As of last night, there's not much left of Petricka's County Market.

Based on the June 12 article in the Nfld News titled Metro calling area start date approaches, EAS should have started on Wednesday this week.

"After voting to be included in the metropolitan calling area last summer, Northfield residents can expect to be part of the Twin Cities calling area no later than July 14."

Can anyone verify it?

The above is an image/snapshot of the calendar as of today about 12:15 PM. It's not the real thing.

See the live calendar (where you can click on any of the events listed to get more info about them) in the upper right corner of the N.org homepage, as well as on the NDDC and League of Women Voters websites/weblogs.

Anyone can submit Northfield-related events to the community calendar at Upcoming.org's listings for Northfield. As soon as an event is entered, the calendar is immediately updated on all the websites that carry it.

And any Northfield-area company or organization can have this listing of events automatically displayed on their website. Contact Us if you're interested.

I've started a photo gallery of the conversion of the old Jacobsen's Family Store on Division St. to the Lockwood Opera House - residential and retail condos.

(L to R) Ross Currier, Dan Bergeson, Joe Grundhoefer, Vic Summa, Keith Covey, Bob Kuyper

See Ross Currier's blog post today about the tour the NDDC took of the project yesterday.

Many hundreds of Girl Scouts from all over the country are on the St. Olaf campus for the next few days for their 2004 Jamboree.

They descended on downtown Northfield earlier this evening to watch the bank raid reenactment. Chip DeMann, Wayne Eddy, Dan Freeman and their reenactment colleagues from the Defeat of Jesse James Days put on their show to the appreciative throng. See the high-res version of these photos and a half dozen others in the photo gallery.

The City of Northfield's Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) hosted a meeting last night on the new building design guidelines for downtown buildings, tax credits for renovation projects and the downtown Revolving Loan Fund.

(L to R) Historic preservationist Tom Zahn, Brian O'Connell, City of Northfield Community Development Director, and Bob Will, Chair of the HPC.

Earlier this morning, Northfield Construction Company owner Ray Cox blogged a summary of the meeting.

Construction of Wellstone Commons on Spring St at Greenvale Ave. is nearing completion.

"Income qualified seniors 62+ years of age will pay rent based on income."

Last January, I blogged a StarTribune news article (no longer online) titled Progressive Rail set to move into Northfield. Quoting from the article:
Progressive Rail, a short-line, industrial rail carrier based in Lakeville, is moving into Northfield this spring. It will become the local agent there for both the Canadian and Union Pacific railroads... Timothy Eklund, vice president of corporate development for Progressive Rail, told a group of Northfield residents last week that commuter trains are within the realm of possibilities... The company will move about 10 corporate positions to Northfield, and Progressive would like to make the old depot building its home.

I took this photo of the depot last evening... still boarded up with lots of graffiti on its exterior.

Anyone know the status of this development? Attach a comment or use the Contact Us form.

See the Police Dept press release (PDF) on the event and the schedule of events for the day (PDF).

About 15 minutes ago, members from the Design Advisory Board and the Heritage Preservation Commission made a joint decision on the color of the crosswalk pavers for Bridge Square.

The pavers will be a dark red brick color, and the concrete band will be a light limestone yellow. Click the photo for a large, high-res version of the two.

For more photos of the event and the ongoing crosswalk construction, see the crosswalk photo gallery. (Photos should be done uploading by approximately 5:10 PM CDT.)

A groundbreaking ceremony was held this morning for the first phase of Village on the Cannon at the site of the old Petricka's County Market.

Note the shovelful of dirt in the air from the kid in the middle.

Northfield City Administrator Susan Hoyt (L) with future resident/condo owner Jo, the mother of longtime Northfielder Nancy Ashmore of ashmoreINK.

See all the high-res versions of these and other photos of the event in the photo gallery.

George Kinney, Cannon River Watershed Board Chair, writes: "Join us for a Cannon River cleanup on Saturday, July 17, from 9:00 till about noon. We'll supply gloves and trash bags, you bring the willingness to do some good in our community. Call Cannon River Watershed Partnership to let us know you're planning to come at 646-8400."

More details on the CRWP home page.

StarTribune

Northfield nine ready for baseball
As a way to promote last summer's Class B and C Amateur Baseball state tournament, Northfield invited the St. Croix Base Ball Club to town for a game played by 1860s rules.

School for a new century
Some of the past century's changes in education systems and lifestyles are reflected in the nearly finished new Northfield Middle School, set to open Sept. 1.

Pioneer Press

Funding plan for public defenders looks improbable
Sen. Tom Neuville, a key architect of the public defenders' agreement, said the agreement did not intend to bind future legislatures and would not have been a legal contract. The Northfield Republican said the best solution would be to hold a special session to deal with only the public defenders' budget. He believes the governor, House Republicans and Senate Republicans would be amenable to that.

NDDC president Dan Bergeson posted a detailed weblog post a few minutes ago on the City Council's actions last night re: Chapati.

First the Council denied the request for a Future Land Use Map Amendment at 1001 Division Street South and then it denied the request to adopt an ordinance to re-zone the property from R-2 (1 and 2 family housing) to C-2 (commercial). In the end, on a unanimous 6-0 vote, the Council approved a resolution that directs City staff to "expeditiously explore the use of a PUD (Planned Unit Development) zone for 1001 Division Street with the property owner, Mr. Butler, and the neighbors."

See Bergeson's entire post for his commentary, attach a comment here or there to contribute your own comment, or join the discussion on the "downtown Southern boundary" issue on the N.org ISSUES discussion list.

Construction on the Bridge Square crosswalks began this morning.

See the four PDF files for details on the construction phases.

Overall plan, Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3

Heidi Hamilton, Director of Public Works/City Engineer and Sean Simonson, Engineering Technician are the City of Northfield staffers overseeing the construction.