Central Valley Co-op Site Becomes Favorite for New Northfield Safety Center

The long-awaited decision on the new could be coming close.

At Tuesday night's council meeting, a majority of councilors either threw support behind or said they would compromise to make the 3.8-acre site on Highway 3 work.

The discussion of two separate facilities for the Northfield Police Department and Northfield Volunteer Fire Department are still up for debate, but the council has pushed a joint facility as a cost-savings measure. Also adding support to one facility is that last summer both departments were put under the command of Mark Taylor, director of public safety. 

The council approved to spend $10.7 million on a joint safety center in November 2010, but has since talked about ways to trimming that amount by about $2 million. Two options presented by Councilors Ivan Imms and Rhonda Pownell showed estimates below $9 million, according to city documents.

Central Valley Co-op is willing to sell its land for $795,000, according to a letter from the group's realtor to the city.

Work on building a new Safety Center started in January 2009.

Read all the details yourself by clicking on the attached PDF.

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