November 20, 2008 – 2:22 pm
Greenvale Township’s supervisors and Northfield city officials drew closer to reaching an agreement at the end of a fifth annexation negotiation meeting at the township hall on Tuesday night.
“I think we’re looking at a win-win,” Brian O’Connell, Northfield’s community development director, said after the meeting.
O’Connell and Joel Walinski, Northfield’s interim city administrator, offered a [...]
November 19, 2008 – 7:04 pm
Northfield Mayor Joseph Lee Lansing will attend his omnibus hearing on Dec. 17 at 1:30 p.m. in Rice County District Court in Faribault. District Court Judge Warren E. Litynski set the date Wednesday afternoon after an arraignment that lasted about 10 minutes. The mayor is facing five charges of misconduct by a public official and [...]
November 19, 2008 – 8:25 am
Main Street Moravian Church meeting on drug use in Northfield from Bonnie Obremski on Vimeo.
Note: This is an edited video of the question and answer portion of Sunday’s meeting at the Main Street Moravian Church. I edited out images of the undercover sheriff’s deputy and any audience member. I also shortened the length of some [...]
November 17, 2008 – 6:44 pm
A Minnesota-based non-profit is spending the next few months partnering children in New York City, Washington D.C., and Northfield with children in Iraq in an effort to build closer ties between the nations.
“We thought about Minneapolis, but decided on Northfield,” said Pam Middleton, executive director of War Kids Relief, which is a program of the [...]
November 13, 2008 – 6:25 pm
A discussion about the role of Northfield’s City Council versus the city’s paid staff in decision-making emerged during the Economic Development Authority meeting on Thursday morning.
The topic came up when the board members addressed the process of building a new municipal liquor store to replace the old one on Fifth Street.
“This is a political hot [...]
November 12, 2008 – 7:51 pm
Guadalupe Flores Calderon and her business partner Yuma Gonzalez Gonzalez have seen their enterprise double in size since opening in June, Calderon said last week, and the place does not even have an outdoor sign or full menu.
Their Mexican store and deli has a name, La Vencedora, and most people are drawn into the stark-looking [...]
November 11, 2008 – 6:23 pm
Update log: 11/12 8 p.m.
Click here to download a PDF file of the most recent draft of the annexation proposal
Brian O’Connell, Northfield’s community development director, offered to extend the amount of time the city would pay tax reimbursement fees to Greenvale Township during an annexation negotiation meeting on Wednesday night.
But, the township’s supervisors said they [...]
November 11, 2008 – 11:00 am
Rhonda Pownell said she wasn’t surprised to come out on top in a four-way race to fill an unexpired two-year term for an at-large seat on the Northfield City Council.
“I have energy and excitement and I’m encouraging others to come along,” Pownell said over a cup of herbal tea at the Bittersweet eatery on Thursday.
She [...]
November 6, 2008 – 6:23 pm
Northfield Police Chief Mark Taylor spoke with me this week to answer some questions about the ongoing investigation of suspected heroin dealing in the city. Unfortunately, my wireless microphone gave me some trouble and the sound quality isn’t what it usually is. The video is 12 minutes, 28 seconds long. The pauses in the [...]
November 5, 2008 – 10:59 pm
Last week, I spoke to a friend of one of Northfield’s alleged heroin dealers. Since she is 15 years old and talking about a sensitive matter, I decided to keep her name and the name of her friend anonymous, even though she gave me permission to use her name.
Click play to listen. 1 minute, [...]
November 4, 2008 – 6:12 pm
Barbara Howe, director of Open Door Nursery School on West Third Street, is worried about the number of vacancies in daycares and preschools citywide.
“I think a lot of parents are having to make decisions financially,” Howe said on Tuesday. “There are things that have to go and unfortunately, nursery school is one of them.”
Howe said [...]
November 3, 2008 – 12:46 pm
At least two Northfielders spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours to build front-yard attractions for neighborhood children on Halloween night
Dana Goss of Lupine Drive was one and Joshua Godfredson of Buchanan Court wan another.
Norman Butler, owner of the Contented Cow, alerted me to Goss’ attraction and Jerry Weber and Nicole Maloney of Sweet Pea’s [...]
October 28, 2008 – 6:54 pm
The following video is about 1.5 minutes long. It shows portions of a press conference in the Rice County District Court that took place on Monday, Oct. 27 from 2:30 p.m. to about 3:15 p.m. There were representatives from the Faribault Daily News, KYMN Radio and Carleton College and about a half-dozen other people in [...]
October 27, 2008 – 10:16 pm
Seven Rice County residents accused of dealing heroin are awaiting second hearings after arraignments at Rice County District Court on Monday morning.
Some arraignments occurred in courtroom 2, where Judge Thomas Neuville presided, and some in courtroom 3, where Judge Bernard E. Borene presided. The judges set bail of varying amounts for each of the defendants.
Alexander [...]
Locally Grown has been chosen to test an innovative project called Representative Journalism (RepJ). Bonnie Obremski is the RepJ reporter/journalist currently assigned to Northfield.
RepJ stories by Bonnie Obremski