The Northfield Blogosphere Roundup is a good way to see the latest information on many of the area’s blogs. The updates included here show blog posts added approximately within the previous 48 hours. See Northfield.org’s blogosphere aggregator page for an automated, comprehensive listing.

This is the title of an article at the Mankato Free Press article about the March 13th Regional Competitiveness Economic Development Summit. The Rural Enterprise Center’s agripreneurs development model was voted the second most important priority for the development of the Agriculture and Food Sector as it pertains to the incorporation and full utilization of skills, assets and visioning coming out from the Latino/Hispanic communities of the region.

We are currently developing the strategic plan for the large scale regional deployment of this model in the coming decade with a launch strategy focused in no more than 8 SE MN counties, but including strategic outreach to other highly promising targeted Hispanic/Latino entrepreneur in other areas of the region.

Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, Rural Enterprise Center

The Minnesota State Court website answers common questions about real estate (house, farm land, etc.) in divorce. Click here to go to the Minnesota State Court website. The site addresses questions like “Who gets the house?” “What about property purchased before the marriage?” and other topics.

Always Family Center

TUCSON, Ariz. – Pacific University (Ore.) held St. Olaf without a hit and defeated the Oles 21-0 on Sunday afternoon. The Boxers had 21 hits, including four homers, in the win.Saint Olaf College Athletics

We are delighted to share with you that some ARTech students are participating in a Pennies for Peace campaign from March 16th to May 15th. Pennies for Peace is a service-learning program designed to broaden our students’ cultural horizons while teaching them about their capacities as philanthropists – one penny at a time.

Pennies for Peace is a program of Central Asia Institute (CAI) founded by Greg Mortenson – author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Three Cups of Tea. CAI is a registered 501©3 nonprofit organization that promotes and provides community-based education and literacy programs, especially for girls, in remote mountain regions of central Asia. Founded in 1996, CAI has built, to date, nearly 100 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which serve more than 28,00 students – over 14,000 of whom are girls.

Simon Tyler, ARTech

The young Norwegian skier Marthe Kristoffersen had a decent first year on the World Cup circuit, where she is mostly known for a very bad anchor leg in the relay at the World Championships and her penchant for skiing with her sleeves pushed up. Like Marthe, Genevieve has quite a bit of Norwegian blood flowing in her veins, has never won a medal at the Nordic World Ski Championships, and likes to have her sleeves rolled up. Olympics 2028?

Christopher Tassava, Blowing & Drifting

Professor of psychology and cognitive sciences Kathleen M. Galotti, senior lecturer in psychology Steven Kozberg, and visiting assistant professor of educational studies Mary Gustafson have published an article entitled “Goal Setting and Decision Making by At-Risk Youth”in the journal The Prevention Researcher, vol. 16, April 2009, pp. 17-20. The article reports on the results of a research project conducted at the Wisconsin Challenge Academy, investigating changes in at-risk older adolescents’ decision making as they experienced a 22-week intervention program designed to enhance life skills.

Carleton College News

The Chamber’s theory: When under siege without a valid argument, start tossing around labels!

Project No Project: The Story of NIMBY

It’s weird, they’re missing a lot, missing a lot of states, a lot of projects, and it’s odd the ones they’re picking.

Minnesota Projects: Wisconsin Projects, Delaware Projects – NONE, Maryland Projects – NONE, New Jersey Projects – NONE

When the Chamber stick their ham-handed hocks in, that tells me they’re worried they’re represented interests aren’t going to get their way!

The US Chamber sure has changed a lot since Bob Jacobsen worked for them…

Carol Overland, Legalectric

The new 2009 Froggy Times features the story of Northfield’s West Side business district, which was decimated in 1958 by a highway relocation. Maggie Lee, Dan Freeman and Dick Heibel share their memories of the way it used to be. Famed architect Harry Wild Jones is also featured. And, of course, check out our new menu!

Susan Hvistendal, Froggy Bottoms Pub

V.S. Naipaul, The Enigma of Arrival (1987). Purchased used for $6.00 at Monkey See, Monkey Read in Northfield.

In the summer of 2007, we visited Stonehenge, then drove down to Salisbury to visit the great cathedral, which among other things is home to the world’s oldest mechanical clock (1386). Time was on my mind when we visited Salisbury. We had less than a month left of our year in England, and this was our last English holiday before returning home to Minnesota. In a short drive, from Stonehenge to Salisbury, we had traversed a distance of nearly four millennia, connected by modern highways and confusing roundabouts. On the lookout, as always, for literary associations, I found in Salisbury Cathedral a bust of the late nineteenth-century nature writer Richard Jefferies, whose native haunts were the Wiltshire downs.

Rob Hardy, Rough Draft

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — During Spring Break, five members of the Carleton men’s track and field team participated in the Walt Disney World Invitational. Tom Ballinger (Sr./Wenatchee, Wash.) recorded a NCAA provisional qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 53.83, which currently ranks second-fastest in Division III.

On Thursday, the Minnesota Senate set targets to resolve the budget deficit. Last week we received the final budget forecast which gives us the most accurate picture of the kind of revenue Minnesota can expect over the next several years. It may not come as a surprise to know that the news is not pretty. We are in one of the worst economic downturns in recent memory.

This was the week of highs and lows. I had a great bill up in the Commerce Committee on Tuesday that would have brought some badly needed oversight to the Payday Lending industry. So many good people worked on this bill since the last session, only to see it go down in flames on Tuesday. The bill would have allowed consumers to get three payday (short term) loans within a 6 month period. Inquiry into a fourth loan would have triggered a conventional loan allowing the consumer to pay off any debt in installments at much more reasonable interest rates. Payday loans are a booming industry where consumers find themselves caught in a debt trap that tends to spiral out of control.

Kevin Dahle for Senate District 25

Ronald James Griffith passed away on Thursday, March 12, 2009 from pancreatic cancer. Ron’s brilliant and inquiring intellect, commitment to family and community, outstanding professional leadership, and generous heart will be missed by the many people he touched in Northfield and around the world.

Shirley Ann Johnson Nelson was born May 21, 1923, in Red Wing, Minnesota, to Victor L. and Glee (Dibble) Johnson. She was raised in the Red Wing and Cannon Falls area and graduated from Red Wing High School in 1941. She took Nurses training at St. John’s Hospital in Red Wing and in 1944 became a Registered Nurse. On November 11, 1944, she married sailor Phillip Marvin Nelson at the Episcopal Church in Cannon Falls, becoming a Navy wife for the next 16 years. They traveled to Florida, Maryland, California, and Tennessee, with frequent stays in Red Wing while Phil was “out at sea.”

Northfield.org obituaries

Spring Skating Camp wrapped up a great season for NSS! Camp took place Saturday March 14th and Tuesday March 17 and involved skaters with a wide variety of abilities, background, and even geographic areas – skaters from Owatonna participated!

According to our campers, the biggest hits were the private lessons, exhibition, and synchronized skating workshop with guest coach Roni Maas. We finished camp with treats and a slideshow to celebrate a job well done.

Thanks to the extended Northfield ice season, we can look forward to more camps like this one in the future.

Northfield Skating Schoo

St. Olaf President David R. Anderson ’74 has announced that Congressman Erik Paulsen ’87 will speak to the Class of 2009 during the St. Olaf Commencement ceremony May 24. Paulsen represents Minnesota’s 3rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

MARCH 23, 2009 — Twin Cities NBC affiliate KARE 11 visited campus recently to find out how many steps it takes a unique team of St. Olaf students to change a light bulb. CNN also aired the story. Link to the KARE story, below, and view CNN’s version here. Watch an earlier story about the group at stolaf.edu.

Saint Olaf College News

Carleton Students Attend Midwest Real Food Challenge Summit March 23, 2009 at 10:17 am By Katie Blanchard

Two weekends ago 125 students (including 3 from Carleton) gathered at Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa for the Midwest Real Food Challenge Summit. We built coalitions and strengthened our voice as students working for bold changes to our food system, most specifically within our college and university dining services. When asked whether our campuses were at most 10 miles from an industrial agribusiness cornfield, if not within one, almost every student raised a hand. From a wide array of specific interests and backgrounds, we came together around a common goal: real food.

Carleton College sustainability blog

After a few schedule changes Cooking Class finally met again at Emmaus Church. On Thursday March 19th about 10 youth learned how to make crepes from youth chef extraordinaire Danny Dobrow. I wasn’t able to stay and make the food but the kids who went spoke very highly of Danny and the food.

Union of Youth

Gospel, John 3:14-21 During the Exodus the people complained about the food. So God led them into an area infested with a type of venomous snake whose bite caused a severe burning sensation and even death for some. The people realized there were worse things than bad food and asked God’s forgiveness for their complaining.

Father Denny Dempsey

Seldom do we have a chance to hear from one of our members who is both a musician and minister. But today we heard from Richard Collman, who gave us his classification talk, and left no doubt in our minds that he has been passionate about both careers, and from an early age.

Northfield Rotary Club

Most people go to the doctor because they think they have something they shouldn’t have and want to get rid of. But over the years, we chiropractors have come to understand that the problem when you aren’t feeling well is NOT that you have something you shouldn’t have and need to get rid of; the problem is really that you have LOST something you need to be healthy and happy. You see HEALTH (also called “EASE”) is your natural state! If you are experiencing anything other than ease, it is usually because you have simply LOST something that is necessary for you to maintain ease/health. Understanding this very simple truth will not only help you get the most out of your chiropractic care, it will also help you and your family to keep growing stronger and healthier for the rest of your lives!

CNC Chiropractic

The Annual Meeting was on Saturday and what a night it was! I have to first say a big THANK YOU to our sponsors’s, The First National Bank of Northfield and Carleton College, we would not have been able to put on this event without their support! The meeting went well and many people stayed to dance the night away! If any of you would like a copy of the Annual Report you can download it here or you can call us at 507-645-9268 to get your copy.

Northfield Historical Society

Seems like only a few days ago that I was announcing details about River City Books’ month-long going-out-of-business sale. That’s what happens when you want something to last — it goes by just so fast.

Now we’re down to the wire, the final week in the store’s history, and they’re pricing books, CDs, DVDs, gifts, clothing, yada, yada, so low because, well, they want to use as few moving boxes as possible. Which is the silver lining to this cloudy week — a savings rundown that’s otherwise hard to believe.

River City Books

“They all get the idea that if we’re transparent about what we’re bad at as well as what we’re good at, we’ll get better.” That’s a quote by Paul Levy, President and CEO ofBeth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, speaking about his staff. Levy maintains a leadership blog called Running a hospital where he regularly shares “thoughts about hospitals, medicine, and health care issues.” You can also follow Levy on Twitter.

I’ve been thinking about Northfield (my hometown) area public leadership, transparency, and social media tools this week for four reasons.

Wigley and Associates

Watchmen is a graphic novel about the real lives and struggles of super-heros. The story is about masked crusaders from the sixties that start to show up dead. The few that are still alive have to find and take down the killer while dealing with there own issues. I personally loved the end of the book, but I’m not going to ruin it. The book is not for kids because it deals with some tough moral issues, and there are many violent and bloody scenes. Watchmen has been recently made into a major motion picture. I haven’t seen it yet, but it looks pretty good. Of course, the movie is never as good as the book. If you want a sneak peek, here it is.

Monkey See, Monkey Read

We are often uncomfortable talking about sin, but if we don’t acknowledge all the ways we are not the people we want to be, we separate ourselves from God’s mercy and loving care. So, here’s a sermon about sin …

Healing in the Wilderness

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10

This is a sermon about sin. If I am going to preach honestly about these texts, it has to be a sermon about sin, but that raises several problems.

First United Church of Christ

St. Olaf Sponsors National Day of Service in Northfield Saturday, April 18, 2009, 9 am to 1 pm

Participate locally in the National Day of Service! This year marks the first time St. Olaf has sponsored a volunteer project for Northfield. Join other Northfield-area Oles and friends to help clean up the parkway area from 5th Street Bridge and Bridge Square south to Riverside Park. Feel free to participate as singles, couples, families or groups. ID Insight of Northfield is using this opportunity as a company-wide service project. Thanks, ID! We encourage other local organizations to follow this community-spirited example.

5th Bridge

Mark Mraz, musician, playing at the Tavern in Northfield, Minn. March 19, 2009 from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Northfield Voices: Town & Gown
Cinema & Media Studies Audio Workshop, 2009

WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
By Kat Morriss and Megan Lynn

The issue regarding student housing rentals in Northfield is a complicated one, but it is important to recognize where the interests of students, landlords, and neighbors intersect. Our hope is that this project, which explores a variety of perspectives, will foster communication and understanding among the different groups concerned.

LAYING DOWN THE LAW
By Myla Fay and David Nonberg

At Carleton College, the various persons and policies that govern the party scene tend to take a more liberal approach to the issue of drinking on campus. In this piece, we were able to speak with the people who were in charge of enforcing these policies. From RA’s to the Northfield police, Laying Down The Law highlights how a liberal policy shapes the on and off campus dynamics between students and community.

WILL WORK, FOR COMMUNITY
By Mary Henke-Haney and Ben Blink

Carleton’s academics and social scene largely isolate students to campus, but one thing easily lures them to town. Money! We talk to four Carleton students who found employment in Northfield, and subsequently had their schemas’ rocked about student conduct in town and their place in this community. Adding perspective is St. Olaf grad and Northfield mayor Mary Rossing.

LEAVING A BIGGER TIP
By Cole Wrampelmeier

There are some pretty strong stereotypes about students and residents that each group has about the other. Have these just come from bad encounters at closing time or has the student-resident relationships been strained? Leaving a Bigger Tip explores the students’ business connection to Northfield and how they find their place in the community.

Rob Martin’s sailboat in Dundas, Minn. from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Meredith Fierke, Northfield, Minn. musician from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Dan Iverson, Northfield photographer from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Train Song by Meredith Fierke of Northfield, Minn. from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Goodsell Observatory Open House March 6, 2009 from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

• Video: "Bessie" the Just Food Co-op cow on eating locally produced food, even in winter in Minnesota
• Video: Dave Minar, owner of Cedar Summit Farm
• Video: Bob Ciernia, president of the Just Food Co-op Board of Directors, talks about local produce

“Bessie” the Just Food Co-op cow on eating locally produced food even in winter in Minnesota from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.
Dave Minar, owner of Cedar Summit Farm, speaks at Just Food Co-op on March 6, 2009 from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.
Bob Ciernia, president of the Just Food Co-op Board of Directors, talks about local produce on March 6, 2009 from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Megan Rossow (left), "Petey," the parrot, and Leah Erickson display locally produced merchandise at the Cannon Valley Veterinary Clinic

Local governments and independent non-profits can be resources for business owners in need of support, especially in today’s tougher economic times. In Northfield, however, not everyone agrees on what the government and non-profits should do in order to offer the most help to the most business owners. The Representative Journalism Project attempted to collect more information about the matter by issuing a survey in January to 60 business owners or managers from a variety of fields. (continued)

The survey asked what resources they tap into the most and why. Twenty of them responded, six did so anonymously.

In turn, representatives from the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce, the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation and the Northfield Enterprise Center (all independent non-profit corporations), as well as the city-run Northfield Economic Development Authority, talked about what they can offer business owners now, and what they would like to offer in the future.

The “Four Partners,” as they call themselves, have consistently worked together in recent years to reach some shared goals and all have the desire to continue to work together. Their combined annual budgets equal more than $1 million. This report shows how those dollars are spent and tries to provide more insight as to whether the Four Partners are meeting the most urgent needs of business owners.

Agreeing to agree

Photo by Bonnie Obremski Caption: Richard Estenson, spokesperson for the Northfield Economic Development Authority, poses in front of the First National Bank of Northfield, where he works.

Richard Estenson, chairman of the Economic Development Authority and vice president of business development at the First National Bank of Northfield, said one reason behind differences in opinion stems from the lack of a unified vision about Northfield’s economic future.

“I’ve been wondering if we are on the same page, or if we even need to all be on the same page, about what we truly want to be as a community,” Estenson said. “If this were a business, we would want know, ‘What’s our brand? What’s our image? What’s our identity?’ Then we would work to methodically, slowly accomplish that. Otherwise, we’re just going to become whatever we become.”

According to the city’s latest revision of its comprehensive plan, which the City Council approved in 2008, Northfield is “defined by its location on the Cannon River, its authentic and vital downtown, historic buildings, a vital arts and cultural presence, rural elements, historic events…two top-ranked private colleges [Carleton and Saint Olaf], a quality public school system, strong community organizations, and a tradition of public involvement, all of which…create its strong sense of place. Northfield residents have expressed a strong desire to maintain the community’s historic town character in its rural agricultural setting. This desire implies that future development should be considerate of the elements that have historically defined Northfield’s small-town character. Much of the development in Northfield in the last thirty years has not complemented this small-town character. New development has led to the creation of commercial corridors and numerous residential subdivisions without a true sense of place.”

Estenson said with all of its defining characteristics, Northfield could have many different identities, “but when you’re diversified to the ultimate extreme, you wind up having lots of public debate whenever anyone wants to come into town about whether that business is something we really want.”

Customer satisfaction best way to succeed

Business owners and managers filled out the eight-question survey with a wide variety of responses. Not every person answered every question. However, there seemed to be consistency in the answers to the questions “How can organizations or other members of the Northfield community help businesses in the city?” and “Out of all the ways you try and promote your business, what produces the most results?”

In response to the first question, six indicated they would like to see increased information sharing and more widespread market research, five people wanted more and better advertising, especially beyond Northfield, and four gave answers that emphasized the importance of encouraging citizens to “shop locally.”

As for the second question, nearly all the business owners and managers said “word-of-mouth” was the most effective method of advertising. Perhaps for that reason, nearly all of the people who said they participated in a business organization believed some of the greatest benefits were networking and “staying in touch” with a larger slice of the community.

Chamber, yea or nay?

Of the 20 people who responded, 10 said they were members of the Chamber of Commerce, seven said they participated in the Downtown Development Corporation and one said he participated with the Enterprise Center at one time. One owner said she was a member of the national organization called Associated Volume Buyers. Jerry Bilek, owner of Monkey See, Monkey Read on Division Street, said he belonged to the Midwest Booksellers Association. April Ripka of the Sketchy Artist on Division Street said she belonged to the newly formed Northfield Riverwalk Arts Quarter. Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, a farmer and director of the Rural Enterprise Center, said he receives some help from the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota.

Although few of those people surveyed voiced much criticism about any of the city’s available resources, most of the criticism did fall upon the Chamber of Commerce, which is membership-based, unlike the other non-profits people said they interacted with. Of the 10 people who said they were current members of the Chamber, two voiced criticism and one of the critics was anonymous. Seven of the current members expressed praise for the non-profit, three of them anonymously. One gave no opinion.

Two former members of the Chamber expressed a negative opinion of the organization, one of them doing so anonymously. One person who did not claim any affiliation with the Chamber also had a negative opinion.

Praise for social networking, advertising

Photo by Bonnie Obremski Caption: Kathy Feldbrugge, Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce executive director, speaks at the first meeting of the Northfield Infill and Redevelopment subcommittee last month

In praise, Jennifer Welch, owner of Sociale Gourmet on Jefferson Road, wrote in her survey, “The Chamber gives me the opportunity to get my name out there and let people know that I want to be involved in the community.”

Gerry Mahowald, owner of America’s Mattress on Clinton Lane, also wrote in praise, “I joined because I thought there were many benefits to being part of the network. The chamber helps get my name out in the community and plans ways to further develop and grow Northfield area businesses.”

Leah Erickson, Certified Veterinary Technician at Cannon Valley Vet Boarding & Retail Store off State Highway 3, said, “We have been a member for several years and I believe that the Chamber does a lot to help promote businesses in our community as well as helping with other civic events.”

“I joined to be an active member of the Chamber, to keep up with what is going on in Northfield and to promote my business,” wrote Pam Roy of PJ’s Fabric and Crafts on Professional Drive. “My level of satisfaction is great I am not taking advantage of the events I should because of the time I spend here at the store. They are doing a great job. I need to be able to step up.”

Membership value questioned
Rob Schanilec, owner of By All Means Graphics in Bridge Square and publisher of the Northfield Entertainment Guide, voiced mild criticism. (Full disclosure: I occasionally use a desk in the graphics store and publish a column in the guide). Schanilec said, “I joined the Chamber of Commerce because I felt it was necessary to be included in their network. I don’t like their members-only exclusivity as far as who or what they’ll support and/or promote and I feel their momentum oftentimes gets caught up an entrenched history. However, I think they’ve evolved in the right direction over the past couple years and am feeling more support from and for them.”

Former Chamber member Alex Beeby, operations manager for Just Food cooperative grocery store on Water Street, wrote, “We were members of the Chamber of Commerce until this year. We did not feel that we were getting enough benefit for the money we were investing. We still had to pay additional money to participate in Chamber functions and/or events. We did not feel like the Chamber adequately responded to our suggestions. On top of all of this, the national and state Chamber associations are and have been politically involved in a way that runs so contrary to our mission.”

Norman Butler, owner of The Contented Cow English pub, Chapati Indian restaurant and 1001 Solutions property management on Division Street (and my landlord) is not a member of the Chamber. He said, “I found the Chamber to be poorly led, expensive and ineffective and not at all concerned with downtown.”

Can’t please everyone

Kathy Feldbrugge is the executive director of the 61-year-old Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce and has worked with the Chamber since the 1980s. In response to criticism, Feldbrugge said, “Nobody’s trying to intentionally make anyone feel bad. We’ve tried to be very inclusive and when we make mistakes, we really try to address them. Sometimes people get to talking to one another about a problem but don’t actually call us about it.”

She emphasized that there is collaboration and compromise among members and non-members in the Northfield area when it comes to promoting businesses but that it is, of course, impossible to always cater to the specific needs of any one business.

Feldbrugge added that the Chamber’s capabilities depend on the amount of money the non-profit has to spend on things that could help the area’s business owners, and the budget is only growing tighter. This past December, Feldbrugge said, the Chamber lost a small amount of money by putting on the Winter Walk shopping event and the Chamber’s membership has dropped slightly. She did not reveal specific figures. One reason membership could be going down, she said, is more people might be donating to the Chamber only when it organizes an event that could directly benefit them.

Feldbrugge said the Winter Walk is one of the Chamber’s most successful achievements each year. The event appears to be distinctive as there are no comparable winter events listed on the Chamber of Commerce Web sites of such similar communities as Faribault, Red Wing and Stillwater, for example. This year, the four-hour Thursday evening affair celebrated its tenth anniversary. The event featured special retail and restaurant offers, a parade, music and face-painting among other activities.

Extremely cold temperatures, and perhaps a troubled economy, kept many people indoors during the latest walk, however. And the Northfield News reported mixed successes the year before in 2007, saying, “According to Krin Finger, owner of The Rare Pair, business and store traffic was up from last year, and Jerry Bilek, owner of Monkey See Monkey Read, said that business was up 10 percent from a year ago. But across the street at Anna’s Closet, owner Lucy Sweitzer said that traffic and business were down. ‘Other years, you couldn’t get through the door,’ she said. ‘Not so much this year.’”

Chamber numbers

There are 254 individual and business group members of the Chamber of Commerce listed on its Web site. (There is no published, complete listing of businesses in Northfield and Dundas, so it would be difficult to determine what percentage of businesses in the area are Chamber members). About 2/3 of the Chamber’s members actively participate on a regular basis, Feldbrugge said. In 2007, the membership “dues and assessments” amounted to $136,159, according to the non-profit’s 990 IRS form. The form indicated total revenue was about $373,000. Total expenses were about $346,000.

In addition to membership fees, Feldbrugge said revenue comes from “programs, events and services that our Chamber sponsors and provides. This revenue represents fees, contributions and sponsorships that help pay for these programs, events and services.”

About $6,690 went to the Chamber via the city government in 2008. The city paid $5,000 for a marketing seminar, a $925 membership fee and contributed to the Winter Walk. In compliance with state law, the city paid $82,821 in lodging tax revenue in 2008 to the Northfield Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. The Chamber’s staff also help run the bureau, along with the bureau’s board of directors. The tax dollars are spent on developing Northfield’s tourism industry by producing brochures and maintaining a Web site, among other things, according to Feldbrugge.

According to the IRS form, Feldbrugge received $51,960 as compensation for her year’s work at the Chamber. The Chamber also employs one full-time administrative assistant and one part-time office assistant. There are currently nine people on the board of directors, she said. Sometimes there are 10 board members. Jeff Hasse of the Country Inn is the Chamber’s president.

The Chamber calculates the cost of membership using a sliding scale. The minimum base payment is $295. As a comparison, the base payment for the nearby Faribault Area Chamber of Commerce is $310.

Extra help for downtown district

Photo by Bonnie Obremski Caption: Ross Currier, Northfield Downtown Development Corporation executive director, and Victor Summa, Northfield Economic Development Authority member, at the first meeting of the Infill and Redevelopment subcommittee in January

While the Chamber answers to business owners across all parts of Northfield and Dundas, another Northfield non-profit specifically acts as a resource for business people in the city’s historic downtown area. According to its Web site, the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC) was founded in 2000 by Northfield residents who sought to “realize their vision of a vibrant and vital downtown through direct and indirect investment, collaboration and cooperation with other public and private groups and by creating awareness of the opportunities that downtown Northfield holds for the community as a whole.” The idea for the NDDC came from discussions among members of the Chamber of Commerce.

Five of the people surveyed who volunteer with the NDDC on a regular basis wrote down their thoughts on the organization, expressing praise and mild criticism.

Schanilec, of By All Means Graphics, said, “I joined the NDDC Board of Directors because I believe they directly affect downtown businesses with their activities (networking, festivals, etc.), facilitate discussion/action (task forces, forums, etc.) and make a difference in the viability of downtown and the community as a whole (tax legislation, city ordinances such as downtown dining, bike racks, signage, etc.).”

Jenny Turek, owner of Sisters Ugly clothing boutique in Bridge Square, said, “I want to help brainstorm and implement ideas and events that may draw more people to town.”

Beeby of Just Food said, “We attend NDDC forums, because they are a convenient way for us to stay in touch with the local business community and related issues.”

Butler, of the Contented Cow pub, said, “The NDDC is as effective as it can be, given its limited budget and the politics of Northfield.”

Nicole Maloney, owner of Sweet Pea’s Loft on Division Street, said, “I joined because I believe downtown needs a louder voice than one individual business can advertise. The NDDC sponsors events and helps advertise. I have moderate satisfaction with the NDDC.”
Bilek, of Monkey See, Monkey Read, said, “The Midwest Booksellers Association is great. The NDDC: They believe in downtown and so do I. I am satisfied with both organizations and I believe both could do more.”

Still Growing

“Frankly, the NDDC’s greatest achievement may be that we’re celebrating our tenth year in 2009,” Ross Currier, the executive director for six years, said in an email. “Seriously, we’ve grown in both resources and activities and continue to be able to attract some of the most impressive people in the community to work with us. Bringing people together and raising community awareness of critical issues is probably step one in everything we do.”

Currier is also a blogger on LocallyGrownNorthfield.org.

The NDDC’s budget is about $100,000, which is about five times larger than the budget was in 2003. About $40,000 comes from the city government and about $60,000 comes from public donations. Currier is the only paid employee and earns a flat $50,000 a year. There are 12 board members, about two dozen volunteers who work on committees and hundreds of volunteers who help organize community events, Currier said.

Currier said the NDDC follows the “Four Points” of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Main Street Program, which is a “comprehensive commercial district revitalization strategy that has been widely successful in towns and cities nationwide,” according to the program’s Web site. The four points are organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring. Even with the four-point structure, however, opinions vary in Northfield and nationwide about the best way to garner support for a downtown area.

As evidenced in a Wall Street Journal article published in June about Annapolis, Md., some people support a direct investment into the downtown area with restrictions on outside growth and other people believe growth beyond the downtown will draw more traffic into the area and cause more people to trickle down the main street.

“Bob Burdon, president of the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce, said that Annapolis Towne Centre, [which is a shopping center outside of the downtown that includes a Target and Whole Foods store] ‘can have a very positive impact on the downtown’ if the city works ‘to realize the spinoff benefit that’s going to come from it.’”

Meanwhile, the report said, “The city of Annapolis witnesses closures of businesses such as Johnson’s On the Avenue, a renowned Annapolis haberdashery that operated for 70 years across from the State House. Citing the growth of local shopping malls and the increased difficulty of parking in downtown Annapolis, the family-owned shop closed in January.”

Abby Erickson, an advertising sales manager for the Northfield Entertainment Guide who regularly visits businesses throughout the city, offered this observation on the matter:

“Some people think that downtown overshadows greater Northfield. The downtown is a hub for events and culture, and when you come here it is an experience that many towns can’t offer so it makes us stand out. Still, we want to draw as many people with different interests here as possible.”

The Government’s Role

In addition to interacting with the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Development Corporation, business owners can also turn to the city government for help in some cases. No one surveyed talked about receiving help via the Northfield Economic Development Authority, but the five-member board, founded in 1990 to comply with a state law, has the power to negotiate grants or loans to help start new businesses or develop ones that already exist. Every year, the authority has the ability to distribute up to $30,000 in “micro-grants” to businesses, with each grant totaling no more than $5,000.

Handing out dollars is just one way the Economic Development Authority strives to reach its overarching objectives, which include the following:

• Unite leadership of the concerned groups within the community to develop a clear expression of priorities and programs for economic development
• Develop a strategy for future development based on the area’s strengths and assets
• Retain viable existing Northfield businesses by evaluating and addressing their needs
• Attract new commercial and industrial growth
• Encourage and support commercial development city-wide, with an emphasis on downtown

The 2009 budget for the Development Authority is $444,784. Major expenses include $107,813 for work related to developing a future business park on the northwest border of the city, $107,813 for planning “infill” development and for marketing and public relations, $104,600 for the Chamber of Commerce, Northfield Downtown Development Corporation, the Northfield Enterprise Center and the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, $65,498 to pay for personnel, $23,780 for “other services,” which include attorney fees, $4,500 for membership dues and $780 for supplies.

The Economic Development Authority claimed successes in 2008 by approving financial assistance for Upper Lakes Foods and Culvers Restaurant. However, the Development Authority did face some public questioning last year regarding its support of annexing 530 acres of Greenvale Township‘s land into the city. Skeptics wondered if paying to annex and prepare the land for industrial development would lead only to unnecessary spending of tax dollars. Proponents saw it as a good way to attract businesses that would one day pay taxes and create jobs. The City Council will voted on Monday, Feb. 16 to approve the annexation agreement. Northfield taxpayers will compensate Greenvale nearly $100,000 total for the property tax revenue Greenvale will cease to collect on that land.

Free, one-on-one

Photo by Bonnie Obremski Caption: Blake Abdella, Northfield Enterprise Center director, examines a document at the Infill and Redevelopment subcommittee last month

In addition to grants and loans, the Economic Development Authority helped found an independent non-profit organization in 2001 called the Northfield Enterprise Center. The center’s mission is to “strengthen existing and start-up businesses located in, or locating to Northfield, by providing personalized business counseling services and information in a confidential, one-on-one setting,” according to its Web site. The non-profit currently receives all of its funding through the Development Authority. Its annual budget for 2008 was $49,983. The organization has one employee, Blake Abdella, who has an annual salary of about $28,750. The Enterprise Center spends about $4,000 to pay college interns.

Although few surveyed mentioned anything about the Enterprise Center either, one anonymous business owner who refused to hand in the survey voiced concern that the center had limited resources and a high demand for services. The center’s occasional interns, the owner worried, could set up a counseling session with a potential business owner and wind up talking that entrepreneur out of going forward if he or she could not provide enough basic information.

Abdella said he is indeed busy with dozens of clients a year, but that the Enterprise Center is a way for business owners to gain a good understanding about basic business principles in a way that wasn’t available before the center opened. It’s also a continuing, free resource for existing businesses that are looking to improve. Abdella noted The Sketchy Artist, now in business for over one year, as a particular success story. Abdella has counseled owner Ripka, a Saint Olaf College graduate, since before the arts supply and gift store opened.

What business owners and managers want

More “Shop Locally” advertisement

• “The best thing organizations and other members of the Northfield community can do to help businesses is to patronize them,” Mahowald wrote. “If they have a good experience, spread the word. Most community members do not realize how much of the local tax burden is picked up by its businesses. I rent my store and pay close to $12,000 a year in property taxes. I think Northfield could help could increase its business by promoting all of the benefits of buying local. Our leaders need to make people aware of the benefits (and there are many) of shopping locally.”
• “Shop and eat local,” an anonymous survey responder wrote. “Don’t just say it. Do it.”
• Yet another anonymous responder wrote, “Try to help keep the consumers’ dollars local through events and promotions. Help with advertising Northfield locally and in surrounding areas.”
• “The obvious two ways people in Northfield can help is to promote the businesses in town and buy locally. And I really feel Northfield does a great job of this,” Roy wrote.

More and better advertising, especially beyond Northfield

• “Join forces and funds with organizations and businesses with similar goals to increase overall business traffic in Northfield,” Maloney wrote. “Advertising as a whole, we need to let the rest of the cities know that we are here and what we have. Stillwater, White Bear Lake, Edina and others all have an organization that does mass marketing on a regional and local level using radio, TV and the Internet. Why not Northfield?”
• “I think it’d be great to see the city come up with a campaign to promote itself outside the immediate area,” Ripka wrote. “Some of the businesses in the past year have pooled together to take out an ad in the Twin Cities and other areas, but we can’t always afford much else. An ad here and there won’t be as effective as a larger campaign.”
• “I believe that if more of us business owners collaborated together and partnered up for events or cross promote our businesses we may be more successful,” Welch wrote. “It’s not easy or inexpensive to market our businesses individually and this could ease that cost and show that we want to support our community together.”
• “I think the Northfield News needs to try to do more to help local businesses,” another anonymous responder wrote. ” They want your advertising dollars but do nothing in return to tell about new business in town or how businesses help the city of Northfield.”
• “The organizations in town do little to communicate the expertise we have in town,” said an anonymous business person. “I am continually amazed by the brains we have here and surprised because there is little format to get that information out.”

Increased information sharing, market research

• “Organizations can provide a forum for businesses to get together, cooperate, and pool resources,” Beeby wrote in January’s survey. “The key here is making sure these sessions aren’t just a waste of time. For example, a local salary survey would be helpful in helping to get a sense of what appropriate pay levels are. Another example would be a conversation about joint advertising possibilities or joint training opportunities.”
• “All must realize that a thriving downtown means a thriving city and a decaying downtown is a dying city,” Butler wrote. “Realize also that the NDDC and NEC exist because the Chamber has done and continues to do a poor job. The Chamber’s continuing taken-for-granted existence and automatic lion’s-share of the money is why the NDDC and NEC are less effective than they could be. Realize that, to date, key senior city staff and downtown business and property owners are at loggerheads and that currently the city seeks to regulate and not enable downtown development. Listen to those people who have ‘skin in the game’ and support their initiatives.”

• “I believe that other members of the Northfield community whether it being other businesses or organizations can help promote any small business by WOM testimonials. WOM (word of mouth) recommendations can be the best asset any business has,” Erickson wrote.
• “Sixty percent of Northfielders do not shop downtown. We could do a better job of serving their needs,” Bilek wrote.
• “Keep business owners in the loop regarding opportunities whether it’s for relevant seminars, discounted merchandise (my wall panels for instance) or services that would be particularly beneficial to that business,” Schanilec wrote. “There’s a certain amount of having to be proactive in engaging business to tap into services. It’s not enough to simply post that they are out there.”
• There needs to be a sense of partnership, that I’ve discovered a valuable fit between this and your businesses and I’m going to help you tap it.”
  We could use help from organizations willing to serve as interfaces between our farm, other farming operations in our area and the rural development division of the United States Department of Agriculture,” Haslett-Marroquin said. “We don’t have an organization doing this for our operation right now, but we are actively looking for an organization to do this for us.

What resources non-profits and the government plan on offering in 2009

Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce

The Chamber of Commerce released its goals for 2009 last month in its newsletter. The goals fall into five categories that include economic and business development, public policy, membership, tourism and internal operations. The economic development goals are as follows:

• Provide a leadership initiative to support government officials to annex and zone commercial and industrial land for development
• Be active in local transportation planning
• Conduct business retention and expansion visits and interviews with local company leaders
• Provide information and assistance to local and prospective businesses

The public policy goals are as follows:

• Urge members to contact legislators about issues that could affect their business
• Define and develop relationships with the government

Membership goals include:

• Contact members regarding their business needs
• Promote benefits
• Contact prospective members

Tourism goals are:

• Respond to visitor requests for information
• Update brochures and Web site
• Develop ways to generate additional local lodging tax dollars and other types of revenue for the Convention and Visitors Bureau

Internal operations goals include:

• Review committees, programs and events
• Review membership dues structure
• Consider succession planning for executive director

Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

Currier said there are several plans to improve the NDDC, which are posted on the Web. Some of the “Work Plan ’09″ goals include:

• Collect more precise market data
• Do more with dollars spent on marketing
• Help remove obstacles to business expansion
• Collaborate with others for increased leverage of resources
• Pursue an idea to better promote Northfield’s assets and offerings to graduates of Saint Olaf and Carleton Colleges

Northfield Economic Development Authority

The authority’s five top priorities for 2009 according to their work plan document:

• Improve the city’s marketing and public relations
• Develop policies and economic development tools such as loans and grants
• Create a master plan for a proposed business park
• Focus on opportunities for infill and redevelopment

Northfield Enterprise Center

• The center issued a quarterly report in November that contained three pages of objectives. A few of the goals included:
• Promote the center’s services
• Improve online services
• Collaborate with students from Saint Olaf and Carleton Colleges

Do needs and services match up?

All of the non-profits serving Northfield’s businesses and the city-run Economic Development Authority are earning praise and facing criticism from the people they intend to help. Each of the entities has formed goals in an attempt to improve in the coming year. Some of their goals match up with what 20 business owners and managers said they needed in a survey they completed last month. For example, the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce is looking to improve its communication with members and “potential members.” The Northfield Downtown Development Corporation intends to perform more market research. The Northfield Economic Development Authority hopes to strengthen relationships between organizations with shared economic goals. The Northfield Enterprise Center will help disseminate important information for business owners throughout the city.

” This is a nice sampling of the thinking of the business community,” Currier said of the survey results, adding that most of the responses expressed concerns he has been familiar with.

Addressing the apparent interest in “shop locally” advertising, Currier said, ” I know that the Chamber and the NDDC are currently marshaling more collaborative efforts for their “Shop Local” efforts, that at least three of the Four Partners are trying to get more leverage out of the local market represented by middle school students, high school
students, and college students.”

As for increased advertisement beyond Northfield, he said, “The Four Partners are looking into more effectively targeting the community’s promotional dollars outside of Northfield.”

Concluding his response to the survey results, Currier said, “I think that the Four Partners show at least some recognition of the talent available in the community. Our boards are made up of that local talent. There are many ideas out there, and the range is wide and deep. Our collaborative efforts include trying to identify the most promising ideas, in our collective ‘wisdom,’ and put our combined resources behind those ideas.”

To view the fully completed surveys and for more information about the process of how this story came together, visit my Representative Journalism Project blog here.

The annexation agreement, among other things, indicates how much Northfield would reimburse Greenvale for the property taxes the township will lose when 530 acres of undeveloped farmland goes onto the city’s tax rolls. Northfield is annexing the land to attract industrial developers in the hopes of widening the tax base and creating jobs.

Currently, no developers are publicly showing interest in buying the land, which lies on the city’s northwestern border (see map below).

Photo by Bonnie Obremski Caption: On the left are Brian O'Connell, director of Northfield's Community Development Department (foreground) and Joel Walinski, Northfield's interim city administrator. At center is Edith Nelson, Greenvale Township clerk. On the right are Richard Moore, Greenvale Township supervisor chairman and Bernard Budin, township supervisor. Not shown on the far right is supervisor Robert Winter.

“Fair Deal” for Greenvale

“In the end, it took a while since the supervisors usually only meet once a month,” Brian O’Connell, Northfield’s community development director, said after the final negotiation meeting at the Township Hall.

O’Connell, along with Joel Walinski, interim city administrator, represented the citizens of Northfield throughout negotiations with Greenvale.

“We don’t want to give up the land of course, but Northfield gave us a fair deal I thought,” said Richard Moore, chairman of the township supervisors.

The Northfield City Council is expected to vote at Monday night’s meeting at City Hall on whether to approve the annexation agreement (see agenda). If the council approves the agreement, the Minnesota Municipal Boundary Adjustments Board will examine the annexation process to ensure Northfield’s officials followed correct procedures. If the board approves, the annexation will be final.

“Balloon” Payment

The proposed payment plan would reimburse Greenvale in the amount of about $3,854 a year for five years. That figure is the amount of money Greenvale currently collects in taxes on the property. According to the agreement, the reimbursement amount would change year-to-year as Greenvale’s property tax rate changes. In the sixth year, Northfield would pay a “balloon payment” that would equal 20 more years of annual payments. In all, Northfield would pay Greenvale about $96,362, using today’s property tax rate figure for Greenvale.

The practice of priming land for development without having any interested developers is atypical for Northfield, Walinski has said. In 1980, for example, Northfield annexed land from the adjacent Waterford Township for the sole purpose of allowing the Sheldahl company to expand, according to an article in the Northfield News.

But there were unusual opportunities associated with the Greenvale plan. Namely, three township farmers, represented by real estate agency Land Vista LLC, approached city officials about two years ago to apply for annexation. The land they offered, with the addition of a small parcel Saint Olaf College agreed to have annexed, would form a contiguous stretch of land bordered to the south by a rural portion of State Highway 19.

EDA to create development plan

In anticipation of the council’s favorable vote, a new subcommittee of the Economic Development Authority called the Business Park Development Committee has outlined some steps to building a master plan for the new land. The three-person subcommittee is prepared to present those steps to the council on Monday, along with other objectives for 2009.

One of the steps is to create an agreement between Northfield officials and the Greenvale farmland owners. The agreement would clarify what would happen if a developer becomes interested in buying property from the farmers for industrial development.

In 2008, Northfield officials discussed another possible annexation agreement with the adjacent Bridgewater Township that would potentially bring more than 400 acres into the city. Walinski and O’Connell said there currently are no formal plans to explore such an agreement further, however.

“We haven’t received any written requests for annexation from them,” Walinski said of the Bridgewater Township supervisors. “Until we get something in writing, it’s all speculative.”

Side effects

Gregory Langer of Greenvale, a corn and soybean farmer, said he believed the annexation negotiation agreement with Northfield might have caused some long-term changes in the way some townspeople participate in government.
“I definitely think some things will happen in the next year where people in the township pay attention to these things earlier,” Langer said. “I think they’ll seek out information about what’s going on with the township government and about any developmental planning sessions that happen. I say that not so much because I’m seeing more people showing up at meetings, but because there’s been a rallying of people in the township who are disappointed and disturbed that so many things happened that they weren’t aware of.”

Langer first grew interested in following the annexation process when he learned that Northfield’s proposed business park development could one day cause his fields to be split by an access road. As he interacted more with the township’s government, however, he also became interested in finding a better way to disseminate information about government happenings to a greater percentage of the public.

Langer said he would have liked to see Northfield pay even more money in compensation to Greenvale in the annexation deal, even though the amount far exceeds the state’s minimum requirement of tax reimbursement for only two to eight years. Greenvale consultant Dean Johnson at one time told supervisors that most townships negotiated for a much higher compensation than the state minimum. Langer is also unhappy at the prospect of paving over land that currently supports crops and livestock.

“Prime farmland is a precious thing and once it’s paved over there won’t be any going back,” he said.

Moore said townspeople would likely vote on whether to institute a planning commission at the annual township meeting in March. But he said he wasn’t sure such a commission would be necessary, at least not this year.

“With the economy the way it is, I don’t think we’ll need it this year,” Moore said. “The township is growing a little bit, but I see Greenvale staying ‘ag’ yet for quite a while. I don’t see a lot of big changes coming here yet.”

Map, 530 acres:

Copy of the annexation agreement:

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Previous Representative Journalism Project reports on this topic, beginning with the most recent:

• City and township could sign annexation agreement next month
• Northfield offers about $96K in tax reimbursement to Greenvale in annexation deal
• Northfield bumps up offer a second time
• Northfield says OK to more compensation in annexation deal
• Video: City talks about working together
• Questions and answers at business park meeting
• Business park proposal breeds uncertainty, officials attempt to clarify

What’s next?

• Weighing the pros and cons of using agricultural land for industrial development.

Federal dollars might soon funnel into communities across the nation if the Senate passes the $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and many people are already speculating about how the bill might affect their communities. This week, State Senator Kevin Dahle (D-Northfield), Christopher Richardson, superintendent of Northfield’s public schools, and Michael Hemesath, chairman of Carleton College’s Economics Department, talked about their understanding of the bill and what Northfield citizens might expect if it becomes law, which could happen as early as Friday night (update 2/14/09 8:15 a.m. the Senate did pass the bill).

Michael Hemesath Courtesy of Carleton.edu

Nationwide news reports indicated the members of Congress who are skeptical about the bill believe it has been rushed and that the price tag could be too high. The House of Representatives passed the bill on Friday with a 246-183 vote, but no Republicans voted in its favor.

In the Senate, the bill will have to get at least three Republican votes to pass. A CNN report said the bill would bring a $400 tax credit to most individual taxpayers and an $800 credit to most couples. Many students would get a $2,500 tuition tax credit, according to the report. First-time home buyers may qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000 and people who receive Social Security will get a one-time payment of $250.

Richardson said school administrators have been watching the development of the recovery and reinvestment act “really closely.”

“Our hopes are not high that money for new construction, repair and remodeling that was in a previous version of the bill will still be around,” Richardson said on Thursday afternoon.

At one point, he said, the bill indicated the school district could receive about $265,000 for new buildings and/or improvements. Now it seems the bill would only help support the district’s Title I and special education programs, he said, granting $90,000 for Title I and $420,000 for special ed. According to statewide news reports, some school districts are fearful the federal funding could cause state funding to decrease.

Christopher Richardson Courtesy of www.nfld.k12.mn.us

Richardson said he is hoping the bill will allow the school district to use the money to pay for existing programming instead of using it to create more programs, especially since the additional funding would last only for two years.

“There’s been a rule with federal funding that says new money must supplement what you’re currently doing by adding programs and hiring staff,” Richardson said. “That funding may not pay for things that you’ve had to pay for previously with money from the general fund. We’re hoping there would be the language in the bill that would allow us to simply ‘fill the hole.’”

Sen. Dahle agreed about the importance of flexible spending. He emphasized the federal dollars as temporary help.

“If it’s only one-time money, it doesn’t fix our structural imbalance,” Dahle said. “Two years from now, we will have a real crisis here with our deficit if we don’t fix that, no matter what federal funding we receive.”

The state deficit is expected to be about $6 billion to $7 billion by March, according to a report this week in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. As for the state’s unemployment rates, employers cut 11,800 jobs in December, according to figures released in January by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Sen. Kevin Dahle

The unemployment rate reached a seasonally adjusted 6.9 percent for the month. Nationally, U.S. employers eliminated 524,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate grew to 7.2 percent.

Congressman Jim Oberstar, who represents Minnesota’s eighth district, wrote in favor of the act on Tuesday in the Duluth News Tribune, saying, “In Minnesota, the department of transportation has a backlog of 200 shovel-ready road and bridge projects. This legislation will speed $477 million to the state to start work on those projects, creating nearly 17,000 jobs.”

Oberstar added, “A recent economic analysis by Moody’s concluded that the recovery bill could put a total of 91,000 Minnesotans to work by 2010, holding the state’s unemployment rate down by nearly 2 percent.”

Hemesath put the stimulus plan into a greater historical context, saying, “It is not uncommon for the government to use a Keynesian fiscal policy (either tax cuts or government spending or both) to try to increase economic activity. It is also possible to use monetary policy (control of money supply and interest rates) to affect economic activity. In fact, there has been a slight shift away from fiscal policy toward monetary policy over the last few decades, but using fiscal policy is still commonly used.”

He added that this recession is somewhat different from others in the past.

“What is different about this recession is that monetary policy has been used actively, as the government has pushed certain government controlled interest rates down to near zero (.25%), but this has not stimulated economic activity,” he said. “So the consensus among economists is that some kind of fiscal policy would be a good idea. The consensus view among economists is that any fiscal stimulus should be ‘targeted’ (narrowly aimed at specific kinds of activity that will definitely increase economic activity in the short run), ‘timely’ (capable of being spent and affecting output with in a short time—say a year) and ‘temporary’ (capable of being removed or stopped when the economy turns around.”

Hemesath said based on those three criteria, most economists would not favor the current package.

“Much of the money is being spent on things that will not increase economic activity in the short run (like improving the electric power grid–which might be a good long run investment, but it is not a short run stimulus),” he said. “A Congressional Budget Office study has estimated that only 20% of spending will take place in 2009 and only 50% through 2010, so fully half of the fiscal stimulus will not be spent until well after most economists think the recession will be over. Finally, there is a concern that much of the spending in the stimulus bill will become built into the Federal budget and thus raise the average level of the deficit well after the recession is over. So in short, there is likely to be some stimulative effect of the act, but it will also raise long-term deficits.

Note 12/14/09 8:30 a.m.: This story was mis-formatted when first published last night.

For more information about how this Representative Journalism Project feature unfolded, visit http://repjbonnie.wordpress.com

Click on the image to see the latest story from the Representative Journalism Project. Once you’ve read the story, looked at the videos and photographs, and perhaps added to the Northfield Barters public forum, start the discussion here at the bottom of this post. Later, I will write some post-story commentary on my “RepJ” blog.

Dr. Charles Reznikoff

In this 8-minute video, Dr. Charles “Charlie” Reznikoff, addiction medicine specialist, answered my questions after talking to an audience of about 24 people on the subject of heroin addiction during a public presentation at the Northfield Hospital on Monday night.

Dr. Charles Reznikoff talks about heroin addiction from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

A full video of the presentation will air on Northfield’s public access television station (NTV).

With streaming videos, image files flow to a video player on a Web site in a continuous stream and play when they arrive. Before streaming technology, a Web user would have to download an entire file before watching a video, which could take a long time. Reeder referenced Burnsville’s Web site as an example of a nearby community that uses streaming video.

Courtesy of www.ci.northfield.mn.us

Using streaming video on the Northfield’s Web site is one of several goals Reeder is striving to meet in order to improve city services and increase organization of the city’s files.

Melissa Reeder

“Thank goodness the city clerk has been here for as long as she has, otherwise it would be very hard to search for information in our files,” Reeder said, laughing.

Part of the technology upgrade would include digitizing more of the city’s documents and entering them into a new system that makes finding, using and sharing the documents easier.

With streaming videos, Reeder said, the system would allow viewers to use a “clickable” agenda. The user would click the agenda item and the video would instantly begin to play at the appropriate spot.

Before she can upload streaming videos, Reeder needs to help the city change its agreement with PC Solutions Inc., which hosts the city’s Web site, or find a new company to be the host. The current agreement with the Twin Cities-based PC Solutions does not allow streaming videos to appear on the site, she said. The contract can be changed or ended at any time.

In addition to adding features to the city’s Web site, Reeder said she would hope the council would approve a redesign of the entire site. The current site launched in 2005 and has been revised slightly over the years. There are some things that cannot be adjusted without a complete overhaul, however.

“There site we have now is very narrow, so there’s a lot of real estate for information on either side,” Reeder said, referring to the fact that most of the Web site’s content fills the space in the middle of a Web browser window but doesn’t stretch into the side margins.

Reeder is planning on calling other cities nearby to find out how much those governments paid for their Web sites. She is unsure how much Northfield would likely spend. She said she believed money from the cable television franchise fee revenues could help pay for streaming video upgrade. Franchise fee revenue can fund any public expense, but usually funds communications-related expenses. Money from the general fund would likely pay for the document-sharing technology, she said.

Northfield’s public access television station, which airs the City Council meetings, received $30,000 in franchise fee revenue in 2007. In that year, the city collected $183,034 total from franchise fees. Reeder said money would likely continue to go toward the public access station to fund governmental programming even if videos of the meeting are available on the city’s Web site.

“We like to get the information out there using as many different means as possible,” Reeder said.

Next step: How will the City Council tap into the Cable TV Fund, which has about $766,000, in 2009?

I surprised Mayor Mary Rossing in her store Present Perfect this morning with my video camera. I mostly asked her questions that had to do with Monday night’s City Council meeting, which you can read a bit about here. We touched upon her changes in meeting procedure, her tactics on facilitating meetings and her outlook on information exchange in Northfield and on the financial health of the city’s businesses.

*Note 1/7 8:45 a.m.: To clarify, Mary told me over the phone that I could interview her at the store and when I got to the store and asked if I could videotape our interview she gave me her permission. Mary has always been very accessible and I appreciated her willingness to once again speak to me with the camera rolling.

Mayor Mary Rossing’s First Day from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.

Note: This is a story in progress. You might want to join the existing conversation on this topic. I’m excited to read about what people have to say! Please email me directly at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com if you would rather not post publicly.

Paul Hager, president and founder of Northfield’s public access television station (NTV), emailed me last week with some more information about the city government’s financial relationship with his non-profit organization. The full text of his email is below, with a comment in brackets from me.

“Maren Swanson, the city attorney, heard of a law change that disallowed a city from having a contract to fund a non-profit, but a city could contract for services from a non-profit. There is a difference. The law must have been passed in 2002 or 2003, Maren could tell you those details.”

[Swanson has told me in the past that she does not answer questions from the general public unless a member of Northfield's city government staff asks her to respond. Members of the city's staff told me the details of financial dealings between the city government and NTV could be found in in the city's files.

I submitted a written request to see any NTV-related documents having to do with contracts or finances. Only one of the documents seemed to refer to the law Hager mentions. That document, dated July 21, 2003, is titled "Resolution 2003-211: A Resolution by the Mayor and the City Council of the City of Northfield, Minnesota, relating to agreement with NTV 26."

The part of the resolution that references a state law reads "It is important that the legal status of NTV 26 as an independent non-profit corporation be confirmed before August 1, 2003, so that it is clear that NTV 26 and the city are not required to comply with the requirements of Minn. Stat. 465.719, which might otherwise apply."

I still have to find out from Hager if he met that confirmation deadline. I could not find "NTV" or "Northfield Television" on the non-profit listings on the Minnesota Secretary of State's Web site.

The resolution shows the City Council unanimously approved an interim financial agreement between the city and NTV in 2003. The interim agreement read "NTV 26 will continue to provide services to the City and the community as it has recently been providing, without further compensation from the City." NTV had typically received anywhere from about $10,000 to $85,000 in the previous 17 years.

The resolution also states city government staff would work toward negotiating "the terms of an on-going contract with NTV" and present it to the council by Oct. 31. The staff requested multiple deadline extensions and the council did not approve any significant changes to the interim agreement until 2005, when NTV's money reserves began to run out. NTV received $3,000 at that time.]

“We had the option to dissolve NTV, become part of the city, or contract for services, which is what we did. By mutual agreement, NTV and the city terminated our agreement (in 2003) to provide public access services and agreed to a new contract (in 2005) to provide access services as an independent contractor.”

“Starting in 1985, our funding had always been somewhat secure, but the possibility remained that the funding by the cable company could evaporate overnight and the city could direct the franchise fee to other purposes and public access would go dark. So I saved money and built up a reserve to fund operations in the event of a funding failure. I built a reserve large enough to buy us time to operate the channel for up to a year during which we would either reorganize or find a new funding source.”

“With a new franchise agreement with Charter Communications and a new agreement with NTV, the city wanted to come up with a new idea for public access. Until that idea was in place, NTV would spend its reserve and not receive any funding from the city. All PEG and franchise fees would go into the city’s cable account.  (See more information about franchise fees and fees for programming for education and government).”

“Susan Hoyt, then city administrator, proposed a new model for access: Hiring a new “cheerleader” of public access to encourage people to produce programming. Susan also contacted the public schools to see if they (the school system) would be interested in taking over public access, but the schools declined.  Susan left her position at the city and the city did not come up with a new idea for access.”

“I submitted my proposal to the City in October 2005.  The council asked Scott Davis to convene a committee (task force) to address the issue of public access, media and my proposal. The history of that committee is documented, I believe, but the item of note for this discussion is that the future of public access was not resolved in the meetings of the committee.”

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 voted in 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?

Note: This is a story in progress. Please see my bulleted questions in green and help me move the story forward. I would like commenters to write the question(s) they are addressing into their post. You might want to join the existing conversation on this topic. I’m excited to read about what people have to say! Please email me directly at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com if you would rather not post publicly.

Three leaders of public access stations in other communities talked to me about what their jobs are like on Friday and I hope the information will reveal some possible ideas for Northfield Television (NTV).

Little Falls is about an hour-and-a-half drive northwest of Northfield and has less than half Northfield’s population. Northfield has nearly 20,000 people, according to city-data.com. Burnsville and Eagan are suburbs of the Twin Cities, about a 40-minute drive north of Northfield, and have a combined population of about 130,000. Chapel Hill, home to the University of North Carolina, has a population of about 50,000. The Little Falls public access station is a for-profit company, the city governments of Burnsville and Eagan run their station and the Chapel Hill station is a non-profit.

Of the three stations, the one in Little Falls operates on the smallest budget—about $90,000 a year, which is money that comes mainly from the cable company’s franchise-fee payments to the city government. Governments can use franchise fee revenues for any public purpose. The 2,800 cable subscribers in Little Falls pay that fee. NTV receives just $30,000 in franchise-fee revenue yearly. I am asking Charter Communications, Northfield’s cable provider, to let me know how many subscribers are in Northfield. Each of the stations is 23 years old and operates two channels.

The $90,000 is still a “shoe-string” budget, Abraham said. He buys used camera equipment on eBay.com and builds his own television sets. The station now has four cameras that stay in the studio and three that members of the public may borrow. NTV has one camcorder to lend. Hager said his station’s camera is used less and less because many people own their own camcorders now.

The Little Falls station has begun to attract more and more participants since Abraham extended an invitation for people to record their own monthly, half-hour show at the station. The mayor, local sports analysts and senior citizens telling stories about the past are the most popular.

Burnsville and Eagan governments consistently disagreed about the management of the station, Hotchkiss said. So, as of this week, the station is splitting to give each city its own programming. That programming, however, is not the kind Hotchkiss would like to see on the station. The government-approved shows can seem one-sided, with documentaries about street-side curbs and bituminous concrete, Hotchkiss said, laughing.

Hotchkiss said he believed the ideal management could be if a cable company franchised with the state instead of individual cities and towns. That model already exists in some states. Hotchkiss believes it would reduce the conflict of interest he sees with government or local cable company management. In addition, he said the fees a cable company pays to support educational and government programming (PEG) should go directly to the public access station instead of routing through the government as it does now.

As for advice that NTV could possibly use, Hotchkiss said he believed it’s important for public access stations to network with other stations through organizations such as the Alliance for Community Media or the Minnesota Cable Communications Association. He also said a station should have plenty of shows that are consistently popular with viewers such as children’s concerts and high school sports in order to “sell” local-government and nationally produced public programming.

In North Carolina, a cable company now franchises at a state level, but Johnston said that has only resulted in less funding for his Chapel Hill station. His budget is $123,000 and he employs two full-time staff members and several part-time workers.

Johnston said that as a result, he has had to find ways to raise additional revenue by charging service and member fees and selling advertisements. He also barters with local businesses by exchanging advertising space on television for, as an example, food for volunteers.

Johnston also collaborates with other non-profits to work toward common educational goals. For example, the station partnered with an arts center to offer classes in media arts. That kind of teamwork has been especially helpful, he said, in gaining the support of local government officials.

Update 12/20 4 p.m.: I corrected several grammatical errors in the story, removing the word “moved” from the first sentence and removing some extra words from the paragraph third from the bottom.

Update 12/22 3 p.m.: Griff Wigley filled me in on the following info: While Northfield’s official 2000 census is 17,000 and recent estimates place it near 20,000, that includes the 5,000+ college students. So for this NTV story, I think a population estimate of 13,000 is more relevant for comparing us to other cities since none of the college students are potential cable subscribers.

*I indicate corrections with a strikethrough mark through the mistake, followed by the correct text.

Greenvale Township meeting on 12/16 from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo

Brian O’Connell, Northfield community development director, and Joel Walinski, interim city administrator, discussed the remaining details of a proposed annexation agreement with Greenvale Township‘s three supervisors for more than an hour on Tuesday night.

In the accompanying video, O’Connell and Walinski are on the left side of the table. Township supervisors Robert Winter, Bernard Budin and Chairman Richard Moore are on the right (Moore is the furthest in the background). The woman at the end of the table is Edith Nelson, the township’s secretary.

The annexation agreement, among other things, indicates how much Northfield would reimburse Greenvale for the property taxes the township will lose when 530 acres of undeveloped farmland goes onto the city’s tax rolls. Northfield is annexing the land to attract industrial developers.

The discussion led to two clarifications in the draft of the agreement. Walinski said he will release a copy of the final draft of the annexation agreement in his memo on Friday. The first clarification, which is shown in the video, addresses Greenvale’s request to prohibit Northfield from annexing any more of the township’s land for a period of five years following the current annexation deal.

O’Connell and Walinski said, in order to keep with the goals of Northfield’s comprehensive plan, they would not prohibit annexation across the next five years, but agreed to a restriction that Greenvale landowners who petition the city for annexation within that period must get written consent from the owners of every neighboring property.

The next clarification had to do with how Northfield will calculate its tax reimbursement payment to Greenvale. The proposed payment plan would reimburse Greenvale in the amount of about $3,854 a year for five years. That figure is the amount of money Greenvale currently collects in taxes on the property. According to the agreement, the reimbursement amount would change year-to-year as the property tax rate changes. In the sixth year, Northfield would pay a “balloon payment” that would equal 20 more years of annual payments. In all, Northfield would pay Greenvale about $96,362, using today’s property tax rate figure.

At Tuesday’s meeting, O’Connell and Walinski said the city would calculate the balloon payment by using a tax rate figure equal to the average of tax rates in the previous five years.

At the end of the meeting, the Northfield and Greenvale representatives agreed to allow their respective lawyers to look at the final draft of the agreement before signing the document. Three Greenvale residents attending the meeting said they were not completely satisfied with the way their supervisors negotiated the annexation agreement. The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 19 in the Township Hall on Guam Avenue.

Note: This is a story in progress. Please see my bulleted questions in green and help me move the story forward. I would like commenters to write the question(s) they are addressing into their post. You might want to join the existing conversation on this topic. I’m excited to read about what people have to say! Please email me directly at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com if you would rather not post publicly.

Submitted photo

The executive director of the Saint Paul public access network is interested in helping its Northfield counterpart thrive.

“With the number of people who care about the city, and with the educational resources available, you’ve got a lot of potential for doing good work,” Mike Wassenaar, of the Saint Paul Neighborhood Network, told me on Tuesday.

Wassenaar said he learned Northfield Television (NTV) is operating on a bare-bones budget by reading the article about the matter posted on LocallyGrownNorthfield.org. Wassenaar is an individual member of the Alliance for Community Media and he volunteers some of his time to help other public access stations around the nation.

Wassenaar said he wanted to talk to Paul Hager, NTV’s founder and president, and come up with a few ways to improve the station, with or without additional funding

After I talked to Wassenaar, I called Hager, who said he would be willing to speak with Wassenaar about those ideas. Hager agreed that Wassenaar’s offer to help seemed like good news.

As one way to attract more people to visit the station, Wassenaar said he might be able to connect NTV with larger stations in the city suburbs that could donate equipment. Wassenaar said NTV might develop its presence in places around Northfield where people regularly visit to participate in community events, such as a recreational center or at Saint Olaf or Carleton colleges.

In one of our earlier conversations, Hager said it could be difficult asking cable TV customers for more money than they are already paying in subscriber fees to support the station.

Wassenaar said the larger community, not just cable viewers, directly benefit from the services his network provides, however. For example, he said, the network once produced a show about a local clinic, and then gave a copy of the show to the clinic to use as an educational tool. He said the network also provides youth programming.

As another funding source, Wassenaar said, the network has sought grants from other organizations.

• I wonder what organizations or individuals would consider becoming members of NTV?

Wassenaar said he would also be willing to help inform government officials and the general public about what a well-supported public access station can offer to a community.

• What would it take for NTV to thrive in Northfield?

Note 12/17 9:45 a.m.: I corrected the spelling of the word “network” at the bottom of the thirteenth paragraph.

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?
  

Note: This is a story in progress. Please see my bulleted questions in green and help me move the story forward. I would like commenters to write the question(s) they are addressing into their post. I’m excited to read about what people have to say! Please email me directly at RepJNorthfield@gmail.com if you would rather not post publicly.

Photo by Josh Rowan. A letter "N," once part of a downtown supermarket sign, now stands for "NTV" in the entryway of the station.

Paul Hager, who is NTV’s founder and president, told me on Thursday that Northfield Community Television (NTV), which is an independent public access station on Channel 12, is operating on a “lights-on” budget these days.

I asked Hager what “lights-on budget” meant. He replied, saying NTV receives $2,500 a month from the franchise-fee revenue sitting in the city’s Cable TV Fund. That amount, which totals $30,000 a year, is enough to pay rent, insurance, utility bills and a modest salary for him to produce some content and air some governmental meetings. He has no employees and about 10 volunteers who regularly produce content for the non-profit organization.

The station is on the second floor of 309 Division Street View Larger Map, which is under the relatively new ownership of JB Enterprises. Hager said he is optimistic the new owners will repair the building very soon. In the past two years, he said, the station has been uncomfortable to use because of heating and cooling problems. But, he said, most people now produce video at home and give him a digital file. The station houses the public access channel’s video equipment. Hager does not keep regular hours at the station, but the public can contact him via NTV’s Web site. Phone: 507-645-6917. Email: NTV@charter.net.

As an example of the kind of programming NTV airs daily, the schedule for Dec. 15 included:

• Northfield UMC Adult Forum: A Talk by Jay Walljasper
• I Cantanti 2003 Concert: A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
• Twin City RNC Pre-emptive House Raids: What about the Bill of Rights? Produced by Andy Kornkven
• St. John’s Church Service
• Dennis Kucinich Rally at Carleton College on Feb. 21 2004

• I wondered why the city government isn’t allocating as much money to NTV as it used to.
  
• I also wondered what the general public thinks of NTV.
• What does the station bring to the community?
• Could NTV do more, even with its small budget?
• Should the community show more support for the station?
• Have other forms of information sharing, such as the Internet, replaced the need for public access television?

What is the Cable TV Fund?

Cable systems have offered access channels to the public since the 1970s so that people could make programs for others in their own communities, according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications Web site.

I first learned the basics of the Cable TV Fund by reading an article Jaci Smith, managing editor of the Northfield News, wrote on Nov. 28., which had the headline, “Cable fund holds wealth of possibilities.” Smith said city governments collect two kinds of fees from cable television companies and that money flows into the Cable TV Fund. The cable company serving Northfield is Charter Communications. There is currently about $766,000 in the Cable TV Fund.

One kind of fee is called a franchise fee. Time Warner Cable’s Web site gives a brief overview of the rules of the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984.

“The franchise fee is intended to compensate a community for the cable operator’s use of the local rights-of-way, and to offset any costs associated with administering the local cable franchise,” the Web site reads.

A city government can use the franchise fees to pay for any public service. According to Smith’s article, cable companies pay Northfield about $100,000 a year in franchise fees.

In addition to franchise fees, cable companies also pay a fee that a city government can use only for purposes of public education and government (PEG) programming. Smith reported PEG fees total up to $15,000 a year.

Deb Little, the department manager for the City Clerk’s Office, said she could help me find out how much money in the Cable TV fund is from franchise fees and how much is from PEG fees by the end of the week.

Additionally, I asked what PEG fees are paying for now, if anything. Little said she would have to research that, too.

Kathleen McBride, Northfield’s Financial Director, said most recently, the city government used that money to install a new video recording system in the City Council’s chambers. The work on the nearly $100,000 equipment upgrade finished in 2007.

Why does NTV receive less funding than in the past?

The $30,000 NTV receives a year is less than half what the fund used to provide NTV in the 1990s, Hager told me. The station has been around since the 1985. I wondered about the dramatic decrease and how it had affected the quality of the station, if at all. I don’t own a television and so have never watched the station’s programming.

Scott Davis, a city council member who has worked to define the relationship between city government and the station in the past, told me on Friday that changes in state law led to the decrease in funds. Davis did not have time to explain further because I visited him in his photography studio on Bridge Square and he had a client waiting.

• I did not find a copy of the Minnesota statue online that could apply to the matter. So I am still searching for more information about how the law changed and how it affected contracts between the city government and NTV.

I did have time to ask Davis if there were any other reasons why the city government might have cut NTV’s funding, such as NTV not providing enough of a service in exchange for the money. Davis said that was not the reason.

Hager told me that all he knew about it was that, a few years ago, the cable company and city government did not renew a contract that outlined how much PEG fee and/or franchise fee revenue could go to NTV. For a time, NTV operated without a contract and ran on savings and the city government paid no funds to the station, Hager told me. In 2005, the City Council decided to allot the $30,000 a year in franchise fee revenue to keep the operation running.

Photo by Josh Rowan. Paul Hager stands in one of the station's studios on Monday.

Should we change how public access television works?

Hager had asked for more than renewed funding at that time, however.

He had come up with a four-page proposal to make dramatic changes in the way NTV worked.

The summary bullet points of his proposal are:

• The primary attraction of public access television has been erased by changes in technology. It is time to re-think the model for public access.
• We could capitalize on the digital technology revolution that has created a visual storyteller in every household that has a video camcorder.
• We can and should provide a modest financial incentive to spur production of community programming.
• We must create a higher level of visibility for public access and invite local institutions to take an active role in creating programming.

The proposal sounded to me like an interesting model, not wholly unlike the goals of the Representative Journalism project.

Davis said one of the reasons Hager’s proposal never went into action is because the City Council has a lot to do. When the council decided to renew some funding to the station, it considered the situation fixed for at least a little while, he said. Davis compared it to patching a crack in a window. The window still isn’t a good window, Davis said, but you can live with it.

In addition, Davis said Hager’s proposal relied a lot on individuals who would be willing to work as videographers in exchange for a small amount of grant money and there might not be enough people willing to perform such work.
I could see his point, but I’m wondering how many other people would feel the same way.

Davis said the new members of City Council and the new mayor might revisit the city’s relationship with NTV in the coming years, but the struggling economy might now present another obstacle to further funding or attention.

• At that, I wondered how many people might deem the station undeserving of any funds in the near future. In tough times, some people might think that $30,000 a year could be better spent on something else.

As a journalist, I shuddered at the thought of another of America’s independent, information-distribution services closing down. However, I also believe that those services do have to learn how to better compete for attention in order to survive.

I put in a request for data at city hall on Friday to take a look at all the contracts the city has had with NTV over the years. I plan to share that information here so we can better see what kind of service NTV has provided to Northfield over the years.

Should the city government control public access television?

Smith quoted McBride in her article about the Cable TV fund, saying, “McBride said she recommends using only part of the money so that if the city does decide to get into the public access broadcasting business it has the startup funds to do so,” Smith wrote.

I asked McBride via email to expand on what Smith reported.

McBride wrote, “It would be a Council decision – and while I’m not close to the process (at all!) – I do think there is interest in starting a public access function – where we would buy the equipment and hire a company or employees to run it.”

I haven’t heard any of the City Council’s discussions on the matter, but I’m confused about why the council would consider making city workers take on the public access station responsibilities. I imagine there could be cost savings but I’m not sure how. I wonder, too, if the city would cease to fund NTV altogether, and what would become of the station in that situation?

Hager pointed out that if the city government controlled the station, and someone produced something controversial, the government would then have control over when to air the program (perhaps during a time when no one would watch it). Right now, Hager has ultimate control of the programming schedule.

But are people producing content that challenges the government, or any other institution for that matter? Would they if Hager’s proposed model were adopted?

Update: 12/15 7 p.m: I forgot to put Kathleen McBride’s full name and title when I first referenced her in the story, so I fixed it.

Also, I wanted to note that you can still borrow a camcorder and tripod from NTV and use the station’s editing equipment to produce video content for the station.

I found this photograph of Peterson though an Internet search. When I visited him, he had a crew cut and his hair was blonder. He had no lip ring or earrings.

I visited Travis Roy “Roarke” Peterson, 19, of Northfield, in the Rice County jail at 8 a.m. on Thursday.

Peterson is facing one first-degree charge of selling heroin, two second-degree charges of selling and one count of possessing heroin.

Peterson said he probably could not say much about his case, and he kept that resolve throughout our conversation.

The Representative Journalism Project founded in Northfield, Minn. could see more nationwide support after project collaborators Bonnie Obremski and Bill Densmore facilitated a discussion about the initiative last week at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. The noontime “Lunchstorm” session was a part of a three-day conference centered around another experimental project called Information Valet, which Densmore is working on at the university.

The video below is an edited version of the hour-long talk during which media professionals from around the nation and students from the university’s top-ranked journalism school grilled Obremski and Densmore about RepJ’s progress and future plans.

One of the only unanswered questions was how the RepJ project would gain financial support from community members who are willing to invest in the next generation of community journalism. However, the founders of the Banyan Project and Kachingle.com made some interesting suggestions.

Tom Stites of the Banyan Project suggested a co-op style funding method, or to simply “put out the tip jar” to see what would happen. Kachingle, founder Cynthia Typaldos explained, would be a way for Web site owners everywhere to easily solicit funds from fans. In essence, “Kachinglers” sign up to donate $5 per month toward the sites they would like to support most. To distribute some of the $5 to a site, the Kachingler pushes the Kachingle button installed on the site. Typaldos would like to launch Kachingle in January.

In the video, the questions asked appear in type at the bottom of the screen while Obremski and Densmore answer them.

Mizzou “Lunchstorm” discussion on Dec. 5, 2008 from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.