Rep. Kelby Woodard
I’ll invite them to comment here.
By Griff Wigley, on July 10, 2011, 7:26 am
I was walking downtown just after noon yesterday when a Federal government employee (postal worker Tom Kotula) asked me if I’d seen the deep hole in the street at 6th & Division.
   
   
When I arrived to take photos, a City government worker was directing a private contractor (who had been hired by City government Streets and Parks Supervisor TJ Heinricy) to dig up the hole to, um, get to the bottom of it.
According to a story on Nlfd Patch (the Northfield MSM—Nfld Patch, Nfld News, KYMN—had been alerted to the issue via email by City government Administrator Tim Madigan) the hole likely opened up after a Federal Government National Guard vehicle drove over the street. (Nfld Patch has patch photos. Heh.)
After excavation, City government workers filled the hole and tomorrow will investigate how storm water (created and unleashed by a non-governmental source but rerouted by City Government) caused the hole in the first place.
Where would we be without government?
By Griff Wigley, on July 9, 2011, 8:01 am
  
The City of Northfield has had the exclusive franchise on selling tobacco downtown for quite a while. Yes, you can buy cigars and cigarettes at the Muni.
Six months ago, Tobacco Field opened near downtown on So. Hwy 3. And now, Division Tobacco is coming to Division St. Nfld Patch: Legal restrictions force councilors to allow downtown tobacco shop
In a near legally mandated vote, councilors approved 5-2 to allow a business owner with a history of criminal disputes and stores that sold drug paraphernalia to open a new shop in Northfield.
Councilors Rhonda Pownell and Kris Vohs voted against the measure despite city attorney Chris Hood’s claim that Northfield "[does not] have sufficient basis to deny" a license and risked legal action if it denied the license.
With tough budgeting on the horizon for the City, I’m wondering what Muni manager Stephen DeLong has in mind to ratchet up tobacco revenue.
Let’s help him out by brainstorming some suggestions.
By Griff Wigley, on July 8, 2011, 9:06 am
Exactly one year ago yesterday, I blogged about the lack of progress in the City’s effort to control the problem of Canada geese shitting in Ames Park, Riverside Park, Babcock Park, and Sesquicentennial Plaza. I suggested a solution (Border Collies), other suggestions emerged in the discussion thread, and the Northfield News drew attention to the problem with an article, editorial, and letters to the editor.
  
But as you can see from these photos of Riverside Park this week, the problem is worse than ever. Are condo owners at Village on the Cannon pissed? Not only are the geese spoiling their ‘front yard’ and adjacent walking trails, they are likely hurting the sales of condos. Ironically, on their association’s home page, they feature a photo of the geese on the Cannon River. Oy.
    
It’s just as bad in Ames Park and in and around the Peggy Prowe Pedestrian Bridge in Babcock Park. It’s especially bad on Sesquicentennial Legacy Plaza. I wonder if Ray ‘Jake’ Jacobson knows what the geese are doing to the granite pavers surrounding his ‘Harvest’ sculpture?
I waved Northfield Park and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB) chair Nathan Knutson over to my corner office at GBM yesterday and told him I had just taken photos of the problem. He said the issue came up at the PRAB retreat recently and that they were considering what to do. I don’t see anything about it their recent minutes and agendas but I hope this blog post will help focus attention on the problem.
By Griff Wigley, on July 8, 2011, 7:32 am
By Griff Wigley, on July 7, 2011, 4:23 pm
 The Northfield Planning Commission is holding a public hearing tonight "to hear comments on the proposed Land Development Code (LDC) and make a recommendation to the City Council to approve."
Publicity on the public hearing (7 pm City Hall) appears to be near-zilch.
Nothing recent posted on:
KYMN has brief blog post on it (link broken as of 4pm) because they’re streaming the meeting.
Last week, Councilor Betsey Buckheit blogged about it:
The Planning Commission has devoted an amazing amount of time and effort to this project to craft regulations which are specific to Northfield. The Planning Commission has worked with the Chamber of Commerce on both commercial and residential regulations, with both colleges on the regulations affecting their campuses and the relation of the campuses to their surrounding neighborhoods, and held public meetings and information sessions. Thank you – it is more than we should ask of our volunteers, but you demanded that the revision be done and I applaud your efforts.
By Griff Wigley, on July 6, 2011, 10:58 am
Clark Webster, longtime volunteer with Save the Northfield Depot, stopped by my corner office at the GBM this morning to let me know that the City Council voted last night to sell a chunk of its land on the Q-Block to the group (amount? to be determined). It also voted to cover up to $11,000 in legal and environmental assessment fees.
The Save the Northfield Depot group doesn’t use a blog, Twitter, or Facebook so we don’t have any official details. Hopefully, A) one or more of Northfield’s media empires will have a story posted soon; and B) the Depot group will figure out that have a living, breathing social media presence is critical to raising public awareness and raising money.
 
Above: two panoramic views of the Q-Block: Left, from 2nd St, looking SE; right, from Hwy 3, looking west
 
Above: two views of the approximate future location for the old train depot (below).
Update noon: Some other visuals related to the depot and the Q Block, taken from Pages 1-35 of Part 2 of the council packet for last night’s meeting.
 
  
By Griff Wigley, on July 5, 2011, 8:10 am
Our plans to camp at Sakatah Lake State Park over weekend were axed due to the MN Government shutdown. So we headed to SE Minnesota instead, hoping that we’d find a place to camp somewhere along the Blufflands State Trail. Previous blog posts tell the story: we found a spot to camp in Sylvan Park in Lanesboro.
On Saturday, the effects of Friday night’s severe thunderstorm were everywhere: trees and branches on and blocking the trails. The MN DNR maintains the trails and normally would have been out in force to quickly clear them for the big holiday weekend. But with the shutdown, DNR employees are laid off.
   
The good news: a chainsaw-toting network of local landowners, volunteers, and even laid-off DNR employees had all the trails open by mid-day on Saturday. We only had to carry our bikes across one downed tree on Saturday afternoon but it was removed on our return trip. It’s a good example of how motivated citizens can take on a task that government typically provides.
The bad news: the trails are littered with millions of small sticks and branches, often making for a very bumpy ride (photo on far right). It’s likely that those will remain on the trail until the shutdown ends and DNR staff can get out and sweep the trail (example here.) It’s a good example of how motivated citizens can’t do everything that government typically provides.
By Griff Wigley, on July 4, 2011, 7:41 am
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