Local Issues

At their recent board meetings, the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) Board approved seven grants to support several projects and activities designed to benefit Northfield youth.

Funded projects included:

8th Grade Farewell Fest
All Northfield Middle School 8th graders were invited to the 1st annual 8th Grade Fun Night held in late May.  There was music, carnival games, mini-golf, karaoke, fun with inflatables, and refreshments.  Fun Night was a time of celebration for the 8th graders as they completed their middle school education.

Make an informed choice in the August 12th Primary Election:   Come to the City Council Candidate Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters!  All At Large and Ward One Candidates have been invited to participate in a Forum on Wednesday, July 30th, in Council Chambers at City Hall.  It will begin at 6:00 pm with the candidates for the At Large position on the Council.  Invited candidates are: Jon Dennison, Dale Gehring, Rhonda Pownell, and Nika Sharp.  At 7:00 pm, the candidates for First Ward Councilor are invited to participate.  Invited candidates are:  Jeremy Bishop, Joe Gasior, and Suzie Nakasian.

WINGS (Women in Northfield Giving Support) honored its 2014 grant recipients at a celebration Thursday at Buntrock Commons.

About 60 people attended the event to hear about the work of the 22 organizations that received $74,964 in grants from WINGS. The group also presented a $10,000 Dare to Dream award to the Healthy Community Initiative on behalf of the Community School Advisory Council, which will be used to convert Greenvale Park Elementary School into a community school.

WINGS focuses its giving in four areas: Basic needs, especially programs that provide housing, food and economic stability and safe environments for victims of domestic violence; Education, including early learning, out-of-school programs and adult education; Physical and mental health, especially programs that promote access to healthcare and healthy behaviors; and Entrepreneurship, including access to micro-loans, networking, technical assistance and mentoring.

Just Food Co-op, a community-owned natural foods market and deli, has received the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative’s “Making a Difference” Award for June. The award celebrates groups and individuals in the community who have a positive influence on Northfield youth.

The Northfield business was nominated for the award because of its community outreach efforts. These include providing healthy snacks for youth in the school district’s summer PLUS program, and supporting the Multicultural Cooking Club run by the Growing Up Healthy coalition.

The club meets the first Monday of every month at 5:30 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Northfield. It began as a way for members of the Latino community to socialize, but now the club strives to build cross-cultural relationships and is open to anyone in the community who’s interested in learning how to make Latin-inspired dishes and other ethnic cuisine.

The Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) is currently accepting nominations for positions on the HCI Board of Directors.  HCI expects to have at least two open adult board positions and three board positions for high school students, beginning in September 2014.  HCI board members serve three-year terms.

Formed in 1992, HCI is a coalition run by a board of community leaders, youth, parents, and school representatives.  HCI’s mission is to “to foster a collaborative environment in Northfield that empowers youth, strengthens families, and builds community.” To achieve this, HCI does not operate or manage its own programs.  Instead, HCI works with community partners to foster collaboration and to support community-driven efforts that benefit Northfield youth and families.

The HCI Board meets from 7:30-9:00 a.m. on the third Wednesday of every month.

For more information on the HCI Board or to nominate yourself or someone else for the board, please contact HCI at 664-3524 or info@northfieldhci.org.

To learn more about HCI, visit www.northfieldhci.org.

Mayor Graham’s Press Conference

June 19, 2014 8:30 a.m.

Introduction

Talking Points:

1.     Current conditions:  Northfield has received 1.25” of rain since last night.  Faribault received more, around the 2” range, not exactly sure.

2.     Gauges:

Straight River showing a slight decrease in Owatonna and Faribault.

Cannon River at County 29 in Northfield shows a slight increase.

The visual gauge at the Safety Center was at 4 feet 6 inches last night at 8p increasing to 4 feet 8 inches as of 7a today.

3.     City of Northfield will stay in the incident command structure for the next 12 hours.

4.     We will continue to monitor Owatonna, Faribault, Dakota County and other local sources.

5.     The media will be notified of any changes throughout the day.

An email distributed by Northfield Shares this afternoon asks for Northfield-area volunteers to help with sandbagging and other flood-preparation activities. It says:

Urgent Volunteer Alert!

We need YOUR help! The City of Northfield has declared a flood emergency and the river continues to rise, with more rain in the forecast. With two colleges in town and the high school down the street, we can normally mobilize hundreds of volunteers in minutes. However, most of those students are not easily available in the summer, so we're relying on citizens like you.

The Northfield Healthy Community Initiative’s annual report has been published and is now available online. “Setting the Stage for Healthy Youth Development,” the 2014 Report to the Community, highlights the non-profit organization’s past year of successes and summarizes the work of nearly a dozen HCI-supported collaborations.

The report includes a feature story on Rey Andrade, a 2012 Northfield High School and TORCH program graduate who is attending St. Thomas University on a full-tuition scholarship.

HCI formed in 1992 and is a coalition run by community leaders, youth parents and school personnel. Its mission is to foster a collaborative environment in Northfield that empowers youth, strengthens family and builds community. In the past 11 years, HCI has helped bring in $4.5 million in grant funds from sources outside the community to support Northfield youth efforts.

The City of Northfield and the Mayor’s Youth Council are accepting applications for the inaugural Youth Leadership Academy, which will run from June 23-27.

Five high school students will be selected for this week-long program.  Students will meet with city leaders, shadow different city departments, and learn about potential careers in municipal government.  This is a great career exploration and resume building experience!  For more information and the application, CLICK HERE.  Applications should be submitted before June 10!

Questions?  Email info@northfieldhci.org

Three Links has received a grant through ACT on Alzheimer’s to help make Northfield a more dementia-friendly community. Northfield is one of 12 new action communities working to prepare Minnesota for the growing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.  The Alzheimer’s Association estimates there are 88,000 Minnesotans age 65 and older with the disease and many thousands more with other dementias.

ACT on Alzheimer’s is a volunteer-driven, statewide collaboration preparing Minnesota for the personal, social and budgetary impacts of Alzheimer’s. Working with communities striving to become dementia-friendly is one of ACT’s key strategies.

At their March 2014 board meeting, the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative (HCI) Board approved grants to support five projects and activities designed to benefit Northfield youth.

Funded projects included:

Check out a new flood preparedness video with Northfield Police Chief Monte Nelson and Emergency Management Director Tim Isom:

http://ci.northfield.mn.us/mediacenter.aspx?VID=35

Follow the link below to a collection of emergency prepardness resources on the City of Northfield's website:

http://ci.northfield.mn.us/Index.aspx?NID=985

Northfield’s 4th Earth Day Celebration is scheduled for Saturday, April 26th at Carleton College’s Weitz Center. Organizers invite everyone to join the free resilient skill- building activities:  make goat cheese and goat soap; sew snack bags; attend a solar tour; make a felted wool project; create a garden bed for “Free Food Help Yourself”; plant seedlings in the Carleton Arboretum; tour a gravity fed rain water system and bike powered table saw; help create a recycled sculpture and many more. 

There will be a free soup supper and community potluck. After supper, visit local sustainability stations to learn how you can get involved in projects happening here in the Northfield area.

Bring your instruments and voice. We will end the day with a community jam!