Letters to the editor, from the Northfield News

Vote Covey for best leadership

To the editor:

I am one of the Northfield citizens who is delighted that Keith Covey has been willing to run, again, for mayor. I urge all of you to look at his ideas, his experience, his knowledge and his willingness to listen -- his creativity, concerns and commitments.

Keith and his family made themselves known to us over three decades ago. Most recently our paths have crossed in the Comprehensive Plan Task Force. Here the maturity of Keith's knowledge about the community and the direction it needs to go to maintain a sense of integrity have had a chance to be expressed. In my reading, Keith does not come to the table saying 'I have all the answers, we'll do this my way.' Rather, he listens carefully, does fact-gathering as necessary, takes time to understand the context and the forces for change, and then articulately expresses why he believes a certain action or direction is best. I don't always agree with him, but I always have the deepest respect for Keith's decisions, the openness with which he reaches them, and the clarity of his words.

Take the time to read his position papers, to visit his candidate Web site, to ask him during candidate forums or when you see him around town, the questions that concern you. This is a particularly crucial election because of the opportunities facing Northfield, because of the decisions the Council will need to make; and because of the directions we are setting for ourselves with the town's revised Comprehensive Plan. My conclusion is to vote for Keith to have the best possible leadership in facing these issues; I urge you to do the same.

Bob Bruce
Northfield

Keith Covey is a consensus builder

To the editor:

Northfield voters are fortunate to have a choice of candidates running for mayor and council this year. This reflects well on citizens' willingness to serve in these challenging public offices and it offers us the chance to weigh the strengths of various candidates.

After careful thought, I am supporting Keith Covey for mayor, principally because he is a consensus builder. We urgently need the leadership Keith can bring to bear on the complex and sometimes divisive issues the new council will inherit next year.

In his: professional and public sector work, Keith has demonstrated success in bringing people of varied points of view and decision-making styles together to define problems, to consider solutions and to forge consensus. At Carleton, he worked successfully with administration, faculty, students, architects, and construction workers to do major facility planning and construction. His community work, including three years managing the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce, service as Mayor, membership on the Planning Commission, and serving on the board of the Northfield Soccer Association, brought him together with people in a variety of settings. He is comfortable working in partnerships.'

I like Keith's positive approach to shaping issues. As a founder and director of the Northfield Downtown Development Corporation, be has moved beyond hand-wringing about the health of our downtown to taking concrete action to assure balance in local development.

Keith Covey believes we don't have to divide the community to move it ahead. He is committed to an open decision-making process among city staff and elected officials, and to accountability to the public. I believe Keith has the talent and skills to work constructively with and for our community. We need his leadership to anticipate and manage the inevitable change our dynamic community is undergoing and is likely to continue to experience during the coming decade.

I enthusiastically support Keith Covey for mayor.

Jane McWilliams
Northfield

Covey is strong leader

To the editor:

Our community needs a mayor who will listen to the many diverse voices on local issues and who will try to build consensus.

Our city needs a mayor who understands that the process of group decision-making is just as important as the outcome of the decision.

Our town needs a mayor who will patiently follow the letter and the spirit of our city charter, thus, building confidence, trust, and participation among citizens.

Over his many years as a resident, and through his previous leadership as mayor, Keith Covey has demonstrated his ability to provide the thoughtful and caring leadership our town needs at this time. Vote Keith Covey for mayor on Nov. 7.

Dan Dimick
Northfield

Covey will listen to people

To the editor:

I am writing as a member of the community to encourage others to join me in support of-Keith Covey for mayor of Northfield. Keith's interest in serving our community has been apparent from both an earlier term as mayor to more recent activities in civic organizations. As the recently retired director of facilities at Carleton College, Keith has been responsible for management of both the people and financial resources necessary to provide physical support for the college's mission. In the years that I have known Keith he has always impressed me with his interest in listening to people and their opinions and supporting consensus decision-making. In my opinion he is just what Northfield needs to pull us together. Please join me in supporting Keith Covey for Mayor.

Wes Chapman
Northfield

Candidate Covey a thoughtful leader

To the editor:

I am not a person with a lot of political savvy, but in the 32 years I've lived here I've come to care deeply about the richness that is Northfield. I'm supporting Keith Covey as mayor because I believe he has the experience and skill to preserve and build on that richness.

Keith will be a strong, thoughtful and intelligent leader. He will reconcile differences of opinion and will effect compromise. He is excited about forging a partnership of citizens, businesses and government to create affordable housing, business opportunities and good jobs. He is dedicated to maintaining downtown Northfield as a vital center.

Join me in voting for Keith Covey for mayor.

Cora Scholz
Northfield

Provides leadership

To the editor:

A little more than 18 years ago, my husband and I moved to Northfield for a number of reasons. We had lived in other communities where ill-advised, poorly planned, and shortsighted development had ruined what had been vigorous and beautiful towns. We had enough of that. Northfield was different. Here was a community in which people cared about the integrity of their surroundings, welcomed productive change, and did not want to live in anything resembling a cookie-cutter suburb.

Northfield is in the midst of a great deal of change; it can't and shouldn't be avoided. To make the best choices for our city's future, a leader with integrity, experience, and intelligence is critical-the sort of leadership Keith Covey can provide.

Keith Covey knows what makes Northfield tick. He appreciates and honors the city's past, but also understands how change can be implemented with sensitivity, creativity, and flexibility. He has the energy, commitment, and time to lead Northfield through some tough decisions, so that in the end we will all have a town about which we can be proud.

Susan Thurston Hamerski
Northfield

Covey aware of housing need

To the editor:

Keith Covey's guest column entitled "Planning Needed to Shape Growth" in Saturday's Northfield News really struck a chord for me, as I'm sure it does, for a lot of people in the Northfield community, and I felt compelled to write a letter as well.

The first four years of our married life (also the first four years of my teaching career) my husband and I rented a house on a farm east of Northfield. As we became more established financially we began to look at the possibility of buying a home in Northfield. For two years we kept our eyes and ears open, combing the pages, of the Northfield News and taking long Sunday drives looking and dreaming of what we might be able to buy. What we did mostly was dream, however, because there was hardly anything in Northfield that we could afford.

We finally made the decision to build a small home in Farmington, where housing costs were much lower. For the next three years I commuted to Northfield and continued to teach at the high school.

Now I am at home with our son and awaiting the arrival of our second child in December. We hope to move back to Northfield before our children start school because we miss Northfield and think it would be a great place to raise our family, but we know that it will be tough to find what we are looking for.

When I think about my seven years of teaching in Northfield I can think of many of my teaching colleagues who could not afford to buy a home in Northfield or ended up living in someone's basement apartment for years before being able to afford something. Many teachers end up moving to the Cities because Northfield is just too expensive.

I know there have to be many: other people in Northfield who would like to be able to own their own homes but can't because of the lack of affordable housing.

I think this is an extremely important issue and based on Keith Covey's article it appears that he also understands this issue and is willing to work together with others for solutions to this problem. I wish I were living in Northfield so that I could vote for him in November.

Lori Rossmiller
Farmington

Important qualifications

To the editor:

Keith Covey would be a good mayor.

He has three specific qualifications which are important for any person in public office. He is honest. He is conscientious. And he has no personal axe to grind.

The need for honesty speaks for itself.

Being conscientious means that he will study all available information on each issue. He will weigh the pros and cons in order to decide what he feels is best.

Having no personal axe to grind means that he will make decisions based on what he feels is best for the people of Northfield. He will be willing and able to discuss all sides of an issue with citizens, planning commission members, and members of the city council. He is a good listener and willing to consider others' points of view. We can count on Keith to help the city arrive at conclusions that will benefit all of us.

Another factor that will help Keith be a good mayor is that he will have the time. On Dec. 31, he is retiring from full-time work, so he will be able to devote the time necessary to the position of mayor. I urge you to vote as I will, for Keith Covey for mayor of Northfield.

Penny Cupp
Northfield

City needs to re-establish trust

To the editor:

Our city is currently facing an extraordinarily challenging series of decisions affecting its goals and direction. We are also on the verge of electing a new mayor and council-an administration that will be charged with resolving those decisions and moving us forward together.

Anyone attending Monday's Planning Commission meeting would have been aghast, as I was, at the complete lack of trust exhibited among major players in our city's development process. If there ever were need to reestablish competence and trust, it is for us to do now. There is one man with the experience, the proven skills, and the integrity to lead that crusade. I am speaking of Keith Covey, who I have known for over 30 years now.

Keith has the hands-on experience of being a previous mayor, a member of the Planning Commission, and an operating head of facilities planning and construction for a large local organization. He knows and has worked with the people and organizations of our city. He has again and again brought people of differing viewpoints together to reach a common goal. He can be counted on to coach and lead our city administrative departments to a more effective, confidence-building effort.

As both former business owner and a longtime resident I know he can be trusted to represent all of our interests fairly. Above all he has both the integrity and the skills to lead us forward together.

I urge you to cast your vote for Keith Covey in the coming election.

Perry Sykes
Northfield

Covey is a skilled planner

To the editor:

Most people may know that the education of an architect focuses on the complex disciplines and skill of planning. Planning is what architects do. This is an excellent reason for asking, Keith Covey to be our mayor again -- he was educated to be a planner, and he practiced architecture before he undertook a former term as mayor and before he undertook the position at Carleton where he has been involved in planning as a career.

Our firm (Sovik Mathre Madson at the time SMSQ now) was sorry to see Keith leave us. But we have been proud of the work he has done since that time. Proud because the work has been well done, and pleased because it was done without divisive dissension or incivility. So I would like to persuade our citizens to elect Keith Covey -- a good, able: and experienced man -- to the office of mayor.

E.A. Sövik
Northfield

Covey can heal divisions

To the editor:

I served on the City Council when Keith Covey was mayor, and have the deepest respect for him-his fairness, his open mind, his concern for Northfield and its future. He knows thoroughly the problems of city government from his experience as mayor and from following its activities continually since then.

He respects others and listens to them.

He values the boards and commissions for their work which requires more time and expertise than the council can give. Just imagine a political council or an administrator having to cope with the details on the agendas of the library board, DAB, ERA, etc. Especially, he respects the planning commission, understands its purposes and legitimacy under state law. .

He is responsible for achieving the renovation of our downtown.

If anyone can heal the divisions in our community, it is Keith Covey as mayor.

Marie Jensen
Northfield

In support of Keith Covey

To the editor:

I was deeply gratified when I heard that Keith Covey was considering running for mayor and was even more pleased when I heard the news that he had accepted the nomination by petition and had completed the required forms to become a candidate.

My husband and I have been Northfield residents for 35 years, have been involved in city boards and activities for most of that time, and have a sincere desire to see our city governed well.

We supported Keith when he ran for and was elected mayor previously. We know him as a thoughtful citizen, concerned about the town he has chosen as home for himself and his family, and willing to invest the time that will be necessary to be a good mayor. Keith is a man of high integrity, experienced in directing a large staff, and successful in planning and supervising complex projects. He is experienced in making decisions and carrying them out and, I believe he is well qualified to serve as our mayor.

I am pleased to again be a supporter of Keith Covey in his campaign for mayor of Northfield and I encourage other citizens concerned for the leadership our community to also support and vote for him.

Lois Stratmoen
Northfield

Covey the one to keep us on track

To the editor:

Should we build a medical campus? Should we build a new middle school? Should we swap the current Muni for The Key? Should we save the grain elevator as an icon of the past? Should we bond a community recreation center featuring two sheets of ice? How will the new Target affect downtown? Will giving Chapati's a liquor license solve the problems they seem to have serving minors? There certainly are several issues which could split Northfield right down the middle in the next four years.

Yet, we must decide each and every one of these and many more. Can we do that with the different views Northfield seems to regularly generate? We can if we are led by a mayor whose focus is holding the community together in these difficult times. We must fight to maintain our civility so we may discuss these items of importance. We must not devolve into a howling mass of demonizers who believe that only a "bad guy" could oppose what we, the anointed, desire.

Our job will be much easier if we elect a mayor who will struggle to keep w together and on track. We have the right candidate, in my view, in Keith Covey. I have known Keith for more than 30 years. I worked on his campaign 25 years ago. I am confident he has the skill to keep us together-even though we may differ.

Will Keith decide each issue my way? Of course not. Will I be overjoyed at the end of his four-year term? If that happens it will be a record first time. But, I believe all sides of every issue will be noted, addressed and discussed. How can I know that? Because I have lived in Northfield with Keith Covey as our mayor and I know how this good man operates. Four years from now, the issues of today will be history. Most of us will wonder what all the fuss was about back in 2000. Northfield will still be a special place, full of disagreement, yet a special place where we can greet each other in a friendly way. Please join me in electing Keith on Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Bill Kelly
Northfield