Northfield Downtown Development Corporation

The NDDC will feature Northfield’s new Police Chief Mark Taylor at its July Downtown Forum. The forum is scheduled for Tuesday, July 1 at 8 a.m. in the Riverview Conference Room, located in the lower level of the Archer House, 212 Division Street, in downtown Northfield. The public is always invited to attend and participate.

Taylor was Patrol Captain of the Northfield Police Department for six months before being made Chief in late April of 2008, following the departure of former Police Chief Gary Smith. Taylor served for twenty years with the McLeod County Sheriff’s Department before coming to our community.

Taylor’s first visit to Northfield was on a motorcycle trip with his wife from Hutchinson to Red Wing many years ago. Taylor, pictured here discussing the logistics of the JuneBug Music Festival with Julie Bixby of The Contented Cow, considers himself a strong supporter of activities and events in downtown Northfield and has spent much time meeting with community members. “I believe private-public partnerships are the key to community safety,” he says, “as well as to the cleanliness and vitality of the area.”

The NDDC forum is intended as an opportunity for the Chief and the community to get to know each other better. However, Taylor is willing to address all topics of interest to downtown stakeholders.

The NDDC is a non-partisan, non-profit community organization dedicated to the vitality of downtown Northfield. The event is free and open to the public. As always, coffee and cookies will be served.

For more information, contact Executive Director Ross Currier at (507) 663-0319 or rcurrier@nddc.org.

Kathy Feldbrugge of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), Hayes Scriven of the Northfield Historical Society, Brad Ness of the Defeat of Jesse James Days (DJJD), and Michelle Weber Egeness of St. Olaf College and CVB board member discussed their organizations’ experience with and work on tourism at the NDDC June Downtown Forum. It became clear through their presentations, one size does not fit all.

NDDC President Mary Rossing introduced the topic. She said that in her view, successful tourism efforts bring more feet on the street so retailers can have the opportunity for increased sales. Mary noted that the NDDC supports events and promotions to bring visitors downtown and cited the NDDC’s cow, Patty Cash, and her appearances at events with many visitors, such as St. Olaf’s Celebration Weekend, and her distribution of Downtown Directories and coupons as the NDDC’s latest initiative in this area.

Kathy Feldbrugge explained that much of the CVB’s work was to get people to recognize the economic importance of tourism. She recounted the 1987 effort to win City Council support for the creation of the CVB as a major accomplishment. Kathy explained that the message that the CVB shares in its marketing work is about the community’s assets: History and Heritage, Arts and Culture, Shopping and Lodging.

Michelle Egeness emphasized the benefits of collaboration. She pointed to the co-op ad in the StarTribune as a way to give local businesses more leverage from their resources. She also talked about St. Olaf’s summer schedule of events that bring people to town and recommended that retailers visit their website for details.

Brad Ness distributed the DJJD’s marketing material, the year-round “rap cards” and the specific annual brochure. He explained that these materials are distributed by volunteers, including members of the Outlaw Gang and the Royalty Court, from Missouri to Canada. Brad said that most of their marketing focus in within a 100-mile radius. For a marketing budget of under $15,000, the DJJD folks bring 150,000 people to town. It’s an impressive accomplishment, one that shows the effectiveness of 500 volunteers’ efforts.

Hayes Scriven noted that Northfield has a powerful historical legacy. People know Northfield for two things: the colleges and Jesse James. Typically, the Historical Society uses marketing conduits with a western theme. He recognized that the Historical Society’s “product” has a strong story potential for a variety of publications and that the stories often go viral. Last year, the museum had over 5,000 paid visitors from all around the world.

These organizations don’t target the exact same market or share the exact same message, however, there are definitely some opportunities for collaborations. All of the participants thought that two to four meetings between the groups every year would help to increase the leverage of our community’s tourism resources.

The Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC) will present a public forum focusing on supporting and strengthening area tourism on Tuesday, June 3 at 8 a.m. Featuring a panel of experts, including Kathy Feldbrugge of the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), Hayes Scriven of the Northfield Historical Society, Brad Ness of the Defeat of Jesse James Days (DJJD), and Michelle Weber Egeness of St. Olaf College and CVB board member.

The forum will take place the Riverview Conference Room, lower level of the Archer House, 212 Division Street, in downtown Northfield. This month it will be co-hosted by the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Feldbrugge will discuss the importance of tourism to the community’s economic health and the CVB’s on-going efforts within the context of her extensive experience and current best practices. Scriven will share details of the Historical Society’s efforts to draw tourists to Northfield, which is vital to the organization’s financial success. Ness will summarize the DJJD’s long history with tourism, including lessons learned. Egeness will highlight the benefits of collaboration between city organizations, essential to providing visitors with the best possible experience while visiting Northfield.

There has been much discussion in recent weeks about Northfield’s efforts in supporting and strengthening tourism and a number of key participants have been invited to attend. The panelists will start the discussion and then field subsequent questions.

The NDDC is a non-partisan, non-profit community organization dedicated to the vitality of downtown Northfield. The event is free and open to the public. As always, coffee and cookies will be served.

For more information, contact Executive Director Ross Currier at (507) 663-0319 or rcurrier@nddc.org.

A panel of experts were extremely enlightening to the roomful of attendees at this morning’s Downtown Forum on the health of the Cannon River. The range and depth of their knowledge and experience impressed everyone.

Beth Kallestad of the Cannon River Watershed Partnership introduced the topic. The Cannon River Watershed covers over 900,000 square miles and passes through six counties on its way to the Mississippi River. The CRWP focuses on water quality improvement in many key points in this rather large area, including twenty-five different streams. Their projects include the very accessible stormwater management and sewage control as well as the more esoteric monitoring of TMDL, or Total Maximum Daily Load, of unhealthy substances. In the more urbanized areas of the Watershed, they have launched a new initiative supporting Low Impact Development.

Hugh Valiant, the DNR’s Fisheries’ Area Supervisor, talked about the efforts to overcome the river’s 100-year legacy, from 1850 to 1950, of being used as a sewer. He said that the last fifty years have seem many positive efforts to improve water quality with measurable results. He pointed out that as water quality increases, so does recreational value. He added that although the water quality has improved since the 1950s, not all the news is good. The surface run-off, the result of development, has rapidly increased. He said you could see the impact in the bank slumping and tributary erosion. The DNR is trying to preserve and restore wetlands, which help to moderate the flow of run-off. He introduced the subject of potential dam removal by calling it “literally, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

Cailin Orr, a visiting lecturer at St. Olaf College, Postdoctoral Associate at the National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics, and Carleton College Alum, is a dam removal expert. She has studied twenty-five dam removals in western and southern Wisconsin, where the laws are different but the rivers are similar. Cailin then identified common concerns about dam removal, including sediment dispersion, water quality during removal, and the exposure of reservoir bottom. She said that the sediment is slowly and evenly distributed down river, that there are generally only a couple of days of water quality concerns, and that techniques for enhancing the reservoir bottom are being fine-tuned. She concluded by saying that we now have the capability of modeling the river after dam removal, and therefore predicting the behavior of the new channel.

A number of the participants would have stayed all morning. The panelists agreed that it could be useful to have a follow-up session, this time with more of the City’s leaders joining in the discussion. It is an opportunity that should be considered, explored and evaluated.

The Northfield Downtown Development Corporation (NDDC) will focus on the health of the Cannon River at the NDDC’s May Downtown Forum. The Forum is Tuesday, May 6^th, 8 am in the Riverview Conference Room, lower level of the Archer House, 212 Division Street, in downtown Northfield.

The Forum will feature a panel of experts including Beth Kallestad of the Cannon River Watershed Partnership, Hugh Valiant of the Department of Natural Resources, and Cailin Orr of St. Olaf College. Beth will discuss the CRWP’s efforts to protect and improve the health of the river as it runs through this part of the region. Hugh will present a historic overview of the condition of the river as well its prospects for the future. Cailin will move the focus to the Malt-O-Meal dam and its impact on the river’s health.

There has been much recent discussion about the Cannon River, particularly the stretch located in the downtown district. Current and future private and public riverfront projects, a potential intensification of recreational use, and the possibility of changing the design and structure of the dam are all part of this discussion. The panelists will start the discussion and then field resulting questions. A number of key players in the future of the river have been invited to attend and participate in the forum from the audience.

The event is free and open to the public. As always, coffee and cookies will be served.