adam.gurno's blog

We've added Sweet Lou's Waffle Bar to the list of places that offer free Wifi access to its customers. 

If we've missed any, please let us know and we'll fix it ASAP.  Or, if you know of another list that would be valuable for Northfielders tell us that as well.

Submitted by Suzie Nakasian

(Photos taken by Pat O'Loughlin at the Northfield Earth Day Contra Dance last Saturday, April 26.)

• Click here to see the gallery
• Click here to see the slideshow

The dance was generously underwitten by Carleton's SOPE (Students Organized for the Protection of the Environment) in collaboration with the St. Olaf Environmental Coalition and the Northfield Community Contra Dance Association. The dance was held in Carleton's "Great Space", Sayles Hill Campus Center, and was attended by about 180 people - they were moving - I couldn't count. The room was packed. Music was provided by Contratopia and the dance was led by dance "caller" Robin Nelson of Minneapolis.

A good time was had by all...including the band, as evidenced in the attached photos.

Note: the next opportunity to contra dance in Northfield will be the June Moon Community Dance, part of the NDDC's upcoming Taste of Northfield Celebration on Bridge Square on June 19. The June Moon Dance will proudly feature Northfield's Over and Back Band and include swing dancing, waltzes and contra dances led by dance "caller" Beau Farmer.

From the Strib:

For at least a day, Faribault, Minn., convenience store clerks Jared Gustafson and Kim Bourn were among an elite handful of Rice County residents.

When it came to who might have won this weekend's $180.1 million Powerball jackpot ticket, sold somewhere in the southeastern Minnesota county, they were considered in the know by curious customers and reporters.

Okay, fess up. Did you win $180 million dollars this weekend? I was in the Kwik Trip tonight and they were claiming that they had sold it...

We're running low on blinker fluid and the muffler bearings are shot (That's that grinding you've been hearing for the past week), so tonight we're going to take the site down for some tinkerin' and some hammerin' and some why-do-we-have-all-these-extra-screws and we-have-to-promise-never-to-mention-this-to-anyone.

If you need something to do, watching this news report on fainting goats always goes over well. :)

It another week in Northfield, here in the early parts of April. The sun is shining, grass is growing, kids are outside plaSorry, I thought I could cut and paste from last year. The weather has varied from lousy to horrible this week, with rain, freezing rain, slush, and snow falling from the sky. Someone told me that they saw the sun earlier this week, but I'm not sure I believe them. We may go straight from winter to June's summer this year, I think.

Enough with this moaning and groaning, on with TWINB!...

GOP <= 4AM; McCain = Ole+1; Hong on Pipa

Northfield is specifically included in the bill relaxing the closing time of bars for the GOP convention in September, so sayeth the Pioneer Press:

A proposal for bars to remain open until 4 a.m. around the time of the convention passed unanimously through the House Commerce and Labor Committee today.

The action follows the failure of two previous proposals — including one by Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, which was removed from a budget bill on Thursday.

MPR has the story of Andrew Foxwell, an Ole, who has decided to back McCain for President...

"I'm not going to assign any to medical marijuana and drug policy," Foxwell said as he went through the quiz again, recently. "Civil liberties and domestic security, I'll give a couple points to that."

Then you answer some questions about how you think those issues should be addressed.

"Privatizing social security through personal social security accounts? Yes. Great idea," Foxwell said. "Support or oppose an increase in troop levels in Iraq? I do strongly support that."

Two stories today about how Lansing's hardware is going out of business, in addition to them settling their long-standing lawsuit with New Division Development:

• Northfield News: Lansing Hardware to close, Lansing Hardware suit settled
• Griff Wigley: Lansing Hardware going out of business

Update: Tim Freeland has posted 37 more pictures from the spill. Click here to see the gallery or click here to view the slideshow.

Stewart Moyer sent in these great images from the spill this morning:

We couldn't get very close to it, but my camera zoom proved somewhat effective.

Click here to view the gallery or click here to view the slide show.

Many thanks to Stewart for his contribution. Remember: Northfield.org is Citizen Journalism. If you take pictures/video/audio of an event happening, we'll publish it!

In honor of spring, the Dundas Exxon (near the corner of Railway and 2nd) is selling gas for $0.41/gallon for one day only. (The catch: 12 gallon limit.) We called the station to find out to find out the inside scoop.

"Not many people seem to know we're out here, so this is our way of saying 'Hey, here we are', you know, and I think that people will understand that."

The offer didn't specify if containers were ok or not, so if you were able to fill one up, please leave us a comment and let us know!

Northfield schools letting out early today, March 31:

• St. Dominic's - 12:30
• Area Learning Center - 12:30
• HS - 12:45.
• Middle School 12:51.
• Sibley Elementary 1:10
• Bridgewater Elementary 1:45.
• Greenvale Park - 1:15

School not listed?  Keep an eye on WCCO's School Closing Page or KYMN 1080 for more information.

Update 2: More links (Thanks to Andy Alt)...

• CNN.com - Union Pacific Derailment In Minn Causes Sulfuric Acid Leak
• Northfield News - Derailment: Cleanup begins
• WCCO - Sulphuric Acid Leaks From Derailed Train

Update 1: A bit more from KARE 11, including some video.

Not much information out there right now, but a train derailed in Northfield last night and leaked sulfuric acid:

The derailment occurred near a residential area at about 2 a.m. this morning, said Mark Davis, Union Pacific spokesman. Television reports said the derailment was near Highways 3 and 19.

Informal town reports have the police blocking off an area near St. Dominic'sDairy Queen and Highway 3.

Today's KYMN Daily News has much more information on the leak:

Note that this is the 8:05 a.m. broadcast. As the day progresses, tune into KYMN 1080 AM for more information.

If you have any more information or online links, please leave them in a comment.

We got a note from David Koenig about TT being up for $2,350 from myHometownHelper.com's grant program...

The more people that go to this site and post supportive comments, the more likely it is that we will receive a grant from Hamburger Helper.

From the mHH website:

Thursday's Table is a new program in Northfield designed to provide a hot and healthy meal to people in transition who could benefit from a free, nutritious meal. Free meals are prepared and served by volunteers every Thursday (beginning April 3, 2008) from 5:00 to 6:30 PM at the Community Resource Center. Guests and volunteers will dine together, the entire community benefiting from new relationships that are formed. The school district will offer a children's activity each week, and diners will have the opportunity to participate in social or educational activities.

Click here or on the picture to visit the website and post a comment to show your support.

(Submitted by Margit Johnson)

The Northfield League of Women Voters has updated the "Northfield Non-Profit Meeting Room List".  The list details all the places in Northfield where non-profit orgs are welcome to meet.

• Download in PDF format.
• Download in Microsoft Word format.

Valid as of March 2008; for updates and corrections, email margit@usfamily.net.

If there was a silver lining to the 3 to 58 inches of snow we got Thursday/Friday, it's that it brought out the photographer in people. Here are some links to spring snow shots from local photogs. If you know of any other picture collections, please let us know and we'll update the list. If you've got photos you want to share, send them to pictures@northfield.org and we'll add them to our Flickr gallery.

• Rob Hardy - Spring Snow
• Penny Hillemann - Spring Snow
• Griff Wigley - Sticky March Snow Downtown
• Chris Tassava - Good Friday Driving

Keep shooting, Northfield!

Following up on the first batch of spring images from Miriam Mueller, we've got another set of pictures from Amy Mueller Benson showing Northfield residents Calvin and Delia Benson enjoying the melt at Way Park...

(Click here to view as slideshow.)