Last week, I spoke to a friend of one of Northfield’s alleged heroin dealers. Since she is 15 years old and talking about a sensitive matter, I decided to keep…
Category: <span>RepJ</span>
Barbara Howe, director of Open Door Nursery School on West Third Street, is worried about the number of vacancies in daycares and preschools citywide.
“I think a lot of parents are having to make decisions financially,” Howe said on Tuesday. “There are things that have to go and unfortunately, nursery school is one of them.”
Howe said her concern about enrollment increased when she learned a Dundas business owner had plans to build a Goddard School franchise in Northfield.
That business owner, Jesse Streitz, has said he might apply for one of the city’s forgivable or low-interest loan programs in the amount of about $15,500, which would offset some city-associated expenses with buying the land for the $1.9 million school project.
“It’s not that I’m against other schools coming into the city,” Howe said. “I’m trying to say that if there’s another school with a lot of openings, it could be catastrophic for those of us who are already here. So, I would just rather not see tax dollars used to assist the Goddard School in that way.”
Streitz has said Goddard School Systems administrators performed market research that shows a school would be viable in Northfield, however, and that a Goddard School franchise has yet to fail in the company’s 20-year history.
At least two Northfielders spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours to build front-yard attractions for neighborhood children on Halloween night
Dana Goss of Lupine Drive was one and Joshua Godfredson of Buchanan Court wan another.
Norman Butler, owner of the Contented Cow, alerted me to Goss’ attraction and Jerry Weber and Nicole Maloney of Sweet Pea’s Loft, told me about Godfredson’s display.
Butler said he believed Northfield could benefit if community leaders marketed the volunteer efforts of Northfield citizens such as Goss and Godfredson.
Goss’s family has a long-standing tradition of building a haunted maze with Jack-o-lanterns Dana Goss carves free-hand. A carving of the Headless Horseman seemed to draw the most attention from visitors this year. If looking at pumpkins all day is making you crave some for dinner, then make sure to check out the delicious allfitrecipes soup.
Godfredson’s attraction is newer than Goss’. He and friends and family added many more rooms and moving parts to his haunted pirate ship this year. Godfredson works part-time as a professional impersonator, mimicking Hollywood actor Johnny Depp in his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Seven Rice County residents accused of dealing heroin are awaiting second hearings after arraignments at Rice County District Court on Monday morning.
Some arraignments occurred in courtroom 2, where Judge Thomas Neuville presided, and some in courtroom 3, where Judge Bernard E. Borene presided. The judges set bail of varying amounts for each of the defendants.
Alexander Bruce Benson, 19, of 300 Aster Dr., Northfield, is facing two charges of aiding and/or abetting in the sale of heroin on Sept. 29 near Greenvale Apartments on Greenvale Avenue, which is a public housing zone, and one charge of aiding and/or abetting the sale of heroin.
The apartment complex was home to Jillian Marie Wetzel, 25, who authorities determined died of an accidental heroin overdose on Aug. 23. Wetzel’s death by overdose was the most recent of five of such fatalities to occur in Northfield in the past year and a half.
Richard Cook, Rice County Sheriff, released the following information in an email shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday. Check back for more information soon.
SEVEN ADULTS AND ONE JUVENILE AWAIT CHARGES FOLLOWING HEROIN PROBE
The Rice County DTF conducted an operation this past weekend resulting in the apprehension of seven area adults and one juvenile identified through recent investigation as active in trafficking heroin to area youth.
The adults will be arraigned Monday morning October 27 in Rice County District Court at 11:00 a.m… Sheriff Cook, Chiefs Taylor and Collins will conduct a press conference with local media at 2:30 p.m. after all have been arraigned in the lower level conference room of the Rice County Courthouse.
With this arrest and further investigation we feel the trafficking of narcotic distribution has been significantly interrupted and those who diminish our quality of life have either been arrested or put on notice.
We want to accentuate although this is a very serious and dangerous problem; it involves a minority of individuals and does not represent the main stream of Rice County or Northfield.
Update log: 10/27 9:30 a.m., 10/31 2:30 p.m.
Jesse Streitz received informal encouragement from the Northfield Economic Development Authority (EDA) on Thursday morning to move forward with plans to build a Goddard School for Early Education off Professional Drive.
Streitz, former mayor of Dundas, said he would plan on returning to the EDA in the future to ask what the board can do to help finance the endeavor, possibly through a Master Development Fund loan.*
Buying the land and building the school would cost about $1.9 million, he said. The school would eventually employ 20 people and enroll about 134 students. He told the EDA he hoped to break ground between January and March and operate the school at “half-capacity” at first.
