The Northfield Comprehensive Transportation Plan balances the need for mobility with a thoughtful approach to quality of life in Northfield. The Plan’s assumptions about design speed, design vehicles and street types are critically important for the physical development of the city and for environmental and financial sustainability.
Category Archives: Resource
The Northfield-Minneapolis Dan Patch Passenger Rail Line
A local initiative that aims to persuade the Minnesota Legislature to lift a 2001 Legislative Moratorium on state discussion/study of the Northfield-Minneapolis ‘Dan Patch’ Passenger Rail Line, an extant rail line between Northfield/Fairbault and the Twin Cities. (Web site under development: February 2014).
Carleton Electric Car Charging Station
In August 2013, Carleton College installed the first electric vehicle charging station in Rice County. The station is open to the public and part of the ChargePoint network. For more information,visit: www.chargepoint.com
Institutional Food Composting
St. Olaf College uses a Wright Environmental in-vessel composter to convert food service scraps and uneaten foods into rich soil amendments used throughout the college’s gardens and on its public green ways. For more information, see https://wp.stolaf.edu/sustainability/composting/
Antibiotic Alternatives for Healthy Growth Promotion in Broilers
March 5, 2013
Project description:
Partnering with Main Street Project a team of students from Debby Walser- Kuntz’s Immunology class at Carleton College researched the effectiveness of alternatives to antibiotic treatment in raising chicken broilers. They then researched what other farmers in Minnesota are doing in order to access the practicality of such alternative treatments. For each alternative treatment, they attempted to highlight both the pros and cons. This included side effects, limitations to environment, as well as cost effectiveness and present their findings to Main Street Project.
Student researchers: Brian Rhodes, Tony Daza, C.J. Dale, Sarah Rempel, Lydia English, Nick Haradhvala
Project Contact: Regi Haslett- Marroquin, reginaldo@mainstreetproject.org
Northfield Young Chefs
Project description:
The Young Northfield Chefs program, run by Carleton’s Firebellies student organization, aims to inspire and empower underprivileged teenagers through the universal language of food. The program, which is partially funded by grant from the Statewide Health Improvement Program and supported by the Center for Community and Civic Engagement at Carleton College in partnership with the Northfield Middle School, connects youth not only with inspiring role models, but also to their community, their land, their food and each other. The project started in the winter of 2013 and has continued to grow and be successful.
Each week Carleton students teach cooking as an art, nurturing an environment where the children are the artists and the ingredients their working material. You cannot define art for an artist. As a result, the workshops are not focused on strict adherence to recipes. Instead, participants are guided to go step-by step in order to define and get familiar with the art they are creating. The lessons are designed to be interactive, presenting hands-on activities for students to gain a more comprehensive understanding of cooking and nutrition. One week might focus on knife skills and salsa making, while another focuses on simple stove top cooking through roasting nuts. Gradually, the program introduces more complex activities such as cooking meals. We hope to raise awareness about the importance of cooking as a great medium to promote not only sustainability and health, but also to emphasize food as a social event and the profound cultural role it plays in society. In addition, the participants learn basic cooking skills, food-related games, field trips, and lectures that enhance participants’ learning experience.
Additional Resources:
Carleton’s Firebellies Cooking Club has been featured in many publications such as this article in the Chronicle for Higher Education.
Learn more about the Firebellies group at their website: http://firebellies.wordpress.com
Project Contacts:
Vayu Rekdal (mainirev@carleton.edu), Emily Pence (pencee@carleton.edu.)
Northfield Food Hub
Project Description:
Organized by the U of M extension service, over twenty members of the Northfield community (including six Carleton students) toured 5th Season Co-op in Viroqua, Wisconsin last November. From this day long event formed a food hub working group that began investigating the feasibility of creating a Food Hub in Northfield. A group of dedicated students researched the project for their senior comps and presented the material to the community last April. The group plans to start meeting again in October of 2013 to discuss next steps.
Student Research Food Hub Comps Report
Student researchers: Sophie Daudon, Kristen Dooley, Casey Silver (Carleton College)
Contact: Marcea Frazier, marcea5@northfieldwifi.com
RENew Northfield Projects
For the last several years RENew Northfield has partnered with Three Rivers Community Action to provide household energy efficiency upgrades for several mortgage rehabs in the city. The upgrades have included solar hot water supply, energy efficient furnaces and hot water heaters, insulation and even a rain garden! RENew in partnership with the Northfield Public Library has also provided a fleet of Kill-a-Watt energy appliance monitoring meters available for check-out to anyone with a Northfield library card. The monitors can be used to record electricity usage of any household appliance with a plug and project weekly, monthly, and annual costs. Particularly revealing can be the cost information provided about electronic devices (e.g. computer monitors), that even when nominally “off” are still drawing current. The original funding for both projects came from a Northfield Area Foundation grant to RENew.
City of Northfield Greenstep Cities Program
Northfield is a member of Minnesota GreenStep Cities, “a voluntary challenge, assistance and recognition program to help cities achieve their sustainability and quality-of-life goals. The Northfield City Council voted to become part of the GreenSteps Cities Program in 2011 and has since been using pursuing the green “steps” matrix to develop more sustainable practices on the part of the City.This free continuous improvement program is sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and based upon 28 best practices. Each best practice can be implemented by completing one or more actions at a 1, 2 or 3-star level, from a list of four to eight actions. These actions are tailored to all Minnesota cities, focus on cost savings and energy use reduction, and encourage civic innovation.” (http://greenstep.pca.state.mn.us/)
Northfield Energy: Abrupt Climate Change
Description: As a final project for Carleton College ENTS 288 Abrupt Climate Change course, this website is designed to help residents of Northfield, Minnesota navigate the science of abrupt climate change and to illuminate the steps Northfield’s government has taken to address the role humans play in these processes: https://sites.google.com/site/northfieldenergy/
Participants:
- Project Authors: Samantha Thompson, Amanda Savitt, Samantha Baker, Ryland Bowan Johnson.
- Carleton Faculty: Trish Ferrett, Professor of Chemistry
- Community Partner: George Kinney
Contact: Trish Ferrett, tferrett@carleton.edu or George Kinney, geokinney@gmail.com