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By Griff Wigley, on July 25, 2011, 10:43 am
  
The heavy rain on Saturday morning has collapsed part of the pavement at 4th & Division. Unlike the hole in the street that opened up on 6th & Division a couple weeks ago, this problem has occurred on a portion of 4th St. that was completely replaced last year.
Will the contractor be held accountable for the repair?
Update, 8 am, 07/26:
It’s worse than I thought. The pavement has develop a large bulge along the white stripe parallel to the crosswalk, as well as along the concrete edge near the curb, right in front of First National Bank of Northfield.
  
Update, 11 am, 07/28:
The street was repaired yesterday, with costs born by the City. See the discussion thread. Photo below courtesy of Hayes Scriven.
By Griff Wigley, on June 8, 2011, 2:45 pm
By Griff Wigley, on November 4, 2010, 6:24 pm
By Griff Wigley, on July 13, 2010, 11:55 am
 I saw this Fourth Street reconstruction chart in the downtown lobby of the First National Bank of Northfield this morning. (See the PDF of the top half of the chart on the City’s site titled Fourth Street Improvements 2010 – Project Phases.)
I asked EDA member and bank VP Rick Estenson what the delay was since the chart indicates (in yellow) that the Phase 1B was to be completed by July 2 and [sigh] there’s no explanation on the City’s 1999-style web page for the project. "Rick, the weather’s gorgeous. Why aren’t they at least pouring sidewalks this week?”
Rick suggested that the delay might be due to the fact that the NDDC, which agreed to contribute labor to help reduce project costs in front of its office on 4th St., might be hampered by its unskilled workforce.
 
Sure enough.
Update 7/16, 8 am: Ross continues to do his part, however inadequate it might be. He poured the sidewalk outside the NDDC office yesterday.
By Griff Wigley, on April 21, 2010, 8:48 am
  
The boys from Cannon River Tree Care took down the 11 trees on 4th St. between Division and Washington this morning, marking the start of the 4th St. reconstruction project.
See all our blog posts on the 4th St. reconstruction for background. The short version: these trees will be replaced with in-ground trees.
By Griff Wigley, on April 6, 2010, 7:52 am
 Our guest this week, Northfield City Councilor Kris Vohs (At-Large), with two of his grandkids in the audience.
We asked him to explain his vote in favor of the plan to reuse the existing Safety Center location for a new fire station and to build a police station at a new location. The surprising short version of his answer: getting ‘political’ support to build a single building would be difficult in this economic climate. More surprising: he doesn’t support going to the citizens on a referendum to fund the facilities.
The rest of the show we spent discussing the trees on 4th St. which again comes before the Council tonight.
Continue reading Podcast: Councilor Kris Vohs
By Griff Wigley, on April 5, 2010, 7:53 am
 Robbie and I had our first experience with bubble tea on Saturday. Yum. (The rumors continue to swirl around Northfield that’s a bubble tea restaurant that’s going into the into the old Bagel Bros on Division St.) We got our drinks at Cafe Thang Bom on Eat Street before we grabbed some takeout at Harry Singh’s Original Caribbean Restaurant (yum again).
 While walking around the intersection of 28th and Nicollet, I noticed how the in-ground trees, the planters, and the tables, chairs, and umbrellas for sidewalk dining all made for an attractive urban landscape.
 And I noticed that the less-than-five-feet of clearance between the tables and the buildings does not seem to be an issue.
Why do I mention it? Because the issue is back before the Northfield City Council this week as staff have brought back two options for trees on 4th St. reconstruction, one of which seems to include some faulty assumptions.
I’ve closed comments here. Join the discussion attached to the blog post, Council directs staff to include sidewalk trees on 4th St. reconstruction.
By Griff Wigley, on March 17, 2010, 7:54 am
 Local landscaper Leif Knecht, former mayor Keith Covey  and I spoke at open mic at last night’s Northfield City Council meeting, asking the Council to find a way to incorporate new trees on both sides of 4th St. between Washington and Division for this summer’s 4th St. reconstruction. (See the video of last night’s meeting in this KYMN blog post.)
Knecht said that there are varieties of trees that can do reasonably well in an environment where buildings block the sun and bedrock limits root growth. I distributed a printout of the above photo from 2008, showing that the current trees, although tilted and stunted in some cases, still did a reasonably good job for 30 years.
Councilor Rhonda Pownell made a motion to rescind her vote on last week’s Council decision to accept Streetscape Option 1 (“Small planters along 4th Street curb line, provision for hanging baskets on decorative light poles, no bump-outs or large-scale planters” – Page 27 of packet PDF) since it didn’t include trees. Jim Pokorney seconded.
I was impressed with the subsequent Council discussion. Some councilors were reluctant to rescind because it could delay the whole project. Others were understandably reluctant to get involved in this level of detail. They considered the pros and cons of sending the design to the Streetscape Task Force. Several times, they asked for input from City Engineer Katy Gehler and City Attorney Chris Hood. Mayor Mary Rossing did a masterful job of keeping the discussion on track, helping with the language of various motions, and making sure to get input from everyone.
In the end, they voted unanimously to accept the 4th St. plan but they then followed it by passing another motion, again unanimously, directing city staff to incorporate as many trees as possible into the sidewalk areas.
Nice work, Councilors!
Update 3/18, 10:30 PM:
By Griff Wigley, on March 15, 2010, 6:51 am
There’s a semi-secret open house today, 6 pm at City Hall (see mtg PDF) on the big 4th Street East reconstruction project (see the Division to Nevada corridor map PDF).
  
I was surprised that the recommendation is to remove the eleven trees currently growing on both sides of 4th St. between Division and Washington and instead of planting new trees, replace them with hanging baskets and planters (PDF).
The 4-page concept PDF shows ‘existing photos’ of the trees on page 3 but they show the trees in winter time, not exactly a fair visual representation of what would be lost. So I dug up some 4th St. photos from my archives.
It seems to me that eleven trees make for a lot of greenery that can’t be made up by hanging baskets and pots.
See the Sat. Nfld News: Council to vote on Fourth Street plans.
Brian Hilgardner, an engineer with Bolton & Menk Engineers & Surveyors working on the project, said arborists evaluated the street and recommended removing several. He said some trees were in poor health and said the lack of space both below the surface and against the buildings didn’t allow for proper growth. Because of the buildings, the trees weren’t getting adequate light.
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