City crews are replacing many historic-looking pedestrian light poles downtown on Division St. The lights glow white, in contrast to the orange color of the light poles installed last year on the Water St. parking lot and Sesquicentennial Legacy Plaza. I know zilch about street lighting and even less about smart streetlights but in this week’s Friday Memo, TJ Heinricy, Supervisor of Northfield’s Streets & Parks Department, writes: (continued)
Locally Grown (LoGro) Northfield Posts
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).
New KYMN 1080 AM owner Jeff Johnson has brought the station into the 21st century in the span of a month. With the help of new hire Tim Freeland and couple of local consultants (yeah, I’m one), the station launched a blog a few weeks ago and this week, they turned on live audio streaming. See the screenshot with the arrows, pointing to the link that triggers the streaming and the options available from the player. This morning, I listened to Dusty Budd’s 8:05 newscast, pausing and starting it several times as I was interrupted by pesky citizens. Way slick. (continued)
Jon and Ali Feldman’s twin boys, Owen and Cooper, died shortly after they were born last week. When they submitted the obituary with this photo to the Northfield News, the newspaper declined to run the photo because, according to Jon who I spoke to by phone yesterday, they felt it might offend their readers. The Parker Kohl Funeral Home has a page that includes the photo. Jon and Ali asked us to blog it and invite LG readers for their reaction. 11:20 am update: I’ve added a straw poll. (continued)
Yes, the District’s web site now says that tickets for the 2009 Rock ‘N Roll Revival were sold out as of Wednesday. But Rock ‘N Roll Revival emperor Tom McKown stopped by my downtown office this morning and let it slip that the show is actually NOT sold out. He then threatened to duct tape my mouth shut lest I reveal the information. But my journalistic integrity prevents me from knuckling under to such bullying tactics. Therefore, if enough people are interested, I’ll tell all. (continued)
I’ve been trying to reach the mayor (with my blogger hat on – tho not just a hat) about this new government program ever since the news broke earlier today. …
A pesky citizen approached me last week during my morning office hours, wondering why the liquor store roof was not replaced after the big hail storm in 2006. The store’s roof is now targeted for replacement as part of the store’s $55-65K upgrade(Nfld News article). We discussed it briefly on our podcast with Mary Rossing and this roofing contractor, and I followed up with Interim City Administrator Joel Walinski. Joel wrote in an email: (continued)
Northfield Police Chief Mark Taylor has a letter on Page 8 in the December Northfield High School newsletter (PDF). High School Principal Joel Leer introduces the chief’s letter: “Chief Taylor details some troubling information that is coming out about young people in Rice County who have been abusing cold and cough medicines. Please talk to your children about what they are doing, seeing, and hearing in school.” (continued)
I don’t know the Nieman Journalism Lab guys personally but Mathew Ingram’s blog post today, “Locally grown” news gets a boost acknowledged the good stuff happening here. The ‘boost’ to hyperlocal sites like ours that he’s referring to is the new funding that RepJ founder Len Witt just got from the Harnisch Foundation to create a new Center for Sustainable Journalism (CSJ) at KSU in Georgia. No, that doesn’t mean a cash infusion into LG or RepJ Northfield. It’s just that we’re going to be a part of something much bigger. Mathew had this to say about LG after a quick look around here. (continued)