Police & Fire Facilities Projects
Introduction
The City of Northfield is in the process of developing new facilities for the Police and Fire Departments. These facilities will replace the functions of the current Safety Center that has served the community for over 30 years.
For years, this community has been discussing a new Safety Center. The needs are obvious to even a casual viewer: the current building is too small; has millions of dollars in deferred maintenance; and has health and safety issues that would be costly to fix (Facility Analysis for Public Safety Center, Wold Architects, Sept. 2008, PDF). Its location in a floodplain requires expensive flood protection measures if any substantial renovation is undertaken. Three successive City Councils have made a new Safety Center a top priority. They commissioned several studies assessing the existing building and the need for a new facility: Municipal Facilities Space Needs Analysis , Hay-Dobbs, March 2007, PDF; Municipal Facilities Feasibility Analysis (Draft), Hay-Dobbs, Sept. 2007, PDF; Space Needs Analysis Report, Wold Architects, Jan. 2009, PDF.
The City of Northfield relies on expert advice from citizen volunteers in almost all areas of public life. Our boards and commissions are a vital way in which the public voice is heard. The Public Safety Center Taskforce – a group of two council members, the police and fire department chiefs, and seven citizens with appropriate expertise – thoroughly reviewed prior studies, demographic information, facilities recently built in neighboring communities, and a host of other issues related to the Safety Center. The recommendations of the Taskforce are briefly summarized in the final report, and full copies of the meeting minutes are available on the Taskforce website.
On the financing side, city staff members are helping the Council develop something Northfield has been lacking for quite some time: a formal Capital Improvement Plan. The City Council is working through a detailed plan that defines the available financial resources for the next several years and the implications on the long-term property tax rates for the City (01/12/2010 Facilities Financing Discussion with Attachments). There’s no question that we are currently working through a difficult economic period. The City Council is well aware of our obligation to invest taxpayer money wisely. We are, after all, taxpayers and business owners ourselves. But there’s also no question that Northfield must move forward to address its growing public safety needs. We owe it to the public to plan for the future, and we owe it to the professionals and volunteers who staff our police and fire departments to provide facilities and equipment that will let them do their work safely and efficiently. This will require a substantial and long overdue investment, but the cost of doing nothing is much higher.
Look closely at the existing building, and you will see what the Council and the Taskforce have seen: a building that has served us well, but which can no longer meet our needs. It’s time for Northfield to take the next step to ensure the health and safety of our community, and those who protect it.
Residents can follow the facility development process through this website.
Timeline & Milestones
A list of upcoming and completed project milestones is available as well as a more comprehensive project timeline with links to Council documents and video recordings of discussions from KYMN Radio(where available).
Project Schedule as of 4/27/2010 - from KKe Architects (PDF)
Financing
General information about how the project will be financed. Learn More
Project Process
The City is seeking input from the Northfield community to help create facilities that will serve the community well into the future. Currently two work groups have been formed to help review and develop recommendations for the City Council concerning this project; the Steering Committee and the Design Team. Both these groups include Northfield citizens, Council Members and Public Safety and facility professionals to review their work Learn More
As the project become moves into a schematic design phase, a number of public input and review meetings will be scheduled. Although these meetings will be well publicized, individuals can sign up on the mailing lists and be notified via email when items are added to these pages or a public meeting is scheduled.
| Email Notifications |
|---|
| Those interested in the process may sign up for email notifications of public events related to this project.
Tip: If the above email sign-up link does not work or if you use web-based email, please send an email message to safety_center_project@ci.northfield.mn.us. Please insert "Safety Center Email List" in the subject line so we know which project interests you and include your name, email address, and whether you would like to be added to or removed from our mailing list in the body of the message. This email notification list will be deleted at the end of the project. |