I’m bogged down in a work project and have not been able to review the memo to do a decent post. Here are the links – can you help out…
Tag: <span>Joel Walinski</span>
The “Friday Memo,” written by Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski, department heads, and other City employees, summarizes the staff activities for the week. The Friday memos are published and archived…
Media outlets in the state of Washington are reporting that City Administrator Joel Walinski is one of two finalists for an administrator’s job for the City of Leavenworth, WA. (Some…
City Administrator Joel Walinski writes in the June 4 Friday Memo:
Downtown Recycling Cans, Oh! They’re so ugly! 20 temporary recycling containers were put in place Friday June 4, 2010 along Division Street. Street Supervisor TJ Heinricy has been working with Waste Management staff to develop a test-recycling program for the downtown area over the past several months.
Our interest is in the assessing the recycling waste stream and how much use there is or could be. This information will be used in the cost analysis and consideration of the return on investment for allocating future dollars on more permanent (eye-appealing) recycling containers in the downtown area.
Seems like downtown recycling bins and newspaper vending racks should be a project for the Streetscape Task Force.
Left: I like the ones used in Montreal near McGill University.
Center: the ones in Missoula, Montana aren’t bad
Right: even better are ones in Toronto that serve another purpose – Art:
The “Friday Memo,” written by Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski, department heads, and other City staff, summarizes the staff activities for the week. The Friday memos are published and archived…
The “Friday Memo,” written by Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski and various department heads and other City staff, summarizes the staff and department activities for the week. The Friday memos…
Northfield City Councilor Jon Denison held a Ward 4 meeting on Saturday morning at 9 am in Tyler Park. Over the course of the 90 minutes, 7 citizens attended. In…
Over a month ago at a City Council meeting, City Finance Director Kathleen McBride reminded the Council that the City’s general fund subsidizes the Northfield Community Resource Center (NCRC) building to the tune of $200,000 every year. (This does NOT include the debt service on the building.) Here’s a 30-second screen capture of the video of her remarks:
As far as I know, no one on the Council has said anything more about it and I don’t think City Administrator Joel Walinski mentioned the NCRC in his budget cutting-related remarks to the Council earlier this week.
It’s no easy task to understand the financials surrounding NCRC, given its complicated origins and ongoing negotiated leases with the various agencies and programs housed there. (Some historical resources/links below.)
But it’s time to bring the details of these NCRC financial arrangements out into the open so citizens can help staff and the council rethink what the City’s role should be, given the $200K annual subsidy and budget deficits looming this year and next.
I’m not necessarily against the subsidy. Many cities evidently do something similar as a way to help support programs which are not part of the city but that add value to the community. I just want to have the discussion.
And it’s not just the budget deficit that should compel us to have this discussion. It’s also the proposed new police facility that’s possibly relevant.
I’ve been asking people what the pros and cons might be of locating the police department at the NCRC, given the $200K annual subsidy, its central location, ample parking, ample room to construct a secure garage/sally port, and ample office/meeting space (assuming one or more agencies move out).
I’ve not heard many arguments against the idea but without knowing what the financial arrangements are with the current tenants, it’s difficult to know whether this option is viable.
So let’s see what relevant documents can be brought to light and have a discussion about it all. In the meantime:
- See the transcript of the Jan. 1998 online panel discussion on the NCRC referendum
- See the Council minutes for April 4, 2005 when the leases were renegotiated, including this:
The “Friday Memo,” written by Northfield City Administrator Joel Walinski and various department heads and other City staff, summarizes the staff and department activities for the week. The Friday memos…