Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

A very hot topic in the news this spring is Wi-Fi, “wireless fidelity.” It’s not just about wireless access in a building or outdoor hot spot, but it’s all about wireless internet access in large geographical areas, possibly throughout an entire City. Philidelphia is doing it and so is Chaska, Minnesota. (Read the Chaska white paper (pdf) called chaska.net Overview.)Minneapolis is issuing an RFP this spring and at least two companies have indicated their intent to submit proposals.

Tuesday, May 3, the NDDC Downtown Forum will present a panel of four experts on this topic and the economic development ramifications of providing wireless technology throughout a district or city. Our guests will include Bob Courchaine of Northfield Internetworking; Jane Leonard of Minnesota Rural Partners; Dave Pokorney from the City of Chaska; and Stuart DeVaan, CEO of implex.net. After each panelist makes a brief presentation, questions will be taken from the audience.

The meeting will be in the lower level conference room of the Archer House Historic Inn from 8 - 9:30 am. This event is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be served. Please call 663-0319 for more information.

As downtown Northfielders are probably aware, there is concern about potential real estate tax increases in 2006.

A number of downtown building and business owners have spoken with the NDDC about this issue recently. The statements of property valuations for the purposes of determining real estate taxes arrived last week and they include valuation increases from 2004 to 2005 ranging from 27% to 159%.

The increase in the valuation does not necessarily directly translate into an increase in your tax bill. However, an accountant and an appraiser that are friends of the NDDC are building some models of potential tax scenarios. If you would like to have your information included in this model, give it to Joe Grundhoefer at The RuebNStein. We will post this information after it’s been compiled.

There is an “Open Book” Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, April 27th, 10 am to 1 pm, at the Northfield City Hall on this topic. Anyone can attend this meeting and speak with the County Appraiser.

There is also a County Board of Appeal and Equalization Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, June 14, 8:30 am at the Rice County Government Service Building.

Thanks to Keith and Judy Covey, we now have a a posting of the ideas document (5 page PDF) generated by the group attending the NDDC’s recent Evening Forum.

Some of the attendees merely observed; most of the attendees shared their ideas on post-it notes.

Dixon Bond

Those ideas on this list (PDF) that are in a broad sense “Streetscape” or, at the very least, Capital Improvements, will be carried by the NDDC Representative, Joe Grundhoefer, to the Mayor’s Ad Hoc Task Force.

If you have comments, attach them to this blog post, use the Contact Us form to reach me via email, or, better yet, eat at The Rueb.

The attendees included:
(more…)

For better or worse, I’m not a Carl or an Ole. I got my undergraduate degree (in Government, with a comparative politics focus) from Wesleyan in Middletown, Connecticut. An article in the 2005 Issue 1 of the Wesleyan magazine was of particular interest to me: SCHOOL OF DREAMS: The newly opened Green Street Arts Center brings hope to a troubled neighborhood in the North End of Middletown.

Wesleyan built a community arts center for Middletown called the Green Street Arts Center. Working with the local non-profit NEAT (the North End Action Team), Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts determined that the best way to achieve outreach to the community was to build the community an arts center.

The leadership on this initiative came from Wesleyan’s Vice President, Peter Patton. According to the article, Vice President Patton understood that “NEAT wanted a community center: a gathering place, a source of pride, and a central hub”.

Wesleyan determined that “the center had to be built with the same eye to quality and pride that Wesleyan would lavish on a central-campus building. A little storefront wouldn’t be a beacon for the commmunity”.

The college and community team found a perfect location for the project: “a hulking old brick building” that had once been the parochial school for St. Sebastian’s church. “With its generous rooms and tall windows, it was easy to imagine sunlight streaming in on classrooms filled once again with laughing children”.

“With much hard work, the funding began to fall into place through city, state and federal money, as well as a $500,000 gift from an anonymous alumnus” who directed the gift to the project at the urging of Wesleyan President Douglas Bennet.

Now that the building is open, Wesleyan continues its support of the Green Street Arts Center through programming.

The Kamau Jazz Trio performs at the Grand Opening of the Green Street Arts Center.

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