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.

The Northfield Arts Guild (NAG) has the schedule of events for ArtSwirl posted on their website. "ArtSwirl is a new Northfield Festival of the Arts, and will feature theatrical performances, music, dance, poetry and storytelling, artist studio tours, and more."

NAG Executive Director Karen Helland was parading around downtown this morning in this hat promoting the event.

We're continuing to experiment with the best way to aggregate the syndicated feeds from the weblogs of local civic organization and individual citizens.

See the lower right column of this N.org homepage for the current weblog feeds, two posts per blog: LWV, NDDC, Alex Beeby, David Bly, Ray Cox, Adam Gurno, Scott Schumacher, and yours truly.

We'll be adding more in the next week, including (we hope) one or more weblogs by candidates for local political offices.

The Northfield Soccer Association (NSA) is still raising funds to help pay for the Spring Creek Park Soccer Complex.

Visit the NSA for more info on how to contribute.

Also visit the James Gang Coffeehouse and Eatery web site for more info on their "free coffee fundraiser" for the NSA.

And see the July 3 Northfield News article: Spring Creek Park quite a soccer complex

The Northfield High School Class of '54 held their 50th reunion recently.

See their Shutterfly photogallery and their MSN photogallery.

KSTP-TV
Campaign controversy centers around free food
(Includes text and video)

Call it dessert-gate. State Republicans and DFLers are now butting heads over pie and popsicles. David Bly, a DFL candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives, decided to take advantage of a rhyme and incorporate pie into his campaign. He hoped it would help him win a race lost by less than 50 votes in 2002.

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Bribed by pie?
It could be the silliest political scandal in Minnesota politics since "Twinkiegate." On Wednesday evening, David Bly of Northfield, a Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for the Minnesota House, set up a picnic tent in Central Park here and served pie -- thick, juicy slices of apple, rhubarb, blueberry and mixed berry pie with vanilla ice cream -- to about 30 voters who stopped by for one of his weekly get-acquainted events.

Rochester Post-Bulletin/Associated Press

Northfield family committed to turkey production
Karen Zimmerman told her parents she was done with chores when she left her Oran, Iowa, home farm for college in Minneapolis. That was almost 40 years ago, and Zimmerman is still doing chores. She married Chuck Zimmerman in 1969 after a five-year hiatus from chores while she lived in Rochester and worked as a medical technician at Mayo Clinic. The couple moved to his home farm near Northfield where they raised turkeys and beef steers.

The Bateman family at work/play, along the west side of the River Walk Commons last night. Click the photo for a high-resolution image.

Rice County Habitat for Humanity is putting up a new house near the corner of Jefferson Parkway and Bunker Drive, right across from the Spring Creek Park Soccer Complex.

The City of Northfield has long been decorating downtown light poles with hanging flower baskets. And the Northfield Garden Club has long been beautifying Bridge Square and Riverwalk with its handiwork.

Increasingly, business owners along Division St. have been following suit.

See the new album of flower photos in front of Rare Pair, Re/Max, Witt Bros. Auto Repair, Northfield Auto Care, Hodge Podge que', Present Perfect, and Glass Garden.

What other businesses along Division St. have done something similar?

The syndicated community calendar now displays the most recent 20 events. (We're experimenting with the font size and layout.)

As of noon today, there are actually 25 in the queue, extending all the way to the end of August. You can see the entire list anytime by clicking the link to Upcoming.org's listings for Northfield at the bottom of the listing.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to enter an event.

What other organizations in town should have this calendar displayed on their web sites?

The Northfield Community Band held a concert last night on Bridge Square.

Group sing: the Star Spangled Banner. Click the image for a large, high-resolution version.

Real estate taxes in historic downtowns was the topic at Tuesday's monthly NDDC meeting, with panelists Joe Grundhoefer, Paul Smith, Sen. Tom Neuville and Rep. Ray Cox.

Downtown building owners Joe Grundhoefer and Brett Reese

Sen. Tom Neuville with building owners Joe Grundhoefer and Victor Summa

See all the photos in the NDDC mtg album.

For more on the meeting, see Wednesday's Northfield News article titled Downtown taxes discussed by NDDC.

I just noticed this sign across Hwy 3 from Target.

A BP (British Petroleum, formerly known as Amoco) gas station, car wash, and oil change facility.

Anyone know more about it?

Filing for the four open Northfield City Council seats started today and closes July 20.

Seats open: mayor, wards 2 and 3, and one at-large.

See the article in the June 26 Nfld News Mayor, three council seats up for grabs for more details, as well as the July 3rd editorial titled Consider running for public office.

Other openings: four seats on the Northfield School Board, Rice and Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation district supervisors, and all Rice County commissioner seats.

The Center for Sustainable Living has become part of Northfield's civic blogosphere with its new weblog.

The Center is dedicated to developing and administering programs and initiatives which foster liveability and sustainability for communities. The mission of the Center rests on the premise that building public awareness is the most effective of all the long-term forces for assuring that local communities remain vibrant and endure. Interests of the Center include improving environmental protections, conserving biodiversity, ecologically restoring degraded landscapes, building viable local economy, and encouraging civility within the human community.