Breaking the ice: Northfield Council's game-changing arena decision
We take a close look at each Councilor's rationale for their decision
After more than a decade of debate, Northfield's ice arena saga has reached a pivotal moment. At the June 18 Northfield City Council meeting, the City Council voted 6-1 to approve a new ice arena funding partnership and architect contract (PDF), potentially ending years of uncertainty surrounding this community fixture.
This decision comes five years after a public referendum to fund a larger civic center with two ice sheets failed in 2018. The recent vote represents a significant shift in approach and a commitment to addressing the aging facility's future.
Before casting their votes, each Council member shared their perspectives. We've captured their statements from the video replay and used AI to create transcripts for each.
We hope to illuminate the diverse viewpoints and thoughtful deliberations that shaped this crucial decision. Understanding these nuances can foster a deeper appreciation for our Council’s challenges and commitments in making this impactful decision.
(See the June 18 Council video replay here. Councilors closing comments before the vote start at approximately the 1:10:00 mark. The videos below appear in the order in which they spoke at the meeting.)
At-Large Councilor Brad Ness:
Brad Ness transcript, footnote #1
Second Ward Councilor Jami Reister:
Jami Reister transcript, footnote #2
First Ward Councilor Kathleen Holmes:
Kathleen Holmes transcript, footnote #3
Fourth Ward Councilor Jessica Peterson White:
Jessica Peterson White transcript, footnote #4
At-Large Councilor Davin Sokup:
Davin Sokup transcript, footnote #5
Third Ward Councilor George Zuccolotto:
George Zuccolotto transcript, footnote #6
Mayor Rhonda Pownell (includes the call for the vote):
Rhonda Pownell transcript, footnote #7
Other news coverage of the decision
KYMN Radio
June 19: City Council approves funding partnership and architect contract, ice arena project moves forward by Rich Larson
June 20: Martig and Pownell discuss next steps for new ice arena by Jeff Johnson
Northfield News
June 21: Northfield council moves ahead on $20.9 million ice arena project by Andrew Deziel
FOOTNOTES
Brad Ness transcript:
The city provides amenities. We built an outdoor pool. It's used three months a year. What percentage of the population use the pool? We have built parks. What percentage of the population uses the parks? There's a very small return when a group rents a park. We spent 3.2 million on bike paths in 2023 street projects. What percent of the bikers in town use the bike paths? We upgraded six pickleball courts. What percentage of the population use these courts?
This is strictly my opinion that a well-run hockey arena could potentially operate in the black. It's been mentioned before that this arena will add 1.6 million dollars of economic benefit to the community. The Hockey Association has told me that this number is well short of the actual benefit.
I've learned that the 1.6 million uses a family amount of approximately $1,000 per away tournament and for the most families it is the cost is closer to $1,500 or $2,000. As Jane mentioned in her public comment the economic benefit that this arena would create for Northfield is probably fourth behind Carleton, St. Olaf, and the Defeat of Jesse James days.
The issue has been brought up that a very small percentage of the population will use an arena. Do we stop building parks because the percentage is low. Do we stop building bike paths because the percentage is low? Do we stop building pickle courts pickleball courts because the percentage is low?
A new arena will be used year-round. When there is no ice, it turns into a community center, corporate meetings and conventions, home and garden show, arts and craft fairs, car dealer tent sales, and many others. We've been not have not been able to rent the current arena with no ice on a regular basis because of the condition it's in. If the city decides to keep ice year-round I have been told that there are at least two semi-pro hockey teams close by that would be very interested in a large amount of ice time.
In the last vote for an arena, I believe 47% said they want an arena and 53% said they do not want an arena. I say that the percentage of people currently not using all the city amenities is considerably larger than 53%. Thank you.
Jami Reister transcript
I, like all of us have spent significant amount of time considering this, reading the comments, being part of the conversations and then full disclosure, we are not a hockey family. I haven't skated since I was little and I'm in that building once a year for the auxiliary book fair to be honest.
And that's probably what it will be for the remainder of my time in Northfield because that's how we use that space. But I am going to support this project and it's taken me some time to get to this point, but I'm going to support this because similar to what counselor Ness said, this is a community project and this is what is means to be part of a community, that sometimes I support things that I don't necessarily benefit from.
I might be old enough now to go to the senior center now but I don't really use that facility. My kids have outgrown the pool. There are things I don't use and there are things in this community that I do use and so part of being a society and part of being part of a community is that I am willing to support those parts of our community that benefit others.
That said, I am not naive and I understand that this comes at a financial cost. There is no easy answer to this solution. We have been, I don't want to say backed into a corner, but we have. The buck stops with us. This has been a long time coming of failure of previous councils to take action and to lead and so we are forced to do that. And I understand that there is a financial impact to people.
I am acutely aware of that. I struggle with that, but I also feel that this is the time to move forward. I don't know when else we can craft this sort of a project with this many people on board. It's going to take a village to pull this off and this is probably as close to a village as we are going to get. And so at this point, I do support it and I'll be voting yes.
Kathleen Holmes transcript:
Thank you to staff for all the work that you've put into this and especially I know like the questions that we've asked. I think we've been talking about this for -- I've been on council for 18 months and I think we started talking one month when I was onto the council. So I appreciate all the effort that you've put into this.
I appreciate all of the partners the community partners and the work that they've put into this because I know we've asked a lot. We've demanded a lot, too, in terms of what we would like to see. I think it's interesting tonight, if you're just tuning into this, and you're here, we're hearing a lot of pro for the ice arena and from what we've received hundreds, hundreds of emails on this, all of us here on council, and phone calls. And the community is definitely divided. We aren't necessarily hearing that voice tonight but I think that it's important to acknowledge the fact that this is a challenging topic.
As has been mentioned, the referendums in the past haven't passed. And I think that there are very valid and important points on all sides of this argument. I don't think that there is truly a right answer.
I do think though, that this comes down to the trade-offs that we're willing to make. Saying yes to this delays a lot of things and I appreciate the effort that has gone into showing what that looks like in terms of the tax levy because I think that is important.
I think that there is a lot of short-term real pain that people will experience with a huge, with a potentially larger than expected tax increase and I think it's our responsibility to look at that, to manage that, to be responsible with that and the decisions that we need to make and look at the long-term impacts because they're really important factors.
I think that it breaks my heart to delay some of these projects because I think that they are equally as valuable to the community. They will also be economic drivers and I think that they will benefit the community on the whole.
We can't delay this one. We don't have the luxury of kicking this can. This can has been kicked down to us. I mean it has been kicked so many times, it's so dented you can't even tell it's a can anymore and I won't be another person to continue to kick it.
I think that this highlights for me the critical importance for us to focus our priorities on expanding our tax base. As Administrator Martig said we have to be aggressive about that to be able to do the things that we want to do that will benefit the rest of the community. So that's going to be something critically important to me and I do want to address it because I've been asking a lot of questions through the 18 months that we've been doing this and my words have come back to me via email. I've seen them in letters to the editor.
So I just want to clarify some things so that I can get this out there on the record. One of my big concerns in terms of the priorities that we have for this community is our high school Full disclosure: I am married to a high school teacher. So it's very important to me what happens with the high school both with the enrollment that we have there and also the facility that we have. And that question has come up a lot when we look at this.
If we approve this project, what impact is that going to have on the referendum and I think none of us know, right? For a long time I did think, does saying yes to this jeopardize that, is it putting it at jeopardy? I don't know. What I do know is that regardless of what we do, we will not be able to control the outcome of the voters on the referendum. We'll end up how it ends up.
I don't want to put it in jeopardy but I think what helps me make a decision tonight is the fact that the school board and Superintendent Hillmann are so behind this project that they're willing to potentially risk the referendum, that this matters that much, and to me that helps me put that concern to rest.
Whatever will come from that vote will happen and we'll find that out, but I think that it would be very detrimental to the community to not have an [upgraded] high school and not have a nice arena. So for those reasons, I'm going to be in support of this project. Thank you.
Jessica Peterson White transcript:
I'm going try not to repeat other things that have been said since I think my colleagues have made some very wise comments. But I do want to say I really appreciate the Administrator's framing of this as a community problem to be solved, and I think that's really how we've approached it. I myself have been wrestling with this problem and the possible solutions to it for almost my entire time on the council and at least for eight or ten years. And we really have been through, I think, all possible solutions to this problem. And I think the one that we've arrived at here is as good as we're gonna get, and I think it's pretty good.
I just want to frame this as a shared community problem. The facility is not used by everyone in the community, but we do want to have a community with a broad range of amenities that are welcoming and useful to, especially in my opinion, families and children in order to have a community that is thriving long into the future.
Also, I think, you know, the objections that I've heard to us moving forward with this proposal either center around folks who just think we shouldn't be in the ice business, and that's an absolutely valid point of view. I don't agree with it, but I think I understand it. And then there are some folks that we've heard from who just sort of believe we ought to be able to do this for less money. And I stand with my colleagues here and our incredible city staff and saying we have pushed hard. You heard Dave Bennett explain the various iterations of plans that we have been through for this facility, and I really think that what we've arrived at is the best possible plan short of a pole barn, and I don't think anybody wants that.
But and I also believe that further investing in the current facility would just not be a wise investment in any way. And delaying this project any further will also make it more expensive, possibly significantly more expensive.
I've heard from a lot of folks about my comments in past meetings about the impacts on commercial property taxpayers, and I want to talk about that for just a minute because I think it is incredibly important, and I ask those questions because I think it's very important that we recognize and really quantify what those effects are. They are not insignificant.
You'll see in our packet that on a million dollar commercial property, which we think of that as kind of an average downtown Northfield building. Maybe roughly there's a wide range of buildings downtown, but that the tax increase will be about twelve hundred dollars a year. And when you think about what that means for the bottom line of business trying to operate out of that building, you can start to think about what the practical implications are.
And it's obviously our job to consider those impacts and use our best judgment to choose the path forward that will make for the strongest Northfield in my opinion. And as a small business owner, I know that every cost increase is felt by our local businesses of every size and by the folks who own and maintain the historic buildings that make our downtown so special, that make our community special in so many ways.
But as a small business owner, I also know the longer-term risk and potential losses of being in a community that is not investing in its future and in particular a future as I said, that's good for children and families. That's the Northfield that I want to build, that's the Northfield that is preserving our cultural resources and building an intergenerational future that I think makes us stronger.
And when I think about that, I think we've seen really strong evidence that a new ice arena will have a significant positive impact on the local economy. I think that has been clearly quantified by folks who are experts in community economics, and those reports are available for anyone to review. I think those effects will be seen as soon as this new arena is up and running, and then I also think that by making this investment, we're avoiding these longer-term costs of losing this type of facility and the programs that are culturally important to our community that this facility supports. I think those could be very painful losses, and I think it's worth appointing them even though the cost may be high.
So, I believe we have more work to do to aggressively work on alleviating the tax burden and as has been said to aggressively grow our tax base so that we can afford the things that we want. I hope that the folks who have so vehemently supported this investment will also vehemently support the sorts of things that need to happen to grow our tax base, which will also involve some changes to the community. And we will weigh those changes wisely and carefully, but it's important that people remember that they go hand-in-hand.
I think the commitment of the city of Dundas, which is equitable with Northfield's commitment, and the support from the school district just speak volumes. And I also want to say I appreciate the Hockey Association and the Northfield skating schools, their commitment, their patience, their tenacity so far. You know, this isn't the end of the road. There's a lot of work left to do.
And I really like how these plans are adaptable so that the city of Northfield's is investing in what is necessary for a facility and some of those amenities that might be useful to those programs are really going to be driven by their fundraising efforts. I think that's very appropriate, and I think it's a good balance.
So thanks to everyone who has made that happen and, you know, as I said, this isn't the end of this road. There's a lot of work yet to do to ensure that this can move forward in the way that I believe we all want to see it move forward, but I will be voting yes. Thank you.
Davin Sokup transcript:
Thank you. I'll keep it pretty brief. You know, I think that there's been this question of whether or not we need a new arena, and I don't know if there's anyone here or in town, honestly, that would disagree with the statement that we absolutely need a new ice arena. The question that I've been asking and continue to ask is whether or not the people of Northfield can afford to pay for a new arena, and I still am really struggling with the impact because I don't look at this in a vacuum.
If I were, I would be voting yes wholeheartedly, and I didn't grow up in a hockey family. My wife though got a second job last year at the ice arena and learned how to drive the Zamboni, which is pretty cool. And you know, she's like, "Wow, our ice rink is really bad." Did you know? Yes, I definitely knew.
But I also grew up across the street from a hockey family, and I was talking with the parents last, must have been last week or a week before, and they too would agree immediately that we need a new arena having been to so many games for their son throughout the years. But their question immediately jumped to, "I don't understand how everyone here can still afford to live here with the increases we've been seeing on the cost of housing." And that's always where I kind of go back to, and on any project, not just this project.
I agree with what the other counselors so far have said though, that the question of having ice and not having ice, ultimately I can't support not having an ice arena. So I will be voting yes, however, I will have a very, very hard time if we don't figure out how to delay some other important projects and move things beyond what we have suggested tonight.
A 15% levy increase this year followed by a 17% increase next year, followed by no other new projects other than what we have already planned for our street reconstruction and Riverwalk and City Hall, etc. Everything that you see on that chart that is just way too much of an impact and on top of that, the referendum for the high school, which is another project that so desperately needs to happen that will cost a lot of money for the residents of Northfield.
These things all compound on each other, and I'm having a very difficult time continuing to vote for projects that I know are pricing people out of this town who have been here for generations. I think we're shifting who can live in Northfield in a way that is really problematic.
So I support this project and I hope to continue to do so, but I don't know how to support the other numbers that we continue to see, and so I hope that we can continue to work through our budget session this summer on how that picture can look drastically different. Thank you.
George Zuccolotto transcript:
This has been hard for me. I love the kids showing up here and my dad coached soccer for a lot of years and so sports were a big thing in our house and I support them a lot. And I remember, we fought really hard to get that stadium. I remember when that stadium was over by where the pool was. I remember when there was no soccer fields and we worked really hard to make that happen.
And I know it's a different sport, but I've talked to a couple different people and I just think, would the soccer families have left if there was no stadium and if there was no Spring Creek?
It's a privilege to drive, right? It's a privilege to do these sports, you have to maintain your GPA and your classes, right? If you fail a class you can't do your sports. You can't do your extracurriculars. It's a privilege. A hundred families moving because their kids can't do hockey is a privilege. There's people who don't have that privilege. So you guys got to think about that too.
And I'm thinking about those people because I get people coming to my house crying because their rents are going up, taxes are going up and they don't know what to do. They're on fixed incomes, on disability, all these things.
And it's hard when we think about growing our tax base. These tax numbers are already inflated because the economy, it's the market value and we don't set that. It's our houses are worth $350,000, right? My house is worth 325 something like that. That's not the actual value, that's what the market indicates which is already inflated. We know this, right? And so we're putting all this burden on these people. It's just hard. It's just hard when I've never had that privilege of "I'm gonna move because there's no soccer here." You know what I mean?
It makes me question what kind of commitment do those people have to Northfield? I have the commitment in Northfield to be here. I want to be here.
I was so ready to get off this board and to even leave Northfield and I needed to change that mindset for the people who need to be here in these seats and be shown that we can be here and live and thrive and all these things. I live check to check and I want to make this commitment to work even harder to stay here. But it's some people can't and it's hard. I get them coming up to me. And it's just, I don't know. It's hard.
It's hard and I really do kind of blame the schools too for putting us in this predicament. This has not been a good arena for years and years and years and years now. And now we're here.
I love y'all but with good conscience I got to vote for the people on the fringes and the people who are being pushed out. And I know maybe y'all don't care if their houses are $200,000 because that ain't the tax base and they're going to Faribault. People make all these excuses for the people who are on the lower edge, the low ends, but it's really hard. It's just really hard to move up.
And then think about your kids, dude, think about in 20 years, what are the average houses gonna be? Right now, it's $500,000, all these new houses being built for a $500,000. Think about in 20 years, $700,000, 1 million dollars homes. Who's gonna be able to afford here? Are your kids, if we do this right now, are your kids, if you don't give them your house, are they gonna be afford to move back here? And who are going be the people that are going to move in to fill up the hockey arena? My generation isn't having kids. It's hard to make money. It's hard to make the commitment.
Mr. Hillmann has already other things besides hockey to take care of when it comes to declining enrollment. And I get why this is a necessity, but to put all this on the taxpayers, it's just hard when we have Bridge Square, CAC and Fifty North wanting a new building and a roof on our hands. I just have all these things in the back of my head and this is hard.
So I'm sorry and I love the kids and I think the kids are going to get their hockey arena. I think it's gonna be awesome. But I do think, I don't know if they're gonna be able to come back here. It's gonna be hard.
Rhonda Pownell transcript:
All right, I will just close and I agree with a lot of the statements, pretty much everything. The perspectives that everyone has shared here tonight I know have been well thought out and from the heart. I also really respect and honor that all of you have really taken this opportunity over multiple months.
And for some of us that have been here even longer, it's a long time to be vetting and trying to figure out what the solution is for this, even with that original vote with the referendum, which included two sheets of ice and a local option sales tax.
And the level of engagement and going out and connecting with the community and showcasing, and honestly it's quite embarrassing, the condition of our facilities and our park system that we had to have bathrooms that were locked because they were in such poor condition. We have not invested in our community for multiple generations and we all play a part in that. I was part of that as I did not know the condition and we were not encouraged to raise the levy in order to take better care of our community, and that includes our roads. Our roads are foundational. Every person in our community deserves quality roads, quality parks. And yes, it is very difficult to raise the tax levy. It goes against the grain of what Northfielders have been used to.
When I first got on the council, the encouragement was to keep it at zero, 1 or 2% tax levy increase. And there was a huge outcry when we finally did figure out a solution to fund our first facility upgrade, which was for our police station. We have since had to update multiple buildings and this is one of them that's been waiting for a really long time.
I really appreciate the level of collaboration and the partnership, the public-private partnership with this. This is the first time that I think that we've had both, not just both, but the school district, the Northfield Hockey Association, we have the City of Dundas, that's a first. Thank you Mayor Switzer for being here now for two meetings. I really appreciate it.
And then our opportunity to engage and be involved in the solution. And yes, we all have heard the concern with regards to our tax levy and there is a reason why we're in the situation that we are in. It doesn't negate the difficulty of it because we all feel it as well, because we are all covering and paying the increases in the tax levy. And it matters.
And that's why I think that we really need to double down on ensuring that we expand economic development, that we expand and make it more possible for people to live here by the support of our Housing and Redevelopment Authority and their initiatives that they are bringing forward.
This is the best opportunity that I think that we've been given thus far. With the level of collaboration, we've seen this previously with the NCRC building, we've seen it with the library even, where there was a public-private partnership and people that were fundraising in order to make that small remodel and expansion of our existing library possible. And that was the only way we could get that to move forward, was if people were willing to help raise the funds to be able to make it happen.
I support youth recreation. I support team sports. I think that they bring a lot of value just in terms of raising future leaders, leadership skills. You have teamwork, commitment, a strong work ethic, a lot of character opportunities for growth when you lose, or when things aren't going well on your team, there's just a lot of growth opportunities.
And that being said, I think that as a mother of five children, I've traveled to every surrounding community, I think in the area, as we've had basketball players, baseball players, swimmers, Northfield Ultimate, mountain biking, soccer, choir, dance, cross country, and track. I've been to a lot of different facilities in neighboring communities, and quite frankly, Northfield in our area is a far more compelling small town to invite people to.
Sports tourism is a missing economic driver for our community that we have not fully harnessed to help put heads in beds, shoppers in our stores, and bring more people to our community to introduce them as this is a really vibrant, compelling place that you should choose if you have the opportunity to live or locate your business.
Finding different ways, yes, we need to ensure that we're finding every which way of respecting and honoring the viewpoints and perspectives here that have been shared tonight about the concerns with regards to the double-digit tax levy increases, and seeing if we can, in our long-range planning, defer some of that. Ones that make sense, I'm not sure about roads, Bridge Square, or maybe there's others that we can look at to ensure that we try and keep the tax levy at a much more manageable pace.
However, we're in this situation because of many, many decisions that were made before our time, and we are left with making decisions to help move our community forward and try and set it up for long-term success, long after any of us are here, and making the taxes more manageable is certainly an aspect of that.
All right, that's all that I have here for my statement on why I'll be voting in favor of this. I want to pause here in case anyone else would like to contribute anything further.
All right, so with that then I ask Ms. Peterson, please call for the roll call vote.
Councilor Reister? Yes.
Councilor Sokup? Yes.
Councilor Zuccolotto? No.
Councilor Holmes? Yes.
Councilor Ness? Yes.
Councilor Peterson-White? Yes.
Mayor Pownell? Yes.
Motion passes.
All right, that concludes our regular agenda for this evening.