Mr. Ed Kuhlman stopped by my morning office at GBM on Friday to show me a newspaper called the National Public Opinion that he found in a recent batch of collectibles he’d purchased. This edition was Volume 1, No. 4, published on July 16, 1927. In true yellow journalism fashion, the headlines scream:
FARIBAULT, MINNESOTA, IS 48 PER CENT TAX-EXEMPT!
NORTHFIELD, MINNESOTA, HALF TAXED—HALF FREE
Faribault, Minnesota, is tied for first place with Northfield, in matter of tax exemptions
The Limit to Tax Exemptions in Northfield, Minnesota is the Sky With the Roof Knocked off
Carleton College seems to run the city.
We laughed because Carleton was in the news this past week for acquiring a commercial property downtown. The Nfld Patch article, Carleton College Purchases Building at 200 Division St., includes an email by Carleton’s VP Fred Rogers. Excerpt:
We believe this is a win for Carleton and a win for Northfield’s downtown. The College will effectively acquire new space in central campus, much cheaper than we could construct it. The office and professional uses of this important downtown building will be reinforced and increased. We intend to honor all existing leases and to leave the building on the tax roll at this time.
If Carleton does take the building off the tax roll, I predict the publisher of the National Public Opinion will turn over in his grave and come back to life as an angry blogger.
LWV and Carleton are co-hosting this film screening on Monday the 7th, and I thought you might be interested — perhaps even interested in posting about it on Locally Grown? Here’s the trailer. (There’s a shorter one you can watch here, too, if you have 3 minutes but not 8.)
It’s a really important topic, and a very cool film. And an amazing set of panelists for the discussion afterwards, to boot! Let me know if you have questions.
Jessica stopped by my office at GBM this morning with her daughter Astrid for the requisite photo op.
One of the new initiatives that this group developed was alumni entrepreneur recruitment. In addition to promoting downtown Northfield as a marketplace, we wanted to promote it as a business location, particularly to the graduates of Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges. We introduced the concept for the first time at this year’s Homecoming Weekends.
I knew this poster was in the works because back in early August, Ross had asked me to contribute photos for it and they needed one additional: a photo of creative class types working in a coffeehouse.
All month long, I kept watching for a good photo op from my early morning corner office at GBM but it never quite came together.
So on Aug. 29, noticing that I had the raw material for a photo, I asked the laptop users to switch tables. I then asked Nancy Amerman who was sitting with a group of runners to sit at my laptop for the photo. Perfecto.
It should be noted that Nancy felt no shame over helping to perpetuate this fraud, whereas at least I felt conflicted. And yet she calls herself a Christian. Go figure.
Not much in the way of fall colors in the above photos I took this morning adjacent to Carleton College’s Lyman Lakes but the monarch butterfly and the bees took priority.
A little more color in the photos below. I’ll try again later this week.
The selected photos are now part of an exhibition called Frames of Engagement that runs through Sept. 25 in the White Spaces at the Weitz Center for Creativity which opens to the Northfield community today with an open house, 3-6 pm.
This exhibition highlights civic engagement between Carleton, the Northfield community, and beyond. Situated in Northfield’s former middle school, this exhibition demonstrates Carleton’s desire to preserve and commemorate elements of the community’s past while also offering it a vast arena for future collaboration and connection.
I submitted six photos and when I visited the exhibition last night, was delighted to find out that they were all on display. I’ve added the originals to this album of photos of the walls of the exhibit.
See the large slideshow (recommended) or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
The independent film Girl Meets Bike is being shot in and around Northfield this week by the Minneapolis-based production company, Moto Girl Films, Inc. Why here? The Carleton College connection.
Actors include Ruth Menard as Kat; Melissa Pizaarro as Ty; Dave Engler as Becker; Palf Schirg at Martin; Sam Scherf as James.
Producer/Director: Eric Tretbar; Line Producer: Jessica Paxton; Production Coordinator: Aiyana Ruggiero.
Locals are involved as extras and more. More photos to come.
Update 07/11, 7:30 am: See the album of 28 photos (including the 7 above), the large slideshow (recommended), or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:
After seeing a Tweet from Ross on Saturday, Robbie and I wandered through the Upper Arb to catch part of the baseball double header between Carleton and St. Thomas at Knights Field, the Carls’ new baseball facility northeast of the Recreation Center. Saaaaweeeeet.
A college club hockey game at Northfield’s ice arena was the scene of an ugly incident a month ago involving Carleton and St. Olaf students, both players and spectators. I just found out about it this week when a LoGro reader alerted me.
Having behaved badly at times during my college days at St. Thomas, I’m not quick to make a big deal over college kids doing stupid or offensive stuff. But this was over the top.
As far as I know, there have been no public statements about this incident from the administrations of either St. Olaf or Carleton.
Spectators howled and jeered as game play took a violent turn in the St. Olaf versus Carleton club hockey game on Friday, March 4 at the Northfield Ice Arena. The stands were packed with students, predominantly Oles, many of whom began the evening shouting profanities and other negative cheers, including the standard “Carleton sucks!”
The St. Olaf players were just as rambunctious as the fans. “St. Olaf had about as many penalty minutes as they had game minutes,” spectator Thomas Hegland ’13 said. When the crowd threw soda cans and bottles onto the ice, St. Olaf was penalized, and additional bottles and cans along with zamboni tires were thrown onto the ice in retaliation.
After several minutes the fight finally ended, leaving gear strewn across the ice. There were drops of blood from a referee, who had been “seriously injured,” as the St. Olaf student announcer stated over the loud speaker. The referee attempted to pull players apart. As he skated to the bench the fight left a deep sense of shame and disappointment in me.
Not only did I feel shame because of the fight, but also because of the cheers of “F— you, Carleton,” “F— you, Olaf,” “ugly b—-es,” etc., and because of the constant throwing of trash onto the ice. I was even more surprised that one of the St. Olaf students on the bench threw tires onto the ice and then walked out of the arena.
There were several other incidents that weren’t in the articles. I have no idea what happened in the St. Olaf locker rooms, but I do know that one of the Carleton players asked the police to watch the Carleton locker room, because St. Olaf fans were lined up outside the locker room when they went back in between periods. My friend’s stick and gloves were stolen when he was in the bathroom. I don’t know what happened in the Ole locker rooms, but I’m sure it wasn’t exactly peaceful either.
Lastly – the fight was ugly and intense. In addition to the players, several spectators actually jumped over the glass onto the ice so that they could join the fight – it was ridiculous. I have no idea who hit the ref, but both schools were equally at fault and it was really startling. I wasn’t aware that the game was called a draw, but it doesn’t surprise me.
In short, it was an ugly game. There were a lot of drunk fans from both schools, and the tensions elevated really quickly. I don’t expect another Carleton-St. Olaf game for a while.
The question may remain unsolvable. For the more immediate future, one of the written-up students suggested that the school warn students if there is knowledge of likely increased police activity. “I think the school really made a faux pas in this circumstance,” said the student. “A heads-up could have gone a long way… the school knows that students go to the hockey games inebriated.”
Produced by Sung Hyo Kim, a Carleton senior, this video can be seen by anyone visiting our website to find out more about our facility and our programs. It will be playing in our lobby for visitors to the shelter to watch, we can use it at events and for other promotional purposes as well.
We are so excited to be one of the recipients of a video from this wonderful program for non-profits in our community. PEHS could never afford to hire a professional to produce a video of this quality.
Hyo spent many hours at the shelter, attending events, interviewing staff, filming volunteers and visiting with adopters. From these many hours of filming he was able to edit it down to a high quality video that tells the viewer about PEHS, our mission, programs and services in just over four minutes. He also filmed actual spay and neuter surgeries performed by our shelter veterinarian, Dr. Charlie Gumbusky and then produced two more videos for us, in which you are able to watch a narrated dog and cat spay and a dog neuter. All of these videos can be found on our PEHS website under the Video Library tab. You can also find them on YouTube.
Hyo was such a pleasure to work with on this project. He was genuinely interested in our organization and was very professional, polite and accommodating in regards to filming during the times that would fit our staff schedules as well as the shelter schedule and working to really get to know about his video subject. I cannot say enough about how much we enjoyed working with this Carleton student. He is very talented and we hope to keep in touch with him in the future, as our staff grew to respect and enjoy his presence at the shelter. Hyo is from South Korea and he will be returning there once he graduates from Carleton College. He is a very ambitious young man and we know he will do well in whatever he decides to pursue after his graduation.
This class is a great gift to the non-profit organizations in the area who are picked by these students to produce a video each year. I believe there were 5 or 6 groups who benefited from this class in our community. Thank you to Paul Hager and Carleton College for teaching not only the professional production of these videos to these students and allowing our non-profits to benefit from it, but for also instilling in them the responsibility of giving back to a community and giving these students the opportunity to experience the benefits of the non-profits in this area.
I walked around the construction site of the old Northfield Middle School early this morning (hence the bluish color of the photos), soon to become Carleton College’s Weitz Center for Creativity:
… a facility geared toward creative collaboration that will support multiple student and classroom projects and allow faculty members to teach with words, images, sounds, and narrative in a variety of media.
In addition to housing the departments of Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS), and Theater, and Dance, the space will include a teaching museum, a dramatic theater, a cinema theater, dance studios, classrooms and a coffee shop. The building will also be home to the Presentation, Events and Production Support (PEPS) office and the Idea Lab, a shared, interdisciplinary laboratory for exploring and learning to use technology. The first phase of construction is scheduled to be complete in Fall 2011.
I’ve been doing a little barefoot running on the luscious green grass at Laird Stadium at Carleton College lately. On Monday, I saw a sign on the gate alerting people that Roundup (Wikipedia entry) had been applied and to “stay off grass until dry.”
Is this a cause for concern? Are there other cost-effective ways to treat a huge area of grass like this? unwanted grass in cracks?
Update 7/16 9 am: Thanks to the informed comments below, I’ve removed the words “for a healthy lawn” from the blog post title and replaced it with “for unwanted grass.”
I’ve also struck the phrase “a huge area of grass like this” from the second paragraph and replaced it with “unwanted grass in cracks.”
He was in Northfield yesterday afternoon and captured this video of a rainbow over Carleton College. How amazing is that? All I can say is, the Lord works in wondrous ways. Click play to watch. 57 seconds. PG-13 for language.
Demolition of the newer portion of the old Northfield Middle School began this week. I took these photos this morning at the corner of 4th and College. By the fall of 2011, it’ll become The Arts Union for Carleton College. The web site says it’ll be a
facility geared toward creative collaboration that will support multiple student and classroom projects and allow faculty members to teach with words, images, sounds, and narrative in a variety of media.
In addition to housing the departments of Cinema and Media Studies (CAMS), and Theater, and Dance, the space will include a teaching museum, a dramatic theater, a cinema theater, dance studios, classrooms and a coffee shop.
10:15 am update: For much more background and many more photos, see Rob Hardy’s blog post on Northfield.org: Old Middle School Annex Demolition.
The waters of the Cannon River have rapidly receded and in the baseball/soccer/ultimate fields behind Carleton’s West gym, have left a large sand dune. Perfect timing.
This Saturday, March 20, from 9a to noon, Carleton College is sponsoring a home electronics equipment recycling day. Items accepted include TVs, printers, fax machines, computer monitors, microwaves, stereo equipment, VCR’s, DVD players, electronic games, laptop computers, calculators, portable audio players, cordless phones, cell phones, keyboards, etc.
Depending upon the nature of the item, a variable small fee will be charged to defray the costs of recycling. (This opportunity is offered to individuals/households only, not businesses.)
For more information about what’s involved in manufacturing these items, why you should recycle them, and some heinous human rights abuses in this industry, see the Materials Processing Corporation blog:
E-waste sent overseas for processing to places like Guiyu has very detrimental effects on the health of the e-waste workers, and even the residents of the towns where this processing takes place: “According to reports from nearby Shantou University, Guiyu has the highest level of cancer-causing dioxins in the world and an elevated rate of miscarriages.”
Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to recycle electronics with firms that have promised to process everything they take in here in the United States. A list of these recyclers, which includes Materials Processing Corporation, can be found here.
For more information, dropoff location, and details on the fees, please see the Carleton website.
[show_avatar email=scriven@northfieldhistory.org]On Saturday March 20, the Northfield Historical Society (NHS) will be having its Annual Meeting and Membership Ball at Great Hall on the Carleton College Campus. The party starts at 7:00 p.m. There will be a short meeting at about 8:00 and right after that, Christina Schweitz and Sweet Jazz will play the night away!
The best part about the night is that it is FREE if you are a NHS member! You can come and listen to the wonderful music and eat all you want for FREE! If you are not a member, not a big deal you can sign up that night or online!
Now you might be asking yourself, “Why should I join the Northfield Historical Society.” Well for one, you will be directly supporting the organization in town that is responsible for collecting, preserving, interpreting and honoring Northfield’s past. In addition, to that warm and fuzzy feeling you get for preserving Northfield’s past, you also get; the NHS newsletter, The Scriver Scribbler delivered to your home/business 4 times a year, FREE admission to other NHS programs throughout the year, FREE admission to the NHS museum year round, access to the NHS archives/collections at a discounted price and soon to come a new e-newsletter!
NHS memberships go directly into our operation budget to help put on programs such as, the Jr. Curator, Summer Assistant, Jr. Posse and SCOPE programs. These are all programs that engage Northfield High School and Middle School students in local history research and docent training. The membership also goes into fund programs like our rotating exhibits, the Outlaw Run, NHS publications, and speaker programs. Those are just a few of the programs.
We received this email from Nathan Yaffe, Carleton College student:
As part of my Environmental Economics and Policy class, we’re conducting research on the different stakeholders relevant to the annexation issue.
Our end product will be a public poster presentation on Monday, March 15 from 8:30-11 in the Great Hall at Carleton… My group is conducting a survey to determine public attitudes about the annexation.
Our questions came from a Ward 3 exit poll conducted by Erica Zweifel, who graciously agreed to share her poll results with us, but we’re hoping to collect more data.
Ultimately, the hope is for this to benefit the community, because our presentation will be attended by individuals involved in the decision-making process concerning this annexation.
Golf course architect Paul Miller (Paul Miller Design Inc) stopped by my morning office at GBM last week with the poster of Saturday’s Singing for Haiti fundraiser at The Grand Event Center.
Paul has been involved in peace and justice work in Haiti for over a decade and is the founder of the Haiti Justice Alliance of Northfield which is hosting the event. Money raised will go to the What If? Foundation, Feed My Starving Children, and Partners in Health.
While snowshoeing at the east end of the Cannon River Wilderness Area last weekend, I pointed out to my niece the approximate spot where Henry Fisk, the Rice County hermit, lived. Robbie and I happened upon his sparse living quarters when we first moved to Northfield in 1974 but I don’t remember if he was still living there.
Northfield News columnist Maggie Lee wrote several columns about Fisk (also spelled ‘Fiske’) back in 2006, and many people chimed in with letters-to-editor about him. (Do a search there on both spellings of his name.)
Anyone have memories of Henry? Anyone have a photo of him?
The bank thermometers read –28, –25 and –23 degrees F. at 7 am this morning. Carleton’s Weather page was showing –22.5.
We’ve been below zero since New Year’s Day around 4 pm but yesterday morning around 7 am, the temperature was considerably warmer… above boiling, actually. What was going on over there at Carleton? (A tip-of-the-blogger hat to Brendon Etter, Textbook Manager at the Carleton College Bookstore for the alert.)
While out for a little Shot of Solitude yesterday morning, I came upon a new sign adjacent to the Rec Center parking lot: “Carleton Student Organic Farm – Righteous Food.” I followed the path back to get a photo and saw that a student was working on another sign. He told me that this was the first year that the garden, in existence since the 60s, would be selling its produce to Bon Appétit, Carleton’s dining service. I asked him his name after taking his photo. “Griffin Williams.” I pulled out my wallet to show him my driver’s license. He was as shocked as I was, as neither of us had ever met another adult with the same first name… spelled the same way, too.
Peter Seebach (Seebs): California in general has very high rates of “drug use”. And frankly, there is no place in the US that can be meaningfully called “very accepting” to gays. More accepting than others, sure. Why, I...
David Henson: Peter, you have the Internet you do the research. Use San Francisco as a baseline (an accepting place) – gays there have very high rates of depression and drug use.
Peter Seebach (Seebs): Those are fascinating beliefs, but conveniently for us, the research has already been done, and they’re wrong. Legalizing gay marriage has no effect on the observed incidence of homosexuality, and the concept of...
David Henson: John, I understand sexuality to be a continuum and not a hard and discrete fact. I earnestly believe that if gay marriage is approved many more people will experiment with gay sex and some numbers will get AIDS (and depression and...
Peter Seebach (Seebs): Kiffi, I am not sure that is fair. As long as peoples’ condemnation does not translate into hostile action, I am of the general opinion that people have a right to condemn behaviors they disapprove of, whether or not...
Griff Wigley: Good turnout last night for the Cannon Valley Mountain Bike Team meeting at the high school. I’ve blogged a summary with the ppt presentations.
Griff Wigley: Jordan Osterman, the new Sports Editor for the Northfield News, scooped me on Saturday. I’m glad! Northfield high school mountain bike team forming As a club sport, mountain biking would have no official affiliation with either...
Griff Wigley: Good suggestion, Curt. I’ll do that for next week’s blurb. I have been verbally emphasizing the importance of having girls on the team, especially since their points on race days count more than boys’ points. Other...
Curt Benson: Hey Griff, I wonder if you shouldn’t put a bit more emphasis on the idea that you’re recruiting both boys and girls for this team. And that the scores for both the boys and girls make up a team score. I think that in the...
Griff Wigley: It should be noted that this team does not yet exist! So this meeting is for those student-athletes (and their parents) who might be interested in joining this new team.
Griff Wigley: Suzy Rook has a sidebar to today’s Nfld News update on last night’s Council meeting. Excerpt: The city administrator and finance director say they have asked for the information on several occasions, including last month...
john george: Living where we do, it is only a few blocks walk to North Street and a grand view of the sunsets. Also, with our neighbors’ mature white pines & spruce, our covered deck affords outdoor enjoyment with a fair amount of...
Griff Wigley: Props to the newspaper and Suzy Rook for mentioning LoGro twice in the story: Fire Department officials, including Fire Chief Gerry Franek, did not respond to several requests from the News for association financial records or...
Griff Wigley: Posted to Northfield News at 1pm: Ethical questions arise over Northfield Fire Relief Association expenses Donations made to Northfield Fire Relief Association aren’t public dollars, but that hasn’t extinguished city...
Griff Wigley: Curt/Robert, There’s a summary of the Rescue Squad on Page 21 of the 2009 NFD report to the City. It doesn’t mention that there’s a Rescue Squad Association. The last paragraph states: The Northfield Rescue Squad is...
Robert Palmquist: If Hvistendahl’s motivation was to keep the financials from getting known, his submitting a memo like that just really backfired. I agree, why would these financials be such a secret??? And why did the NRSA hire a lawyer to...
Curt Benson: So Hvistendahl has found another place to wet his beak. You ask a good question, “Why is it important that the City not know the Northfield Rescue Squad Association financials?”
Jim Haas: Happens to me a lot. So much that my lovely wife had to coin a term for it: she says I have datelexia.
norman butler: Since coming to my adopted country 16 years ago I have observed, amongst other things, that not putting the day with the date is both common and peculiar to Northfield (MN? USA?).
John Thomas: Just a reminder, advance tickets for Girls Night Out 2012 can be purchased on The Grand’s website at http://www.thegrandnorthfield. com/public-events. Your tickets will then be available at a special “Will Call” at...
Liz Reppe: This is a great place to buy plants! Jeni is very knowledgeable and they are both really helpful. You get great service and plant expertise, but the prices are not higher than other places in town.
bill metz: While most of how Jake is being remembered revolves around, and rightly so, his great and wonderful talent as an artist and teacher and the works of sculpture he has left for our and the next generations enjoyment, I have had the...
Ross Currier: It was an honor for me and the NDDC to work with Jake. His pieces of sculpture in our community send a powerful visual message that Northfield is an Art Town. I still marvel at his clever and creative approach to building social and...
paul krause: The memorial service will be held at 11am. Doors to the Chapel will open at 10am for a chance to visit with family members and friends to share memories of our dear friend. Anyone who would like to view the documentary Harvest (which...
kiffi summa: Come on, Griff… you say you’re “more than a little clueless about about investments” but you “just happened to notice”… and from what you said, were reading analytically, etc etc… Once...
Griff Wigley: I’m more than a little clueless about investments but I noticed on page 14 in the April 24 Council packet that the Fire Relief Association has 85% of its pension portfolio in stocks. Isn’t that a bit risky/aggressive for...
Griff Wigley: Has there been any media reporting on the intergovernmental meeting in Bridgewater Township that was held on April 25 re: the Rural Fire Protection District and the City of Northfield?
Jim Mangan: I noticed this morning that a few of the newly planted trees along South Highway 3 have a pronounced lean. Could it be storm damage?
Ross Currier: It’s great that someone is enhancing the connection between downtown and uptown. I know they coordinated their work with MNDoT, City staff, and the Streetscape Task Force. Uh, raise your trowels in a toast to the Northfield...
Vicki Serreno: I wish I’d known – this is my neighborhood since I left Northfield in 2010. I’d have shown up to support them.
Kathie Galotti: My neighbor and sometimes babysitter Maggie Kennedy appears in this video as well! Go Maggie, and Cliff and Sophie and Parker and everyone else! Well done, guys!
Peter Seebach (Seebs): Heh, we had those when I was in college. Guess we’re making progress, they’re starting years earlier now!
Sandy Vesledahl: Thanks for blogging our garage sale Griff! We are at 2018 Jefferson Rd, Suite 1, thanks to the Jasnoch Family for allowing us to use the space. We will be there until 5:00 today and again from 8-2 on Saturday. We’ve had a...
Bright Spencer: I have an 8 year old dog that has not been neutered, has not reproduced and never been out unleashed except in our yard. It costs nothing to care for your pet properly.
Bright Spencer: To see this makes me so happy! Best of luck to you!
Peter Seebach (Seebs): For what it’s worth, I’m pretty happy with the whole process so far, although we found exciting new things out about the land development code, such as “the rules for calculating how tall a building is for...
Peter Seebach (Seebs): Not a hot tub, a swimming pool. One of those backyard pools you can get at k-mart, and the greenhouse is so we can use it a couple months earlier in spring and later in fall.
Arlen Malecha: I wish more establishments had outdoor seating & dining. Now that our offices (Coldwell Banker South Metro www.CBSouthMetro.com are downtown, I love to see people sitting and dining outside. It is fun to walk up and down...
Sean Hayford O'Leary: I would say the current configuration of Division Street makes me grateful not everyone is doing it. Sidewalk dining brings a lot of livelihood to the street — but I’ll admit that I’ve been occasionally...
Griff Wigley: Rebecca, there are several Northfield eating and drinking establishments that have outdoor dining with tables and chairs, serving alcohol, but not SIDEWALK dining. Downtown ones that come to mind: The Tavern, Chapati, The Cow, Froggy...
Rebecca Bliss: Timely post, Griff -I didn’t realize this. I was just commenting to my husband about how nice it would be to dine al fresco now that the weather is getting warmer. Guess this is another discovery for the new...
Patty Gallivan: MOST Northfield volunteers are waiting for someone who DARES boost a program with evidence of effectiveness to come forward with leadership to actually make a difference with students in our Northfield schools. Make sure to let us...
As part of my Environmental Economics and Policy class, we’re conducting research on the different stakeholders relevant to the annexation issue. 
Posted to the Carleton News page: 
Current Discussion Threads