As RepJ reporter Bonnie Obremski and her fiancé, Josh Rowan, loaded up their car yesterday for their new life in Key West, their cat, Sarah Palin, registered her objection by hiding out above the street level door jam of their apartment. It took some acrobatics to fetch her.
Josh, my fiance, and I added two to the population when we arrived. Now, we're taking a Northfield native back out with us, our cat "Sarah Palin." Minus three!
Northfield, we’ve reached the hand off. The Representative Journalism Project has come to another turning point after eight months. Now, instead of reading the work of a transplanted, temporary journalist (me) you could soon have the opportunity to support the area’s indigenous writers. Those writers, sponsored by the public, would produce news material that could appear across a range of local media, including LocallyGrownNorthfield.org. (More about that coming soon).
As the Representative Journalism Project collaborators have been hashing out the details of that new evolution, I came to the conclusion this month that perhaps one of the best things I could do to ensure the success of our latest ideas would be to step out of the way, instead of remaining until my work contract expired in July.
Our guest today was Bonnie Obremski who announced that she’s resigned her position as the reporter for the Northfield Representative Journalism project effective Friday. She and her fiancé, Josh Rowan (pictured at right doing a finger puppet show in the KYMN studio window), depart Saturday for Key West, FL. Bonnie will post her own announcement tomorrow here on LG, so I’ve turned off comments on this post. Chime in on her post when you see it… and note the date, time and place of her going-away party on Friday eve.
Update 1/17 at 11 am 3pm: new photos – yesterday’s RepJ/LoGroNo mtg at Carleton; RepJ feedback session this morning at Bittersweet Eatery; RepJ lunch at Chapati; Len Witt, paparazzi (continued…)
Len Witt, the person who came up with the concept of Representative Journalism, is visiting Northfield this month. I’m inviting the community to join us at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 17 at the Goodbye Blue Monday cafeBittersweet Eatery (back room) for an hour of informal discussion. Please email me directly at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com if you think you might come. If we have a large response, I might change the venue of the discussion to a place with more space. Hope to see you there!
Discussions among LocallyGrownNorthfield.org visitors blossom and fade, to resurface another time or never again. Representative Journalism Project stories have had a similar cycle so far, but I’d like to insert a step when conversation about a topic begins to slow.
The goal of the step is to combine reader input and reported information into a single piece of writing. That way, a person can better see how the community and I worked together. I’m still figuring out what a final presentation of material would look like and how to make it as useful as possible, and I’m open to ideas from readers.
The latest online discussions surrounding a proposed new municipal liquor store subsided about three weeks ago (There are three discussion threads. “Gleason offers land…” has had the most activity, followed by “EDA talks about trust…” and “Two EDA members score…“).
The subject of whether and where to build a new liquor store is one that has surged intermittently among Northfielders since about 2005. In 2005, the City Council was considering renovating or moving the existing liquor store on the corner of Water and Fifth streets.
In August, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued two citations to the city after inspecting the store. Those citations indicated an electrical panel was too difficult for workers to access and that the stairway connecting the main floor to a storage room below was dangerous.
A lengthy delay
The existing City Council appears to favor building a new liquor store, but the council has struggled to decide where to build one. The decision was significantly delayed in 2007 when council members suspected Mayor J. Lee Lansing had pushed too hard in favor of putting the store in his son’s building at the south end of the downtown’s main drag. That building was one the family had operated as a hardware store for more than 30 years.
Lansing has denied any wrongdoing. Even so, the City Council votedin December 2007 to ask Lansing to resign, but Lansing refused to step down or relinquish the key to his office in city hall. The mayor and the council continued to work together, but the council had the lock changed on the mayor’s office door to prevent him from working there, and tension mounted.
In April, the Lansing family’s hardware store closed, partly as a result of a separate legal matter, according to an article published in the Northfield News. David Lansing, the mayor’s son, had to move the store as “part of a settlement of a 2006 lawsuit that centered around the hardware store building,” according to the article.
In October, the results of an investigation by Steve Betcher, the Goodhue County attorney, caused the mayor to face five charges of misconduct and two of maintaining a conflict of interest while in office.
In January, new City Council members Betsey Buckheit (Ward 2), Rhonda Pownell (At Large, two-year seat) and Erica Zweifel (Ward 3) will fill three of the council’s six seats, to replace, respectively, Scott Davis, Noah Cashman and Arnie Nelson. Mary Rossing will be the new mayor. The looming turnover has caused some people to believe that decisions about the liquor store should fall to the new council. Other people believe the existing council will be able to make a sound decision by year’s end Jan.4*. Others still are discontented that the council is no longer considering repairing the old store, or getting out of the liquor business altogether.
A new approach
In November, members of the city’s staff attempted to come up with a way to help the City Council decide where to build a new liquor store. They asked City Council to come up with basic criteria. The city staff added a few more requirements to the list and then asked property owners to submit proposals. In December, the council began to consider five proposals that fell into the boundaries of the requests, and stopped considering two proposals that fell beyond those boundaries.
The new owners of the former Lansing hardware store on 618 Division St., who do business as the New Division Development Company, submitted one of the proposals the council is currently considering. In addition, the council is considering a proposal submitted by Mendota Homes, which would build a new liquor store on the same property as The Crossing residential building, owned by Mendota. That proposed site is on the southeast corner of Second Street and State Highway 3. The Q-Block Partners is another corporation that submitted a proposal. The partners would build a store on a property across the street from The Crossing. The Northfield Development Company is proposing to develop a parcel on 500 Water St. into a new store. That property contains the Just Food cooperative grocery store. Daryl Knudsen proposed to build a store at 717 South Water St., where a multiple-family house stands now.
Despite the attempt to aid the council in its decision-making, the request for proposals process the spurred another wave of suspicion over whether someone in the city’s government was trying to be sneaky. Complications began when the city staff devised a score sheet in order to rate how closely each proposal met basic criteria.
Four different groups of people, which staff identified as important players in the proposed new liquor store development, filled out the score sheets. Those groups were: Victor Summa and Steve Engler of the Economic Development Authority’s Infill Committee; city staff, represented by Joel Walinski, interim city administrator, Brian O’Connell, community development director and Steve DeLong, liquor store manager; Northfield Enterprise Center representatives; and Donnelly Development representatives.
Northfielders debated the selection of people, the criteria on the score sheet and the ethics of rating the proposals before giving them to City Council. There was also debate over what parts of the proposals were private and what information could be revealed to the public.
The city staff released the score sheet, with the names of the each of the seven property owners who submitted proposals, in November. Walinski asked one of the city’s attorneys to look up state laws on confidential information regarding requests for proposals. He then publicly posted a memo containing information about the law.
Further complication
Perhaps the most significant debate occurred when Walinski said there were seven proposals and then Summa and Engler said that they had filled out score sheets for only five proposals when it had come time to rate the documents. On Nov. 20, Summa and Engler said city staff did not have score sheets for two of the proposals that had not met the minimum requirements in the request for proposals. Summa and Engler said they did not see the two eliminated proposals.
After Summa and Engler said they had scored only five proposals, Walinski said he could not comment on whether two more proposals had, in fact, been ruled out. That information, he said, was confidential. He added that he believed he had made it clear to Summa and Engler that any information about what they did during the scoring session was confidential.
Walinski’s remarks implied Summa and Engler had breached confidentiality. Still Summa, a retired documentary filmmaker and local political activist, and Engler, a former state senator, said they had not known the number of proposals was confidential, especially since city staff had released some information about the number of proposals and property owners previously.
The debate over the information Summa and Engler shared even seeped over to the Northfield News’ Web site. Jaci Smith, managing editor, responded to Summa’s written note of self-defense, which he posted on LocallyGrownNorthfield.org.
“It seemed to me he violated the intent if not the actual rules of the process,” Smith wrote.
Walinski has since twice refused to publicly clarify why Summa and Engler scored only five of the proposals and whether Summa and Engler breached confidentiality. Instead, Walinski said he would rather focus on the primary goal, which is to help the City Council make a decision about the liquor store.
A side discussion
While discussion about the matter unfolded online, James Gleason, one of the owners of the proposals that didn’t made the cut, came forward to reveal why he believed his family’s idea had been removed from consideration. The property was too far beyond the downtown area that City Council and city staff identified as the prime location for a new liquor store. Gleason argued that the council might not have been wise in eliminating his proposal because he offered the valuable commercial land across from the Target store for just $1. The information fueled a side debate between those who agreed with Gleason and those who suspected the motives behind his offer.
Have we learned?
I began reporting this story after attending an Economic Development Authority meeting during which the issue of the liquor store arose. I was shocked at how quickly suspicion seemed to grow among elected officials, members of city staff and Northfield residents.
I talked with people about what I observed. Some told me “Well, that’s just Northfield” or “Well, that’s just city government.” Some people pointed fingers at groups or individuals. Some blamed the infighting the City Council has experienced of late.
*Corrections indicated with a strike-through of the mistake and replacement text.
What does this latest development in the plan to build a new liquor store say about Northfield as a community?
Is there anything we can learn from these discussions?
How could what we learn help us in the future?
What is the most important question that has emerged from our discussions and have we answered it?
Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch awarded the check in New York this morning. The university will be putting out a formal press release, but I don’t want to get scooped. So you will read it here first, unless you follow Ruth Ann on Twitter, she sent a Tweet as the check was granted.
Very cool. Len will be visiting Northfield in mid-January to catch up on all-things Northfield RepJ related.
In the meantime, if you’ve got RepJ-related feedback for Len or Northfield RepJ reporter Bonnie Obremski, see her blog post from last week titled Half-year mark for RepJ Project.
The Representative Journalism Project is nearing its five-month anniversary and my collaborators and I could not thank the people of Northfield enough for all the support they have offered so far.
We’re hoping those supporters might chime in now and let us know what parts of the project seem to be working and what parts still need refinement.
The Representative Journalism Project is nearing its five-month anniversary and my collaborators and I could not thank the people of Northfield enough for all the support they have offered so far.
We’re hoping those supporters might chime in now and let us know what parts of the project seem to be working and what parts still need refinement.
One change I am determined to make this week is in how I introduce stories, document their development and finally present them to readers. I would like to gather more input from a wider spectrum of people, and do more to show them my reporting and writing process, before I produce a finished piece of work.
Now, when I put up a part of a story to introduce a topic, I would like to see readers help me put together the next part of that story for the following day, and so on until finally, I write a feature-length article that one might see in a magazine or newspaper.
In the evolution phase of story development, I want to be more informal about presenting the information I update day-to-day. I want people to know more about how and when I got the information, and what thoughts ran through my head as I received it.
I hope the increased transparency and opportunity for public participation will improve the quality of my stories and distinguish Representative Journalism as a truly different and valuable way for a community to learn about itself.
Please answer the questions below to help us know how we’re doing. If you prefer, email your responses to RepJNorthfield@gmail.com. Thank you!
What parts of the Representative Journalism Project do you value? What parts don’t work?
How can we further refine the project into something Northfield citizens value more?
How could Representative Journalism support itself financially in a community?
Hi, my name’s Ben Haynor. I’m a math and physics major at Carleton College. I ended up in a journalism class this semester and began looking at Northfield’s opiate problem. I met Bonnie on Friday and we decided to collaborate on a story. We had already been gathering information, conducting interviews and looking at the history of Northfield’s opiate problem this month. When seven were arraigned on drug charges on Monday, we felt prepared to cover the news and we were glad to have a team of two to do so.
In the coming week we’ll be talking with the authorities to learn more about the arrests, get a better sense of what problems our community still faces, and learn how police intend to continue combating problems with heroin. We’ll be speaking with police in other towns that have had similar bouts with heroin dealing to gain perspective on how a community can fight the problem. If you know more about Northfield’s opiate scene, and are willing to speak, please contact Bonnie or me at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com or haynorb@carleton.edu.
Northfield administrators are offering more money to Greenvale township in an annexation deal than originally offered in August, but still less than what Greenvale supervisors asked for.
Joel Walinski, interim city administrator, and Brian O’Connell, community development director, represented the city in a meeting on Tuesday night in Greenvale’s new township hall on Guam Avenue. O’Connell said the city originally offered to pay Greenvale an amount equivalent to the property tax revenue on the land in question for a period of two years, about $7,700* according to documents filed in city hall.
“We’re willing to go more time,” O’Connell told the three township supervisors. “State law says we can go from two to eight years.”
Three months ago, reporter Bonnie Obremski drove her Subaru from Massachusetts to Northfield to begin work as a Representative Journalist for Northfield’s Locally Grown web site. The “RepJ” project matched Bonnie with a civic-minded blog hoping a new kind of grassroots community journalism takes hold. For more about the project go to RepJNorthfield.org.
Now that Bonnie is living on Division Street, has found stages for impromptu guitar gigs and cast her skills for their competitive advantage at the Friends of the Library’s Adult Spelling Bee last month, we thought she was ready for the big time. So we opened this space in the Northfield Entertainment Guide for RepJ’s “Didja’ Know?” Let us know whatja’ think!
By Bonnie Obremski, on September 10, 2008, 3:03 am
Photo: Bonnie Obremski/RepJ
Mayoral Candidate Mary Rossing checks the poll figures on a computer Tuesday night. She and Paul Hager won in the city’s primary election and will face off in the general elections on November 4. For audio coverage of Rossing’s primary election party, click below. Length: 1 minute 57 seconds.
Note: I attended Rossing’s party after she delivered an invitation to me on Monday. Mayoral Candidate David Hvistendahl invited me to his primary event at Froggy Bottoms via e-mail on Tuesday night, but I had already left to go to Rossing’s gathering. No other candidate extended an invitation and I did not contact any of them to ask if they were hosting a party. I decided to accept Rossing’s invitation because, given my observations and her success in Locally Grown’s straw poll, I believed she stood a solid chance of performing well in the primary and I wanted to cover a win, if possible.
Since Representative Journalism (RepJ) is a pilot project, there is an ongoing evaluation component. Professor Rachel Davis Mersey (moving from the U of MN to Northwestern U this summer) will be conducting a variety of polls and surveys to assess the project’s impact.
We want your feedback on Locally Grown! Understanding how and why you use Web sites like this one is important to journalism researchers. Locally Grown represents a strong community conversation. We are interested in how and why you participate. The questions are simple, and the survey is designed to take you about 5 minutes to complete. You may leave any questions blank, and your participation is completely voluntary. Your name will never be attached to your responses, which will only be used in summary. This is about understanding your community and its resources. Our goal is simple: to determine the best practices to improve the work of other community Web sites across the country. We hope you choose to participate.
We talked with her about her background, including why she dissed Northfield and its colleges in favor of attending some rinky-dink school out east that Ross seems to favor for some reason.
Yes, we spent a few minutes on the RepJ project, too.
Our Representative Journalism colleagues have hired the first journalist for the project, Bonnie Obremski. She’s packing up her stuff in North Adams, Massachusetts where’s she been a news reporter for the The North Adams Transcript the past two years. After a cross-country drive, she’ll arrive in Northfield sometime early next week. We hope to have her on next week’s podcast.
Griff Wigley: David, it’s on Entenza’s website: He would also require every Minnesota student to apply to at least one accredited postsecondary institution in order to get their high school diploma. The idea is to make...
David Ludescher: Curt: I have to question the accuracy of the reporting. That idea is just too dumb to be true.
Curt Benson: DFL gubernatorial candidate Matt Entenza would require all Minnesota students to apply for college before they can earn a high school diploma: http://www.winonadailynews.com /news/local/govt-and-politi...
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?
Griff Wigley: Not sure, Kiffi. It might have just been a slow connection on your end.
kiffi summa: OOPS ! it just came back, but hadn’t ben there all morning. Whassup ?
Griff Wigley: Phil/Kiffi, the reason that SeeClickFix works is because the information is public. Everyone gets to see what’s submitted. Why have 10 people make phone calls to report the same thing? Then everyone gets to see how and...
mike paulsen: The city invites us to contact them via email and web forms. It is much more efficient than telephone, and should be the preferred method of contact. I sure hope that communications sent via email and the web form aren’t...
Phil Poyner: Apparently the one feature folks don’t know how to use on their new-fangled “smart phones” is the phone part!
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...
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...
Griff Wigley: Librarian Kathy Ness noted in her blog post on Northfield.org that the original location for tonight’s Books and Stars finale "was Ames Park- we moved across the river to a "goose free" Bridge Square."...
Griff Wigley: David, the vegetation can work in some cases but in this case, it isn’t. But it makes no sense to me that we should quit using 3 parks (Ames, Riverside, Babcock) plus the trails and bridge for which we just spent a half...
Michelle Hawkins: Wow, Kiffi, If you’re right it brings up all kinds of issues, legal, ethical, and moral. That’s a tough piece of meat to chew on! You’re correct in treading very carefully and caution is understandable,as...
kiffi summa: Back in comment # 149, I said “more on “fandb” and duplicity, later… I’m finally getting back to it, after wondering how to say it; I guess I’ll just have to come right out with it: Back on...
Barb Kuhlman: William, I do not agree that my post would be banned by LGN by the guidelines I suggested. I offered my opinion on a comment (or opinion) you offered. I did not comment on you personally. I did not label you, make any...
David Ludescher: Tracy: Look at the city processes. There is a small percentage of Northfield clamoring for more and more electronic information. Time spent catering to folks like us is less time for the rest of Northfield.
Tracy Davis: David, I think your observation is flawed. Electronic communication has been one of the great democratizing forces worldwide over the past decade. The idea of technology “haves” and “have-nots” has been...
David Ludescher: Tracy: Another observation is that electronic communication has created social class structures that are unhealthy for democracy and its representatives, especially in a small community like Northfield. Not only do we now...
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...
Steve Wilmot: Perhaps a distraction, but here is a Startribune story about tree loss in Plymouth from today’s edition: http://www.startribune.com/loc al/west/99285424.html?elr=KArk sUUUycaEacyU
Steve Wilmot: Griff, The ADA accessibility issue is twofold here, one is to access the building and the new elevator inside. The other is for free passage on the sidewalk for those continuing down to the Post Office or the river. The similar...
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.
Tracy Davis: You can view this part of Tuesday’s meeting here. It’s evident from the discussion that it was not Councillor Pownell’s intent to do things surreptitiously or behind the backs of the other councillors; it was...
Griff Wigley: "A lack of transparency continues to plague the Northfield City Council" says Nfld News Jaci Smith in a tweet about Suzi Rook’s column re: the layoff of Marj Evans-de-Carpio : On Tuesday, City Councilor Rhonda...
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
Ross Currier: Hey Tracy - Thanks for offering your priorities. I really appreciate it. Although I may not necessarily agree with your every priority, I greatly admire the philosophical base which gives a solid structure to your...
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!
Griff Wigley: Thanks, Bart. FYI, 4th St. between Division and Washington was paved and striped yesterday.
Bart de Malignon: On June 25, Joel Walinski responded to my query about the yellow “boom” (which is probably not effective any longer as it’s been dislodged by a large, floating tree branch and moved downstream). Joel...
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….
Bright Spencer: it sure is a nice bunch of photos, plus a lovely day and event.
Griff Wigley: Suzy Rook’s column is titled Another Farewell: http://northfieldnews.com/news .php?viewStory=53575
kiffi summa: On the NFNews website, 8:15 Saturday night, so not in the print version of the paper, Suzy Rook writes in her column, “Writer’s Block”, a provocative article about Joel Walinski’s departure. The first sentence is: “What, if...
Griff Wigley: Rob, have you heard if any of the incumbents intend to file?
Griff Wigley: I found your comment in the spam bucket, Rob. Not sure why it ended up there, tho. The link looked fine to me.
Rob Hardy: According to Jan MItchell’s LWV notes from the June 14, 2010 school board meeting, the terms of Kari Nelson, Noel Stratmoen, Mike Berthelsen and Julie Pritchard expire at the end of the year. Because Pritchard was appointed...
David Ludescher: Paul: I suggested to the Streetscape Committee that it develop a quantifiable methodology or a rubric to determine value. In the simplest terms, I suggested a three part test. First, compared to non-Streetscape government...
Paul Zorn: David, You said above (in 6.1): … Then again, common sense requires that the project have value. Agreed. The live question is whether the project offers good value for money. And then: This is a non-essential, pork-barrel...
David Ludescher: Bill: Think about it this way: If every biker who used that portion of the trail had to pay for using it, do you think the “investment” would ever repay itself? If not, then why should the downtown taxpayers...
With continued support from the new Center for Sustainable Journalism at KSU in Georgia, there’s going to be a Northfield version of Spot.Us, a community-funded reporting project operating in the Bay Area of California under the guidance of founder David Cohn. Their software platform is open-source and, with a lot of help from Ruby on Rails guru, Jared Mehle, I got it up and running yesterday. (continued)
We want your feedback on Locally Grown! Understanding how and why you use Web sites like this one is important to journalism researchers. Locally Grown represents a strong community conversation. We are interested in how and why you participate. The questions are simple, and the survey is designed to take you about 5 minutes to complete. You may leave any questions blank, and your participation is completely voluntary. Your name will never be attached to your responses, which will only be used in summary. This is about understanding your community and its resources. Our goal is simple: to determine the best practices to improve the work of other community Web sites across the country. We hope you choose to participate.
Griff Wigley
Kiffi Summa
Patrick Enders
David Ludescher
Tracy Davis
Bright Spencer
Michelle Hawkins
Phil Poyner
Ross Currier
John S. Thomas
David Koenig
Jane McWilliams
William Siemers
Carol Overland
Ray Cox
Rob Hardy
Sean Hayford O'Leary
john george
norman butler
Kathie Galotti
Jane Moline
Anne Sawyer
Liz Messner
David Beimers
Jim Haas
mike paulsen
Scott Oney
Barb Kuhlman
Bruce W. Morlan
David Roberts
Bill Ostrem
Dan Bergeson
Daniel Edwins
Hayes Scriven
Kristin Partlo
linda seebach
Paul Zorn
Randy Jennings
Sandy Vesledahl
Steve Wilmot
Chris Daly
Curt Benson
Eric Sieger
Jessica Paxton
Josh Dale
Joshua Dale
Kathleen Jasnoch
Mary Closner
Nathan E. Kuhlman
Tom Swift
victor summa
A.Ripka
Ally Beyer
Arlen Malecha
Athena Currier
Bart de Malignon
Bruce Wiskus
Christian Hakala
Corrie Erickson
Dave Machacek
David Henson
Don Haugo
Efie Foulidis
Erica Zweifel
Felicity Enders
Jeanette Nelson
Jeff Meidinger
Julie Bixby
Leota Goodney
Lisa Gaetjens
malcolm watt
Marie Fischer
Mary Schier
Penny Hillemann
Robert Palmquist
Stephanie Henriksen
Tim Freeland
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