Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

For July’s Third Thursday event (that would be July 20th) the NDDC is sponsoring the First (hopefully) Annual Taste of Northfield.

The project is the brainchild of high school buddies (and NDDC Board Members) Joe Grundhoefer (pictured at left cooking the “Best Burger in Town” during Crazy Daze) and Brett Reese (one of the founding fathers of the NDDC).

At the last NDDC Board Meeting, Joe proposed that we implement a plan that Brett has been talking about for years, a Taste of Northfield, and that he and Brett (along with the usual cast of characters) would pull it together in time for Third Thursday (a typical NDDC schedule). Brett was vacationing in Europe at the time, so the rest of the board enthusiastically agreed to support the plan and designated that team to provide necessary leadership to the effort.

Oh, uh, Brett, I was supposed to tell you about this at our meeting this morning. Oops, well, please consider this to be the official notification and let me know if there’s anything that I can do to help you and Joe with this exciting new initiative.

So come on down(town) to a Taste of Northfield, Thursday, July 20th.

There’s an old saying that there is no more free lunch. However, Ray Cox refutes this with his birthday experience at Hogan Brothers.

So, on your next birthday, prove the old saying wrong, and enjoy a free lunch at Hogan Brothers.

Oh, and for you “conflict of interest” fanatics, Ray Cox is my brother-in-law.

The Municipal Historic Sign, letting the tens of thousands of motorists that pass by on Highway 35 each day know about Historic Northfield, just seven scenic miles to the east, was intalled today.

Thanks to NDDC Board Members Anastasia Balfany (for the brilliant idea), former NDDC Board Member Jim Braucher (for the engineering), NDDC Board Member Tristan Cox (for securing the site), NDDC Board Member Joe Grundhoefer (for masterful diplomacy) and NDDC Board Member Keith Covey (for attending to the legal details).

Thanks also to the Simon family (for the location), Rick Peterson of MNDOT (for the helpful approach to the sign application), Paul Beaumaster of Rice County (for the local angle on the approval), the Northfield Convention and Visitors Bureau (for a big piece of the funding), Dave Ludescher (for working with Keith on the legal details), Brushworks (for the actual sign) and Duane Fredrickson (for erecting the sign).

As Anastasia said, “One down, three to go”.

“This library afforded me the means of improvement by constant study…”
— Ben Franklin

Well okay, Ben was probably talking about a library in Boston, not Northfield, but he was a huge supporter of public libraries. You too can be a huge supporter of our public library. Here’s the invitation from the League of Women Voters:

LEAGUE HOSTS MEETING ON LIBRARY EXPANSION

The Northfield League of Women Voters (LWV) will continue it’s “4th Monday” public meeting series, on June 26th, on the subject of the expansion of the Northfield Carnegie Library.

Every fourth Monday of each month at 7 pm, in the Northfield Public Library’s first floor meeting room, the LWV hosts a lightly moderated discussion of an issue of current interest or concern to the community.

The topic for June 26th, “Library Expansion” has caused a lot of interest in the community. The library’s needs, as identified by their consultants, and the resulting additional square footage requirements for that new enlarged facility, have raised concerns about finding adequate space to keep the library downtown. The library Director, Lynne Young, board members, and a representative of the consulting firm will be present. A short tour of the current building will begin the meeting.

All meetings are open to the public. Call 663-6097 for further information.

Attorney Jim Crow was out of town last week, and yet somehow, a group of unidentified street sidewalk thugs in front of the Goodbye Blue Monday coffeehouse managed to get ahold of his car on Friday morning and use it for unsavory purposes. Goodbye Green Mustang.

The smell of burning rubber hung in the air long after I took the photo on the left. Right: two of the perpetrators revealed themselves to the victim this morning. Click photos to enlarge.