Politics & Government
Councilors Narrow Down Northfield Safety Center Sites
Remodeling the current Northfield Safety Center would cost more than building a new one, study groups found.
Based on recommendations from two appointed study groups, Northfield City Councilors on Tuesday decided to forgo remodeling its aging to build new facilities on one of several sites in the southern half of the city.
Councilors agreed with the report of the first group—each was made up of two councilors and two residents—that modernizing the 41-year-old building and preparing the low-lying site against flood would cost nearly $1.5 million more than would building a police station on a new site, which would cost $6.3 million. Councilors ruled out use of the site for a fire station for the same reasons.
Facing public opposition and worry over selecting a site in haste, councilors in to finance a new Safety Center, leading to the creation of the study groups in April. The council originally approved construction of the project, with a .
The most promising new sites are clustered in the southern portion of the city, according to the second committee report, with each site located not far off Hwy. 3. Sites at the , on Riverview Drive and on Declaration Street were the final three of a list that started with a dozen more options eventually nixed due to concerns including cost, space or flood risk.
But councilors had plenty of issues to iron out with those sites, namely how to navigate emergency vehicles from facilities onto the state-run Hwy. 3, the artery for crews to move throughout Northfield, and whether those sites stretched too far south in a city growing away from its downtown core.
Councilor Erica Zweifel said she was concerned that moving the center southward, toward newer homes and commercial construction, would make the city's police force more suburban. Councilor Patrick Ganey countered that splitting Northfield between new and old development was "an unfair characterization."
"Just because a Target exists in the south half of the city does not mean it's not Northfield," he said. "The people that live in the south part of town are every bit as much Northfielders."