Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

At Thursday morning’s meeting, the Economic Development Authority reviewed and approved a request by the Northfield Historical Society for $75,000 of Downtown Revolving Loan Funds.

The Historical Society will use the funds to restore the roof of the Scriver Building to its original design (repairing the leaks in the process), create new exhibit space to expand their offerings, and to address interior wiring, plumbing, and soundproofing issues.

This work will be the first phase of the planned restoration of this important downtown building and is expected to be completed in time for the July 4th celebration.

The NDDC had worked with the EDA to make the Downtown Revolving Loan Fund more “user-friendly” in the hopes of stimulating just this type of exciting project. This is the first loan approved since the terms of the program were revised and the first loan in 2005.

For more information on the Downtown Revolving Loan Fund, call City Economic Development Specialist Deanna Kuennen at 645-3069.

The Exapansion and Redevelopment Committee of the NDDC, known as the E. R. Team, held another Block Head Gathering last week. About two dozen folks showed up at The Rueb for coffee, doughnuts and discussion.

There was an update on the Downtown Revolving Loan Fund, particularly the under $10,000 category. Loans of this size require no collateral and no match.

Joe Grundhoefer recently used the program to build his nifty new Rueb ‘n’ Stein garbage enclosure. Contact Deanna Kuennen at the City to find out more about this EDA program.

A “heads-up” on the Downtown Inventory was given. DSU delivered a report to the City Council and many of the NDDC Action Squad’s recommendations on downtown infrastructure were included. City staff will be conducting public forums over the next 30 days or so. The NDDC and the Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a public forum on the topic, with presentations from City staff and opportunties for public input, at the November General Membership meeting on WEDNESDAY (yes, Wednesday), November 3rd, 8 am, at the Archer House.

A discussion was conducted on the State of Business Downtown and recent events to promote foot traffic. The NDDC’s “Welcome Students” initiative and the Chamber’s “Fall Fest” were highlighted. It was mentioned that Country Living Magazine will be covering this year’s “Winter Walk”.

Speaking of nifty Garbage Enclosures, the topic of Downtown Garbage Handling was introduced. The E. R. Team has conducted several tours of Downtown Garbage Sites (19 and still counting) and has some shockingly graphic pictures. The Team’s recommendation for improving this situation is COMBINE receptacles, CONTAIN (visually) with screening, and COORDINATE pick-up schedules. The E. R. Team will be following up with owners of 3 sites to move forward on this matter.

There was then a spirited discussion of Downtown Code Enforcement, particularly Section 1306. Many downtown building and business owners have talked about the high cost of retrofitting historic structures. Deanna Kuennen suggested that the City and the NDDC jointly host a discussion between City Inspector John Brookings and interested building and business owners. The NDDC is working with the City to set up this meeting.

Finally, the recent spate of incidents of Vandalism, particularly on the Westside was raised. There was much speculation about the source of these incidents and possible ways to address them. Chief of Police Gary Smith has offered to meet with downtown building and business owners to talk about the issue. He will be invited to the next Block Head Gathering.

Many downtown folks have been following the discussion of a certain garbage site on the west side of the Cannon River with interest over the past several weeks. Our own ER Team has been discussing the finer points of garbage all summer. Their goal can be summed up with three words:

COMBINE (receptacles wherever possible)
CONTAIN (put the receptacles behind suitable screening)
COORDINATE (pickup schedules)

They’ve done an extensive inventory of both private and public garbage sites throughout the downtown district and are working on a plan to bring a level of consistency to these sites in the near future.

Joe Grundhoefer of J. Grundy’s Reub’n'Stein has recently illustrated the ER Team’s concepts with his own garbage area on the 5th St. side of his property.

Take a look at the following before and after photos:

BEFORE

Not the most attractive situation. Now check this out.

AFTER

It’s not quite done, but what a difference. Thanks to Joe for the initiative and thanks to Jens Johannesen for the design.

A Brief History of the Block Head Organizing Project

There had been talk of organizing the downtown owners going back to the summer of 03. A comparison was made to urban neighborhoods, where folks formed Block Clubs to keep each other informed about important challenges and opportunities in the community.

Then in January 04, we had a big snow. There was much discussion about working together to get the snow cleared so that the downtown district could be as well shoveled and plowed as Target. The concept was captured by a comparison to a townhome ASSOCIATION, where everyone chips in a little and the snow is removed from everyones property.
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The NDDC Expansion and Redevelopment Team spent most of the summer months working on the Downtown Revolving Loan Fund. The Team hoped to suggest changes to the EDA that would make the program more user-friendly for downtown building and business owners. The ER Team believes that if the program is more appealing and more owners access the funds, more projects will happen downtown.

Working closely with members of the EDA, the NDDC Expansion and Redevelopment Team crafted proposed changes that were well-received by the EDA. The EDA then spent some time reviewing the proposal and making some changes of their own. The result is that the program will be more appealing and, hopefully, more used by downtown building and business owners. When the final version of the program is available, the ER Team will spread the word to folks downtown and encourage them to use the program for downtown projects.

This fall, the NDDC Expansion and Redevelopment Team focused on downtown parking. Reviewing the Walker Study and the Stolley Report, the ER Team, working in partnership with the NDDC Action Squad, developed two short-term strategies to address downtown parking.

The first of these strategies is to print a hand-out that identifies the short-term parking zones in downtown. NDDC ER Team members conducted a reconaissance to inspect the adequacy of the signage in these areas and met with some downtown employers and building owners on the current situation. The hand-outs will be printed early next year and NDDC members will visit with downtown building and business owners to discuss the short-term parking zones and encourage them to have their people park in the long-term zones, leaving the short term zones open for customers.

The second of these strategies involves the creation of a low-cost, temporary parking lot on the west side of downtown to handle parking during the highway 3 work. Discussions with the City on this topic have just begun. Watch this space for future updates on this topic.