City Council and School Board meet in joint session to discuss drug abuse

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The Northfield City Council met in a joint session with the Northfield School Board tonight at City Hall. See the PDF agenda linked from this meeting announcement page. Roger Schroeder (right), promoted to Captain today and now in charge of police operations during the absence of Chief Smith, presented his view of the heroin/drug abuse situation, leading up to the July 2 press conference, as well as his plans for addressing the problem. He then took questions from the members of the council and board about the handling of that press conference.

I tried to tape it all but my battery went dead, unbeknownst to me, until it was too late. Dang. Soooo, it would be helpful for those of you who were there to add your comments about the meeting. And those of you who weren’t, feel free to ask questions. Eventually, if we all chip in, we should be able to get a reasonable sense of what happened.

7/18 9AM update: Here’s an hour of audio of last night’s meeting, including comments by Capt. Schroeder and Supt. Richardson. Thanks much to Dusty Budd, news director at KYMN for sharing his audio files with us.


Click play to listen. 54 minutes.

7 Comments

  1. Griff Wigley said:

    It just occurred to me that KYMN news director Dusty Budd might have quite a bit of audio from tonight’s council/school board meeting, as he was there taping, too. I’ll stop by their studio in the early AM to see.

    July 17, 2007
  2. John S. Thomas said:

    It also concerns me that the City council just approved a bid for over $94,000 for new AV equipment for that room.

    Maybe in the future, all public meetings in that room could be recorded and made available?

    July 17, 2007
  3. Griff Wigley said:

    I was able to get an hour’s worth of audio of last night’s meeting from Dusty Budd at KYMN and I’ll have that posted here later this morning.

    July 18, 2007
  4. Griff Wigley said:

    An hour of audio of last night’s meeting, including comments by Capt. Schroeder and Supt. Richardson, is now posted above. Thanks much to Dusty Budd, news director at KYMN for sharing his audio files with us.

    July 18, 2007
  5. victor summa said:

    in # 2 John Thomas wrote:

    “It also concerns me that the City council just approved a bid for over $94,000 for new AV equipment for that room.

    Maybe in the future, all public meetings in that room could be recorded and made available?”

    I’m wondering why John’s “concerned” about the plan to improve the A/V technology of the Council Chambers? Concern implies to me a question of the wisdom. I assure you the money is allocated and dedicated and limited to that purpose… that the A/V system there presently is woefully inadequate… and re: your question regarding future use of the chambers and the A/V facilities to record meetings held there; yes this is indeed part of the plan. In fact last night’sast night’s discussion between the School Board and the Council should have been recorded for future and wide replay.

    Harking back to the Heroin thread and the media’s role in that… my personal opinion is that better and more frequent telecast of such meeting’s is an essential to information delivery here in N’fld.

    As certain I am that bad media fanned the flames of uncertainty and created poor PR for this community in the Heroin issue… I fervently believe that GOOD media (not necessarily the blogosphere and its limited audience) but more conventional televised events of the “Forum” nature are necessary… and will contribute to the towns development.. and rebound from this very realistic situation, that being: there is some drug issue here… and here, it will be dealt with.

    The KEY discujsson, also on Monday night is a perfect example of the kind of televised event I invision. Step Two of the KEY’s Initiative on this issue, I hope will be a broader forum of Northfield’s youth in open discussion.

    Step TWO of the A/V upgrades I believe will provide for a bigger better Cable Access Facility… and programing schedule and remote capability. Unfortunately the wheels of government process move very slowly. By way of a bench mark… the 94K upgrade which started yesterday morning in the Chambers following the Council’s monday night approval, was under discussion and investigation for over 14 months.

    vs

    July 18, 2007
  6. John S. Thomas said:

    Victor,

    I agree completely. I was reviewing the packet at the council meeting on Monday. There is some very nice equipment on that spec sheet.

    I guess concern is the wrong word. I used a fast spell check, and I am wondering which word now I actually typed. I opt for “pleases” at this point.

    Regretably, I missed the Key meeting due to my attendance of the coucil meeting. From what I saw, and heard through others, is that it was a very positive experience. I really feel that the folks at the Key do not get the respect and kudos they deserve. Great folks, and a Great job guys!

    Back to the A/V upgrades. I watched the replay on Channel 12 last night. The picture and sound in the chambers is not too bad, but the sound and picture quality of the recording is horrible. I wonder if they have cleaned the heads on the VCR lately? 😎

    The meeting went WAY long. I won’t even begin to discuss the content here. That is for another couple hundred posts and threads here.

    July 18, 2007

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