<an style="font-weight: bold">Rock and Roll Principal
Northfield High School senior Mauricio Lozada had a goal of raising $6,000 in scholarship money for first-generation Latino College students. School principal Joel Leer had a receptive ear and a rock band willing to play for charity. Together they planned last Saturday’s benefit concert to help Lozada’s student organization Latinos Working for Change meet its goal.
The concert featured a number of established Northfield musicians in some new permutations. The groups produced an impressive diversity of sound despite the tight-community of musicians: from jam-band Scattered Stories, to the pop and gospel covers of Feels Like Friday, to original compositions (played on an electric organ) by the group Scaredy Cat Blackie. The unifying factor was the evening’s emcee Will Healy, who added his harmonica to almost every set.
Principal Leer plays the guitar, sings, and must be a character at school assemblies due to his love for anecdotes. His group is called Church and State because it features staff from both Northfield churches and the public schools.
In total the concert raised, $1,455, a respectable start towards the $6,000 they hope to raise for the fund. The money will go toward six students graduating from Northfield High School this spring.
Few Carls ventured out to the distant Northfield High School Auditorium on an Ebony night, but Poly Sci Professor Greg Marfleet was sighted in the audience. “I mostly went to see my neighbor Rob Morrow,” he said. “But I got there and my other neighbor Bo Aylin was also playing. The concert was so good I felt like leaving more money on my way out.”
Cannon Crossing
Spectators on the highway 3 bridge were treated to an engineering show on Tuesday morning as three cranes lifted the two sections of the Mill Towns Trail Bridge into place over the river. The new bridge, located near the Walgreens on Highway 3, will officially open for pedestrian traffic in mid-summer.
Not to be confused with the new automotive bridge planned at the edge the Carleton Arboretum several miles downstream, this new pedestrian bridge connects two sections of the Mill Towns Trail. The link across the Cannon brings the trail one step closer to its eventual goal of linking historic mill towns along the Cannon River from Faribault to Red Wing.
Approved last April by the Northfield City Council, the bridge cost more than $828,000 and was funded by state and local governments as well as money raised by the Northfield Rotary Club at its annual bicycle race.
Skate Park for Ames Park?
In another possible development along the green belt between Highway 3 and the Cannon River, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board unanimously recommended Ames Park as the site for the long-postponed Northfield Skate Park this week. The City Council will vote on the park’s location next month.
The board chose Ames Park over an alternative site in Riverside Park for its centrality and visibility. The site is just across the river from Bridge Square, and board members argued that it would be easy to monitor from the adjacent Northfield Safety (Police/Fire) Center.
Northfield’s skate park conversation goes back at least two years. Banned from skating on city property, skating enthusiasts (mostly teenagers) formed the Skateboard Coalition. The organization has thus far lobbied unsuccessfully for a new facility, although it has raised more than $30,000 towards its construction. The City previously had a skate park in Riverside Park, but it was not popular due to its limited hours and inadequate wooden structures.
The Northfield News came out against the skate park in a Wednesday editorial. The paper congratulated the Skateboard Coalition on its fundraising, but expressed concern about the park’s six-digit price tag during an economic recession.
Sources: Northfield News, LocalyGrownNorthfield.org
