Two lingering lawsuits to come up in December
As the City slogs through another sordid situation, there are a couple of lingering lawsuits. Former Interim Northfield Police Chief Chuck Walerius is suing the City for age discrimination after Monte Nelson was named Chief in January of 2014. He’s asking for back pay, front pay and any benefits he would’ve received, compensatory damages and court costs. No dollar amount has been set. A pretrial court date is set for December 7th with a jury trial, should it be needed, set for January 2016. Former Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mary Schmelzer is suing the Chamber for wrongful termination claiming her whistleblowing of allegations of sexual harassment of a subordinate led to her dismissal. Her suit was filed in October of last year. Pretrial in her case is scheduled for December 31st with a trial date in January if needed. Schmelzer is asking for general and special damages in excess of $50,000 and punitive damages of $25,000 as well as court costs.
Bike lanes or sharrows – Bike Northfield efforts
Bike Northfield, an organization working to get Northfield named a Bicycle Friendly Community through the League of American Bicyclists, discussed bike lanes on several streets on the west side during Council’s work session. The roads are Lincoln Parkway/Lincoln Street/Spring Street and First Street. Bruce Anderson is the Chair of Bike Northfield said it’s proven that when bike lanes or sharrows are added in a community, ridership goes up. (people feel safer riding) The question is whether to designate bike lanes or sharrows which are lanes painted with a bicycle to alert bicyclists where they should ride and to alert motorists they’re there. Mayor Graham said this will come back to council next year as they’re focus from now till the end of this year is on our budget and levy. Public Works Director Dave Bennett said one of the challenge areas should there be bike lanes will be around Greenvale Elementary. There’s a lot of staging on Lincoln Pkwy around afternoon pickup. Bike Northfield and the City will hold an event on Tuesday morning, Sept. 29th. The League of American Bicyclists Bike Friendly specialist Steve Clark will be coming to Northfield for a bike ride and then a Q & A and planning session at City Hall to continue Northfield’s quest to designated a “Bike Friendly Community”. Gathering at City Hall at 8am, the bike ride will leave at 8:30am. The program will start at City Hall at 10:30am and scheduled till noon. For more information listen to Betsy Buckheit and George Kinney Morning Show interview posted this week on kymnradio.net.
Goats are gone and so are noxious weeds
The goats are gone and so is much of the buckthorn. Commenting on the job the goats did in Hauberg Woods, Streets and Parks manager TJ Heinricy said he was shocked and amazed at what those 4-legged creatures could do! Pictures courtesy of TJ Heinricy – continue reading below…
They used 10 goats on about an acre of the Woods. Heinricy said the before and after was like night and day. He said you could see where they girdled the buckthorn, ate the foliage of buckthorn and other noxious weeds like poison ivy and nettles. And have opened up the canopy to more sunshine. The natives can take over now. The goats eat the leaves and berries of buckthorn. The berries are not viable after passing through a goats stomach. Jake Langeslag owner of Goat Dispatch will come back with humans in the winter time to cut back some of the bigger buckthorn bushes. He added that someone walking through the area without knowing the goats were there would wonder “what went on here?” “Did someone come in with a big weedeater?” Heinricy says he’d love to use the goats in several other areas in the City.
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The post Today’s news update – Two lingering lawsuits to come up in December; Bike lanes or sharrows – Bike Northfield efforts; Goats are gone and so are noxious weeds appeared first on KYMN Radio - Northfield, MN.