Downtown

A group of Spanish teachers in town for a seminar at Carleton were at the Contented Cow last night, whipped into a frenzy by Jellystone Yogi (Joel Cooper on bass, George Marich on drums, Peter Diggins on guitar). You can click the photo to enlarge, and click the icons below to play the three short (10 - 30 seconds) videoclips. La Bamba!

Cooper and Diggins perform again tonight at the Cow, part of the Prairie Creek Group.

Despite moving away to college in a strange and faraway land, I noticed that recent updates to Google Maps have yielded higher resolution aerial imagery of the area. Bird's eye views of sights such as Sechler, Malt-O-Meal, downtown, and your roof await! Don't venture too far north, as it appears that Randolph hasn't yet thawed.

Aren't you glad time flies? The weekend is almost upon us again!

It will be another great weekend for music. Downtown is hopping on Third Thursday with the Community Band Concert at Bridge Square. Why not stay downtown for dinner at one of the fine establishments listed in the Northfield Entertainment Guide and hear Chris Herriges at the Tavern or the Hamlin/Pernecky Jazz Duo at the Contented Cow?

The rest of the weekend's details are inside...

The Northfield Historical Society's Museum Store is undergoing a facelift.

On June 8th, Northfield Construction came in and started the demolition of the old store to make room for the new store. The new construction will open up more space in the store for inventory and displays. The new store will also allow us to have room in our old admissions area for the Founding of Northfield Exhibit which should be open to the public by the 4th of July. The store's construction is scheduled to be completed by June 23.

Don't worry, though, the museum is still open and we are giving tours. In addition, we have a temporary store set up for our visitors. We are open normal hours Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. There may be some closures to the store and museum for construction of the new exhibit, however.

Author's Note: _Apparently *As Time Goes By* will re-open with a new name and new owner, but still feature used books. Thanks to Jessica Paxton for the update..._

Two familiar downtown businesses have closed recently: The *ArtOnWater Gallery* and *As Time Goes By*, a used book store.

The *ArtOnWater Gallery* had a goodbye shindig last weekend to celebrate the years of operation, as "noted by Ross Currier in a recent NDDC post":http://nddc.org/weblogs/homepageblog/archives/000395.html.

*As Time Goes By* was a well-known book store, which was most recently noted as "one of the sponsors of the _Cannon River Watershed Partnership Festival_":http://northfield.org/blogs/homepageblog/archives/001518.html.

I don't know that any tenants have been announced to fill the vacancies. The ArtOnWater office has an "Office Space for Lease" sign in the window while ATGB does not.

Editor's note: This story comes from Dean Kjerland, the owner of a downtown business, ArcheoPaleo.

A couple of property crime incidents occurred earlier this week on the west side near the Hwy 3/Water Street construction area. That's my neighborhood and the home of my business, so I stepped up my regular dialog with the young people who frequent the area.

We talk a lot, and one of the ongoing points of potential confrontation is the abuse of the 'human-powered vehicle' restrictions in effect downtown. I'm aware that many warnings and tickets have been issued to young skateboard and bicycle violators. However, in an informal survey, I snapped a series of pictures of adult violators between late morning and early afternoon on Tuesday. The images are posted on my website click on ArtOnWater at archeopaleo.com.

We took our Locally Grown show recording session to The Tavern's outdoor patio this afternoon. Our guests: Don Tarr, Chair of the Northfield Housing and Redeveloment Authority; and Kris Vohs, City Councilor and member of the HRA. Our topic: Northfield and the need for workforce housing.

Click photos to enlarge and continue reading to hear the whole show (30 minutes).

The 'Sphere is back from Sin City - tanned, rested, and with both of my kidneys. That's a successful Las Vegas trip by any standard.

Since the 'Sphere's been out of the loop for a while, it's *_Current Events_* as the topic this week: things being built, things being torn down, and everything in between.

More inside...

Editor's note: This is the second part of a story we started yesterday outlining the issues surrounding a proposed new movie theater in Northfield.

The Northfield City Council, faced with a need for both commercial and light industrial land, reached a compromise Monday that maintains a little of each.

"I like this better than the last meeting," said Steven Payne, vice president of Lakes & Rivers Cinema, which plans to bring a multi-screen cinema to seven acres along Canon Road, just off Hwy. 3. He was referring to the May 23 meeting of the Planning Commission, which rejected the land use designation needed as a first step to rezoning for a theater.  

For the details on the vote and much, much more, read the rest of the story...

The big Highway 3 road construction project continues in Northfield. N.org is there, and while "our online construction photo gallery":http://flickr.com/photos/northfield_mn/sets/72157594156650253/ won't make your trip any quicker, we hope that the indication of progress will make it a little cheerier.

The construction this summer is in two phases. Phase One (the current phase) is scheduled to be complete by August 18th, "according to MNDOT":http://www.dot.state.mn.us/d6/projects/hwy3/index.html. Phase two will start after that and finish in October. This means that there may be some significant DJJD(Defeat of Jesse James Days) traffic impact.

More inside...

Summer is here in full force, so get out and enjoy it!

On a beautiful day there is nothing like outdoor baseball, and you don't have to wait for a new stadium! The Dundas Dukes are sponsoring a baseball tournament at Memorial Field in Dundas this weekend. The Dukes, the Dukes over-35 team and the Northfield Knights will all be playing.

The rest of the weekend's details are inside...

Surely you've heard that the city is talking about how to meet the future needs of a library that's bursting at its architecturally significant seams. Well, the Northfield.org readers who have joined our ISSUES List have been batting around ideas for how to solve the problem.

The official report estimates costs could run $9.2 million or more. These ideas haven't been analyzed for cost effectiveness, but they all get points for creativity. You can join the ISSUES List discussion, add a comment below or check out the NDDC forum on the topic Tuesday, June 6.

Here are just a few of the ideas...

We're a little late in getting to this, but we wanted to share our appreciation for the fun and conversation at the Northfield Downtown Developments Corp.'s mixer last Thursday. For a business organization, these people sure know how to have a good time! And the upper deck tucked behind the lobby of the Archer House is one of the hidden treasures of the downtown.

NCO board chairman Doug Bratland and I also want to thank Rob Schanilec for the great photos. The only catch is that he was taking pictures while we were talking, so there are a few names we didn't get. Doug knows that the picture above includes Dan Freeman, and Sue and Bart de Malignon. Please feel free to check out the whole gallery and point out our sins of omission. If you find your own face and identify it, I'll buy you an adult beverage at the next mixer!

We took our recording session to the back room of the James Gang Hideaway on Friday, featuring Mill Towns Trail board member Peggy Prowe. The legislature just allocated $1 million dollars for the trail, so I invited Senator Tom Neuville and Representative Ray Cox to chime in.

Click photo to enlarge and continue reading to hear the whole show (30 minutes).

I know it's a long weekend, and you're thinking of leaving town, but you really should stay. There's a lot to do right here, and besides...your friends are here! A quick look at the Northfield Entertainment Guide (you can download it here or pick up a Guide at key spots around town) will tell you all you need to know.

Read the rest of this entry for the full scoop...