Category: <span>Gov’t & Policy</span>

Continuing to work through my “to-read” pile, I recently finished an article given to me by fellow Planning Commissioner Jim Herreid. It was the February 11th cover story of BusinessWeek,…

Once again, I’ve fallen behind in my reading. The February 11th Wall Street Journal had an interesting article about diverse cities around the world, from Ann Arbor Michigan to Beijing,…

Northfield’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) is the City’s city’s long-term spending plan for construction projects. It’s a prioritization process by the City Council that’s done annually, but five and ten-year plans are also done.

Oh yeah. Figuring out how to pay for the projects is part of the fun, too.

I can’t find any place on the City of Northfield’s web site where it’s all pulled together for us citizens. Will there be? Is the Council working on the 5 or 10-year CIP? Will consultants be hired? Will public input be sought before decisions are made? At all? 

This blog post is my feeble attempt to pull enough information together to get the discussion started. A capital idea, no?

I started thinking about the CIP when I saw this in Al Roder’s Feb. 15 weekly memo:

Council Subcommittee on the CIP: The group met again on February 15th to review the Street Reconstruction Plan portion of the CIP. The various street projects were reviewed along with the related studies and programs. The City’s special assessment policy / revisions was also discussed again (had previously been a topic at a recent work session) as special assessments are one component of financing street projects. Examples of the impact of different types / lengths of bond issues on property owners was also distributed at the meeting.

The City has traditionally financed infrastructure improvements (roads and utilities) over a ten-year period and buildings over a twenty-year period. The subcommittee members were asked to provide input on the number and types of properties to use to demonstrate the “impact” of debt on property taxes.

The meeting for February 29th has been canceled due to several members’ scheduling conflicts. The group will meet again on March 14th and will be reviewing the Community Enhancements section of the CIP. Copies of the subcommittee’s packet are included for those officials who did not attend the meeting.

Here’s more background on Northfield’s CIP.

Ah, Presidents’ Day. Although some people believe that the holiday was created to sell television sets or electric guitars and others believe that it was an efficient combining of the…

Northfield City Administrator Al Roder publishes a memo to the mayor and city council each week on Friday. It summarizes many of the staff activities for the week. The Friday…

We’re getting a Hague water filter from Kes Equipment and Sales installed in our home on Monday (a not-so-indirect result of my wife Robbie’s winning a case of bottled water…

  Mayor Lee Lansing and Ward 2 Councilor Scott Davis tangled at last week’s City Council meeting. (Photos are actually from the previous council mtg.) Nfld News reporter Suzy Rook’s…