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By Griff Wigley, on November 23, 2011, 7:43 am
 Northfield City Administrator Tim Madagascar announced last week in his Weekly Memo that City Hall will open for business at midnight (12:01 am) on Black Friday.
"Since it’s the busiest shopping day of the year, our customers—sometimes known as citizens—are demanding that we be responsive," Madagascar said. " Northfield Target is opening at midnight and we want to be ready to serve those folks who might want to apply for a license, make a reservation, or submit an application for the council vacancy when they’re done shopping. It’s part of our mission—striving for excellence, committed to service."
On Tuesday, Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Katarina Fellbore announced that their Northfield Convention and Visitors Bureau office at 205 3rd St. West would open just after midnight on Black Friday as well.
 "My Board of Directors thinks it’s an opportunity for us to tell the out-of-towners who will be heading to Northfield Target all the great things about shopping in Northfield," said Fellbore. "Frankly, I think that’s a stretch, since no other stores are opening at that hour. Nonetheless, we’ll be open, handing out CVB brochures and selling our line of Buy More cards that we have left over from last year."
When asked whether it might be more cost-effective for the City and the Chamber to be offering these services via their websites 24X7, both indicated that e-commerce was something they’d be adding in the next five years or so. "Online shopping is likely to catch on with the public by then and when it does, we’ll be ready for it," said Fellbore.
By Griff Wigley, on July 28, 2011, 6:42 am
Ross Currier’s NDDC blog has the announcement about Crazy Daze today: Alaskan Doughnuts…er…uh…Crazy Daze, this Thursday!
 But, yes, this Thursday (July 28th) is Crazy Daze in downtown Northfield. Starting at 8 a.m. with activities until 8 p.m., it’s a whole lot of fun brought to you by the Retail Committee of the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce.
This year’s events include a Watermelon Seed Spittting Contest, 11:00 a.m., Just Food; Bean Bag Toss, 1:30 p.m., Fine Threads; Hula Hoop Contest, 2:00 p.m., Rare Pair; and Classic Cars, 5 p.m., on Division Street between 5th and 6th Streets.
But a glance at the home pages of Northfield.org, the Northfield News, Northfield Patch, and KYMN at 6:15 am this morning reveals a complete lack of information about Crazy Daze.
The Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce (the main sponsor of Crazy Daze) lists the event on its community calendar page but with this feeble, generic paragraph:
Don’t miss this crazy shopping spree in downtown Northfield every July. Fantastic bargains are provided by local retailers. Call for details and times for special events taking place all day! (507) 645 5604 or (800) 658 2548.
The featured event page on the Chamber’s Convention and Bureau’s site is even more cryptic:
Don’t miss this crazy shopping spree in downtown Northfield every July. Fantastic bargains are provided by local retailers.
nor is there any mention of the event on the Visiting Northfield Facebook page, nor on the Be Local Northfield Facebook page.
Last year, the Chamber had a Crazy Daze poster/flyer. Was there one this year? I’ve not seen it in store windows, but maybe I’ve just missed it.
Something has failed.
By Griff Wigley, on April 25, 2011, 7:14 am
 Given the US Chamber of Commerce’s position on climate change (Forbes 2009 opinion piece), I found it a little ironic that staff at the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce took Friday afternoon off in honor of Earth Day, not Good Friday.
In case their Calendar page gets updated, seen the screenshot.
By Griff Wigley, on April 18, 2011, 8:45 am
 
The Planning Commission-Zoning Board of Appeals web packet for April 7 contains, among other things, a letter from the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce concerning their issues with the Land Development Code Board and Commission Review Draft-April 7, 2011 (312-page PDF). These concerns surfaced at last week’s Northfield City Council meeting (see pages 1-23 of the April 12 council packet).
The Planning Commission packet states on Page 33:
The letter from Chamber Board of Directors contains five broad points that are not specific but contain content that the Commission should be able to respond to. These five broad points can be summarized as follows:
1. Land Development Code needs more flexibility for commercial areas to allow for business diversity.
2. The Code needs to identify areas for industrial development, specifically the proposed Business Park.
3. Restrictions on college owned property undermines their ability to effectively utilize their property.
4. Residential zoned areas need more flexibility so property owners can build what customers want to live in.
5. The LDC should include a statement that contains a streamlined process to change the LDC.
The Chamber of Commerce also stressed that specific comments from builders and developers be viewed as comment from the Chamber as well. The comments from the builder/developers are much more specific and contain 18 comments in total, 13 comments relate to commercial regulations, and five comments relate to residential regulations.
The letter from the Chamber starts on page 37 of the packet.
By Griff Wigley, on February 5, 2011, 8:03 am
By Griff Wigley, on December 29, 2010, 8:25 am
 I’ve not kept up on this issue of delinquent payments to the Northfield Convention and Visitors Bureau (a department of the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce) and their request for information from the City of Northfield.
I do wonder, though, whether the delinquent payments are related to the angry reaction from local hoteliers to the City’s hiring a Hampton Inn-connected consulting firm for $9,600 which ended up saying that a Hampton Inn and conference center was warranted for Northfield. See my Jan. 2010 blog post and the attached 47 comments: On deciding to spend $9,600 for hotel market study.
Additional background:
Nfld News Dec 23: CVB request fulfilled — sort of
On the advice of city attorney Chris Hood, the city initially declined to release the data, saying it was private and couldn’t legally be distributed. But by the second council discussion, city officials realized that some of what the CVB had asked for could be made public. That information, which includes the total delinquencies of more than $11,000, is enough to help the CVB move forward, said Feldbrugge.
Nfld News letter to the editor Dec 10: Northfield hoteliers must support CVB
Nfld News editorial Dec 7: Info withholding hurts CVB, city
Nfld News Dec 3: Without city data, visitors bureau says its hands are tied
By Griff Wigley, on December 11, 2010, 8:26 am
 Be Local … Buy Local (BLBL), the campaign by the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce and the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation "that promotes the importance of shopping locally for products and services in the Northfield area," has a new initiative.
They’re selling these ‘buy more’ cards and putting up similar posters in store windows around town.
Roscoe Curry, VP of Public Relations for the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce, had some reservations about the initiative when it was first discussed at a staff meeting with Executive Director Katarina Fellbore. "I thought some of the merchants might think it a little too doomsdayish," said Curry. He did an informal straw poll, going door-to-door with the merchants along Hwy 3, and all were in favor.
"I like that it’s direct," said Hugh G. Wreckshun, proprietor of Northfield Kwik Kondom (‘Kows, Kolleges, Kondoms, Kontentment’) near the intersection of Hwy 3 and Heritage Drive. "No sense pussyfooting around."
By Griff Wigley, on October 16, 2010, 12:32 pm
 I borrowed a buddy’s minibike last weekend and promptly lost the gas cap. Duh. I searched locally and online for a replacement (Mitsubishi motor) to no avail.
 On a whim, I stopped by the new (it opened in the spring) Small Engine Unlimited shop at 1203 S. Hwy 3 adjacent to Northfield Lampert’s. Owner and longtime Northfielder Dan Lien promptly dug up a spare cap and gave it to me for free.
Dan will soon have a website (naturally, I nagged him to get a blog) but in the meantime you can reach him via email smallengineunlimited@gmail.com or 507-645-5300. His business card includes this info:
- Small Engine Repair: All Makes & Models
- Small Hand Tool Repair: Rechargeable, Electric, and Pneumatic
- Sharpening Service
- Scooter & Moped Repair and Much More
The Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors paid him a visit in July. Here’s a photo from their Flickr Ambassador Visits photo set:
By Griff Wigley, on July 22, 2010, 7:27 am
  
The scene on Division St at 6:30 this morning was rather bleak. The radar doesn’t offer much encouragement, nor does Paul Douglas’ forecast.
Should the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Crazy Daze (PDF of today’s schedule of events) be two-days long in case of inclement weather, like the 2010 Taste of Northfield?
By Griff Wigley, on May 19, 2010, 6:24 am
 Oil Can Henry’s at Hwy 3 and Honey Locust Drive has become a Castrol Premium Lube Express.
OCH International is the parent company of Oil Can Henry’s and has some kind of an alliance with Castrol, as the Castrol logo is visible at the bottom of their website.
The franchise is owned by Jeff Hasse, also the proprietor of the CountryInn Northfield and AmericaInn Northfield. Jeff is also on the boards of the NDDC and the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce.
By Griff Wigley, on March 6, 2010, 8:45 am
 Today, Faribault’s Sage Electrochromics was cited in the Strib for winning “a $72 million federal loan guarantee for a major expansion of its manufacturing facility, where the company has developed ‘smart’ glass for windows and skylights that reduce energy use.”
Two weeks ago, Faribault’s McQuay plant was cited in the Strib for “using $1.3 million in new federal tax credits to revamp a manufacturing plant to make more energy efficient air-conditioners.”
In January, Northfield’s Cardinal Glass was cited in the Strib for receiving “$7.7 million of new federal funds to convert its residential-glass factory into a solar glass-coating plant.” (A tip of the blogger hat to Larry DeBoer for alerting me to it.)
I don’t know to what extent the people involved with Northfield’s economic development ecosystem (see organizations below) are pursuing green collar manufacturing jobs. I found a few mentions:
Continue reading Green collar economic development: Faribault 2, Northfield 1
By Griff Wigley, on February 7, 2010, 10:36 pm
 I got a tweet in mid-January from NHS ED Hayes Scriven that the Jan-Mar 2010 Northfield Visitors Guide was available. The flash version is embedded on the NHS home page
But I can’t seem to find it on the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce site nor on their Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Visiting Northfield web site. It’s not linked to or mentioned on the City of Northfield’s visitor page and I couldn’t find it on the Northfield.org or NDDC blogs either.
I know, I know, the print version is the main thing and it’s distributed about town. But why not make it easy for Northfielders to email it, blog it, tweet it, and post to their Facebook Walls about it so that their non-Northfield friends and colleagues take a look at it? It costs virtually zero to do this. Plus, the thing is full of great photos, BTW. Heh.
So allow me to do my part. Here’s the PDF version, courtesy of LoGroNo. Here’s the Flash version, courtesy of Hayes Scriven and the NHS. Go forth and multiply it, by which I do NOT mean what Brits mean when they say go forth and multiply.
By Griff Wigley, on January 25, 2010, 7:39 am
 It’s not clear from the story in the Sat. Nfld News, New Northfield hotel feasible, market study indicates, how the $9,600 decision was made to hire an Atlanta-based consulting company, Highland Group Hotel Investment Advisors, to conduct the study.
A search of the phrase “Highland Group” on the City’s website only comes up with the disbursements to the company in October and in December. I can’t find anything that indicates there’s been Council discussion of this. I checked with Jim Gleason, new president of the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce/Convention and Visitors Bureau, who indicated that he wasn’t aware of the market study being done.
I’m not ready to argue that conducting a study is a bad idea. I’m questioning the process. It seems like the Council should be involved in a public discussion about an expenditure like this, especially one that’s likely to ruffle the feathers of local business owners. According to the Nfld News, City Administrator Joel Walinski said study was done to facilitate the conversation among local developers and hotel owners. Seems backwards to me.
By Griff Wigley, on December 3, 2009, 8:57 am
  I took this photo at 8:25 am. The “no parking downtown after 1pm” signs are up. Winter Walk rules, baby!
On Tuesday, the first issue of Localmotive, the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s new e-newsletter, arrived. Sign up for it here.
Continue reading Snow, Localmotive arrive just in time for Winter Walk
By Griff Wigley, on November 29, 2009, 11:51 pm
 Northfield’s 11th Annual Winter Walk is coming up this Thursday, Dec. 3. See the schedule of events (PDF) on the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce site.
I’ve taken quite a few photos of the event since 2002. (Alas, I missed ‘07). See the albums for 2002, 03, 04, 05, 06 and 08. See the large slideshow for 2008 or this small slideshow:
Continue reading Photo redux: Winter Walk 2002, 03, 04, 05, 06, 08
By Griff Wigley, on November 28, 2009, 7:11 am
 I’m thrilled to see that the Be Local … Buy Local (BLBL) campaign initiated by the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Northfield Downtown Development Corporation is not only web-savvy but recognizes the role that the local blogosphere plays in both the local economy and the information ecosystem. The HTML code they provide for BLBL images includes these explanations:
Continue reading Chamber/NDDC ‘Be Local Buy Local’ campaign embraces the local blogosphere
By Griff Wigley, on October 21, 2009, 2:22 pm
 The Northfield Area of Commerce sponsored a forum this morning at the Community Resource Bank‘s Community Room. Purpose: "… for local employers, property owners, and our city government leaders to hear from each." See the agenda screenshot on the right.
I captured the audio and took two dozen photos. (continued)
Continue reading Photo album, audio: City of Northfield takes some heat from Chamber audience of local employers and property owners
By Griff Wigley, on May 29, 2009, 6:31 am
 In the May 22 Friday Memo, Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski announced the new CGI Communications videos (Northfield Video TourBook). They’re now viewable, linked from the left sidebar of the City’s home page or via this link on CGI/eLocalLink. Unfortunately, unlike YouTube and every other video service on the planet, they don’t provide the embed code for the videos. (continued)
Continue reading Videos promoting Northfield are up; no, you can’t promote them
By Griff Wigley, on May 4, 2009, 8:31 am
 The Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce has revamped its website. It was done by the same company, Confluence Marketing of Red Wing, that created the Northfield Convention and Visitors Bureau website, Vistiting Northfield, that was launched earlier this year.
I blogged my critique of that site (in my comments attached to the post) in February. Much of that critique (positive and negative) would apply to this site as well.
By Griff Wigley, on April 2, 2009, 12:29 pm
  
In January, I blogged about the planning for tomorrow night’s Jailhouse Rock’ auction which is raising funds for an upgrade on Northfield’s holiday decorations. I thought for sure that the Chamber’s Creative Professionals Committee would have a page up on the Chamber’s website by now, or maybe a quick-and-dirty blog for the event like the Arts Crawl folks have done.
But in what I have to assume was a strategically creative move, they turned up their collective noses at those old fashioned marketing tools like blogs and Twitter and instead, they’ve found a guy to prance about like Elvis on the sidewalk in front of the Grand. Brilliant!
If you want info on the event, best to check with one of Northfield’s primo bloggers.
By Griff Wigley, on February 10, 2009, 10:58 am
 The Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce/Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) has a newly revamped website for VisitingNorthfield.com. At first glance, there’s a lot to like. A second glance, however, makes me grumpy. But I’ll save my critique (mixed reviews) for the comment thread. What’s your reaction? (Full disclosure: 1) I was asked to bid on the project and I declined; 2) several of my photos were used for the site with my permission.)
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