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Politics & Government

After Impasse, Madigan Offers Middle Way for Economic Development

Northfield's city administrator has proposed keeping the EDA while spreading out authority for economic planning.

After last week's meeting between Northfield's City Council and its , City Administrator Tim Madigan released a memo for councilors ahead of Tuesday night's meeting that could provide the basis for a final solution to the town's economic planning issues.

Outlining it as "an attempt to identify and construct a consensus," Madigan proposes strategic priorities for economic development not dissimilar to those floated in discussions among councilors as they worked with local nonprofit consultant Tom Clough, brought in to help councilors decide whether disbanding or restructuring the EDA would boost economic planning.

It calls for retaining and growing existing businesses, recruiting new ones, maintaining the town's character and to encourage graduates of and to stay in town.

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Madigan's organizational offerings offer momentum and direction toward a solution that would compromise between the desire of some councilors—most vocally Erica Zweifel and Betsey Buckheit—to disband the EDA and those that sought to preserve the body without much change, the ranks of whom include Mayor Mary Rossing and Councilor Rhonda Pownell, who is also a member of the other board.

"The City should develop ways to broaden community input and participation in economic development," Madigan said in the memo, by consulting the expertise of Northfield's business and health care leaders when planning. "It should convene task forces that involve the EDA, other boards and commissions," and other non-government organizations and "should increase the participation of the City Council," he continued.

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The outgrowth of responsibility the proposal imagines would stretch beyond Northfield's borders, providing for "collaboration with surrounding cities and towns, Rice and Dakota counties, and the larger southern metropolitan area in pursuing economic development initiatives," a solution offered by councilors in previous talks.


Road to a New Policy?

Residents of Jefferson Road, to paying for more than half the cost of reclaiming that street, could see their share lowered by 75 percent if councilors adopt a formula presented by city staff.

That means those residents' share could fall by $46,000 from their original portion of the $300,000 project to $136,000. It would also mean residents throughout Northfield would pay 40 percent more, up to $164,000.

Whatever councilors decide will have impact more than the current project.

"As council has discussed," said City Engineer Katy Gehler, "this decision will set a precedent for future overlay projects." 

The prospect of changing the policy will be discussed after the Jefferson project.


Post office update

Suzie Nakasian will present an update to fellow councilors on preserving the downtown location of the US Post Office, as part of a nationwide series of cuts for the budget-starved agency.

Nakasian, Madigan and local leaders of the Save Our Post Office Task Force met with regional . 

A handful of alternatives to outright closure of the office, built in 1936, were discussed at a May 24 meeting between Williams and Nakasian, Madigan and leaders of the Save Our Post Office Task Force.

The first solution would have a local entity buy the post office and rent it back to the USPS at no or minimal cost. The second would have the city or the EDA purchase the building toward the same end. 

The third would require a trade-off by downtown-area residents: give up individual mailboxes in favor of two clustered boxes per block, which would drastically reduce the amount of letter carrying the cash-starved postal service would do.

Finally, said Williams, who has not set a deadline for an alternative proposal by the advocacy group or city council, a retail service could take over downtown delivery, valued by many businesses, letting the postal service serve the rest of Northfield from a carrier annex in the town's southwest.

Tonight's meeting starts at 7 p.m. at .

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