It’s another big weekend in downtown Northfield. As we say at the NDDC, “There’s always something happening downtown”.
In fact, there’s more going on than will fit in a blog entry, so check out the Northfield Entertainment Guide (PDF) or the Northfield News’ Diversions (web section) or pick up either one in print form at many fine establishments throughout downtown. Here are just a few highlights…
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On Monday, April 24th , the Northfield League of Women Voters is offering an opportunity for citizens to meet with State Representative Ray Cox and State Senator Tom Neuville. The legislators will give an update on progress of the major issues in the current legislative session.
There will be time for questions from the public . The NDDC urges downtown building owners to attend and to once again urge our legislators to help protect the economic vitality of our downtown from the threat of rising real estate taxes.
The meeting will be held at 7 pm, in the Northfield Public Library’s first floor meeting room.
This month’s entertainment will be films…documentary films.
The Northfield Documentary Film Festival will take place on Thursday, April 20, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Grand Event Center, 316 Washington St., in downtown Northfield.
The event, which will feature several short films about Northfield’s past, is part of the Third Thursday Presentation Series sponsored by the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC) and the Grand Event Center.
There will be a $5 admittance fee and two intermissions at the Third Thursday event to allow for mingling and socializing and, no doubt, cultured conversation. Hors d’oeurves will be served, and The Grand will provide a cash bar.
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Monday was a holiday, at least in Massachusetts. It was Patriots’ Day, recognizing the battles of Lexington and Concord, generally considered to be the start of the war known as the American Revolution.
In fact, relations between England and the colonies had not been good for several years. Increasingly unhappy with decisions made by a distant government, the colonists were challenging England through words and actions. The Quartering Act, the Stamp Act, and the Tea Act were met with the Boston Massacre, the Continental Congress and the Tea Party. When the colonists began to unify the Committees of Safety into Minutemen Militia, England responded by sending an army in seach of military stores in Concord, Massachusetts. The troops moved out on the evening of April 18, 1775.
Patriot spies were alert to this movement and two messengers, Paul Revere and William Dawes, set out on horses to spread the alarm though the countryside. At dawn on the 19th of April, when the British arrived at Lexington, halfway to Concord, they found a body of militia drawn up on the village green. Someone fired a shot, and the resulting exchange left eight dead and ten wounded.
The British column went on to Concord, destroyed such of the military stores as the Americans had been unable to remove, and set out on their return journey. By this time, the alarm had spread far and wide, and the American colonists had assembled along the British troops’ route. From behind walls, rocks, and trees, they shot at the columns of Redcoats. At day’s end the British counted 273 casualties; American casualties numbered 95 men. The war of the American Revolution had begun.
This is Minnesota, not Massachusetts. However, every year, I still think about that day in ’75, when a handful of farmers and mechanics stood up against the greatest army on earth, determined to fight for their political rights.
At last night’s meeting, the Council voted 6 to 1 to repeal optional Chapter 1306 from the Northfield building code. The NDDC had worked long and hard on this issue, believing, along with the American Institute of Architects, the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota and a good number of other Minnesota cities, that 1306 was economically and physically destructive to historic buildings. All of the Council members, regardless of their votes, showed great understanding of and appreciation for both sides of this issue and put serious thought into their decision. We thank them for their careful deliberations.
