It’s never pretty when Ross bails on our radio show/podcast and yesterday was no exception.
Tracy put on her Chair of the Northfield Planning Commission and Zoning Board of Appeals (PCZBA) hat and after exchanging pleasantries about sidewalk dining, we went toe-to-toe on the planning process for the business park(s). She played the ‘nice’ card and then ended with a lecture till we ran out of time. I was unhappy. I’m mostly over it.
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While digging through my photo archives, I stumbled upon photos from two public meetings in late fall of 2003: the Hospital Reuse Open House in November and a presentation by Hospital Reuse committee members Alex Beeby and Meg Hargreaves to the City Council in December, with photos of citizens (primarily 
Way Park advocates) speaking at open mic. (Those links go to my blog posts at Northfield.org.) I’ve combined the photos from both meetings into one album.
There are some familiar faces in this album. My favorite: downtown mail carrier Tom Kotula, showing his ability to handle more than the mail.
See the album of 38 photos, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:
Our guest this week, Northfield City Councilor Kris Vohs (At-Large), with two of his grandkids in the audience.
We asked him to explain his vote in favor of the plan to reuse the existing Safety Center location for a new fire station and to build a police station at a new location. The surprising short version of his answer: getting ‘political’ support to build a single building would be difficult in this economic climate. More surprising: he doesn’t support going to the citizens on a referendum to fund the facilities.
The rest of the show we spent discussing the trees on 4th St. which again comes before the Council tonight.
Ryan Heinritz, the new Executive Director of the Paradise Center for the Arts in Faribault, stopped by my table at GBM yesterday and asked if I was attending Meredith Fierke’s concert on Friday at the Paradise. Yah.
But this reminded me that I hadn’t put up my photos from a month ago when Robbie and I and more than a few other Northfielders attended the Willow Brae concert at the Paradise, featuring former Northfielder Laura MacKenzie and Andrea Stern.
See my album of 13 photos, the large slideshow, or this small slideshow:
Keep your wits about you today. Lots of faux news types cranking out the content, for example: The company previously known as Google, and their new speech translation app for…
It was 81 degrees yesterday so Robbie and I opened all the windows to let in the fresh air. No screens necessary, we thought, till we started swatting mosquitoes. Oy. It could be a long hot summer.
Here’s a 30-second animated slideshow looking back to a gorgeous, –20 F mosquito-free day in January in downtown Northfield. The photos are from two of my hoar frost photo albums, here and here.
Music: “Italian Movie” by Graham Wigley.
I was surprised to see wildflowers blooming in the lower Arb yesterday (no idea what these are. Anyone?)
But I was even more surprised to hear the frogs. It’s still March! I assume these were Western Chorus frogs, judging from the audio on this MPCA page on frogs for kids. Here’s a 14-second video clip with audio:
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.