Most asphalt shingle roofs in the immediate Northfield area were damaged in last Thursday's storm. Some things you should consider:

1. Even if your roof does not appear damaged, you should contact your insurance company and have it inspected. Chances are the roof has been damaged. Hail damage is not always readily apparent to untrained eyes looking at the roof from the ground. You should have an inspection performed on the roof itself.
2. Review your property insurance policy and become familiar with what coverages you have. Some policies pay the full replacement costs of a new roof, some pay lesser amounts, and some policies depreciate the useful life of the roof.
3. Make sure you look at the roofs, siding, windows, etc.... the full exterior envelope you your home. Siding can easily be damaged by hail, as can roofs. If you have a skylight even though it may not appear broken, the seals on the glass can be damaged. Again, careful inspection of all areas is needed.

If you contract with a firm to make repairs to your home, make sure the firm is reputable. You should have a signed contract that clearly spells out what is going to be done, when it is going to be done, and how much it will cost. Materials should be identified clearly so that you understand what is being used on your home.

It is also very, very important to make sure that anyone that works on your home is properly licensed by the State of Minnesota. They also should provide you with evidence of current liability insurance and Workers Compensation insurance. Without proper insurance you could be exposed to various claims from workers.

If you need assistance with storm damage we would be happy to help you.

Posted by Ray Cox at 10:50 AM | Link

 
About 11:15 this morning a quick moving summer storm arrived in Northfield. I’ve never seen the clouds make such strange, foreboding forms…

It looked like a tornado could drop out of the sky at any moment….

Instead, we got hail. I’ve never personally seen such large hail. There were several hailstones that were between 2.5” and 3” in diameter. Many broke when they hit hard surfaces, but we picked up some that landed in the garden mulch….

The cars in our lot took some damage. Sunroofs were broken…..

Windshields were damaged or broken right out……

The roofs in the area took a real pounding and most likely sustained significant damage. There was also localized flooding on the streets due to leaves shredded off trees and blocking drainage culverts. But through all this there was good news….we didn’t get a tornado!

Posted by Ray Cox at 9:53 AM | Link

 
Northfield Construction Company hosted our annual summer picnic for our employees and their families. This year we held the picnic at the new park pavilion in Dundas.

We finished up construction on the shelter this spring. Several of the workers at the picnic were pleased to ‘try out’ the completed project. It has good ventilation and very nice public toilets. The stainless steel countertops with electrical receptacles provided good space for our food.

It is always fun to gather together with our employees and their families and visit. We catch up on what everyone is doing, where the fish are biting, what vacation plans are being considered, etc.

The pavilion provided excellent space for the business of eating!

Dundas has excellent children's play equipment at this park.

We had a lot of little children at the picnic this year and they had a fine time climbing on the play equipment.

It was a perfect evening for a picnic to say thank you to our hard-working employees.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:05 AM | Link

 
Northfield Construction Company recently received a contract to construct three park buildings for the City of Lakeville, MN. The buildings are located in different city parks and will serve the growing community.

Each building is slightly different. One has a beautiful green metal roof.

Work has progressed well on all three structures.

We plan to have them all completed later this fall.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:14 AM | Link

 
Yesterday evening I was invited to attend the unveiling of the Northfield display at the Northfield Historical Society. Earlier this year we did the remodeling of the museum to accommodate the new display. The event was a special invitation for Northfield Rotary Club members. The remodeling and the cost of the new display were paid for by the Rotary Club as in recognition of Northfield's sesquicentennial last year.






The event was very well attended....the wine, cheese and fruit encouraged attendance!

The display panels look great in the new space.

I especially liked the panels that explain the history of the founding of Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges.

If you not from Northfield and are reading this, please consider visiting us this September 8, 9 and 10 for our annual Defeat of Jesse James Days celebration. We will have classic car displays, tractor pulls, rodeo, Rotary bike tour, parade, etc. It is a fun event for everyone.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:25 AM | Link

 
At 11:30AM Tuesday I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Family Health Medical Clinic at the Northfield Hospital. Everyone in the community is excited to see this fine medical clinic being a reality on the Northfield Hospital campus. It will add a new dimension to the regional medical capabilities of this city. The day was perfect and there were many people there to share this great event.

The Life Link helicopter even was there.

Ken Bank, President and CEO of the Northfield Hospital greeted everyone. Ken has been doing a wonderful job running the hospital. He has great vision and leadership to keep the hospital looking forward and meeting the needs of our expanding community.The Northfield Hospital Board of Directors was represented by Steve Delzer. I cannot thank the board enough for their dedicated work at keeping the hospital financially strong.

Mayor Lee Lansing also welcomed the group. He noted that this was the third groundbreaking ceremony for hospital projects in a short time. One of those ceremonies occurred in Lonsdale when the medical clinic there was dedicated last fall.

Dr. David Beckmann and other doctors and folks associated with the clinic did a fine job shoveling the official dirt to begin the project.

Then the staff of the hospital had some fun doing their own groundbreaking.

Mayor Lansing and Administrator Bank thanked me for the work I did in the legislature to make this day happen. I carried legislation authorizing the hospital to operate clinics outside the city limits. Prior to the enactment of this special legislation the hospital was only allowed to own and operate medical facilities within the Northfield corporate limits. The legislation I carried allows them to go beyond that limit, which in turn allowed them to create their clinic in Lonsdale, and to plan other clinics in other locations.

Posted by Ray Cox at 3:44 AM | Link

 
Some of you who read this web blog probably know that in addition to operating Northfield Construction Company I also serve as the elected State Representative from House District 25B. This is a great area to represent and I am truly honored to have the voters send me to St. Paul on their behalf.

However, along with serving in public office comes running for public office. From time to time there can be friction raised on issues----sometimes over rather silly issues. A case in point just surfaced. A couple of my opponent’s supporters sent letters to the editor of the Northfield News. The News, following their long-standing tradition of publishing all submissions, published the letters. The two letters found fault with the 2002 and 2004 Northfield News endorsement of me for the House of Representatives because I also advertise in the Northfield News for my construction company. One of the letters went so far as to allege some type of vague link between the News endorsement and the fact that Northfield Construction Company was remodeling the News offices in the summer/fall of 2004.

Obviously, such allegations are offensive to the many hardworking employees, and their families, at Northfield Construction Company just as they are to me and my family. My workers all do the best job they can to create top quality work, safely and efficiently, which allows us to be competitive in the marketplace. Mike McKeag was the Field Superintendent for the Northfield News project in question and sent in and the News published the following letter as a response:

To the editor:
I send this letter in response to a letter in the July 15
News ("Questioning the News") finding fault with my boss, Ray Cox.

I've worked for Northfield Construction Company and Ray for many
years. I was the site foreman for the Northfield News' remodeling
project. For people to pretend that we got that job by some sort of
"back-scratching" really insults me. Northfield Construction Company
was invited to bid on the remodeling work, along with several other
area construction companies. We were the low bidder and the News
decided to go ahead with the project using the low bidder. I was proud
to work hard to remodel the space for the News. They are nice people and the improvements look great.

As I said, I have worked for Ray for a number of years. I worked for
him before he was a state representative and now continue to work
for him. I see him coming to work at 5 a.m. to get work for us done before
he heads off to St. Paul to work for the people of Minnesota.
Sometimes I wish he was around more with us, but I know he is doing
important work.

I like to hunt and fish. I'm glad that Ray is working to clean up our
lakes and keep them clean. I know he worked with other people in St.
Paul to get funding for more wildlife management areas. Those are
important for people like me that don't own land to hunt on.

Ray gets funding for the Mill Towns State Trail, too. You should see
the people that come to Cannon Falls to use the Cannon Valley Trail.
It is good to have them spend money in our town. When the Mill Towns
Trail is finished, Northfield will get people too.

If people want to talk about Northfield Construction and what Ray does
there, let's talk about it. Ray provides great jobs for all of us. He
pays us well. We have good company health benefits. We have a good
retirement plan. We get paid vacation and paid holidays. He buys good,
safe equipment for us to use. I've worked for other
construction companies and this is the best one. That is why I stay here.

I know that people don't agree on all political issues. But Ray is
doing a great job for the people in this area. Stop making up stories
about how we get our work or how Ray gets elected. He gets elected
because he is a good man. He gets work because he runs a good company
and is a good boss.


Mike McKeag
Cannon Falls

My workers are all proud of the work they do. It is offensive for people to make improper accusations about either how Northfield Construction obtains our jobs or how our advertising accounts are handled.

The Northfield News has decided not to endorse any candidates this year....not city council, not school board, not State House or Senate, not County Commissioners. I'm sure they can put the time used on evaluations to good use. And I think the voters in the area are perfectly capable of evaluating candidates and making a selection without News endorsement.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:07 AM | Link

 
Sometimes a rather simple remodeling can make a huge change in the use of a room. Recently we finished a small kitchen remodeling job for a good client in Northfield. It wasn’t one of those ‘gut out the room and start over’ jobs. Rather, we carefully planned the work that suited the client’s needs. The main task was to remodel the kitchen cabinets and install a new Viking stove.

The existing cabinets were in good condition, solid, and well organized. The new Viking stove required a larger space. It also has gas surface burners and electric oven so utility connections had to be changed.

Another aspect of the remodel included all new stone countertops. We used dark granite counters, which look beautiful with the new maple hardwood floor.

Throw in some miscellaneous electrical work, a new sink, etc. and our client ended up with a beautiful ‘new’ kitchen in short order.

We are always ready to discuss any remodeling ideas you may have. We handle smaller projects like this one, all the way up to whole-house remodeling of all rooms…and everything in between.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:57 AM | Link

 
Yesterday evening Ellen and I attended the Three Links ‘John Falck Memorial’ golf fundraiser. The event was held at Willinger’s Golf Club in rural Rice County. I don’t golf so I didn’t participate in the golfing portion of the event, but it was great to be there to visit with folks. The course was beautiful and the weather absolutely perfect. Northfield Construction was a tee sponsor, so we had an employee, Craig Vold, golf in the tournament. Craig said he thoroughly enjoyed the days golf outing.


Clancy Dokmo, owner of Dokmo Ford-Chrysler, was the chairman of the golf tournament this year.

Clancy did a fine job lining up supporters for the Northfield Three Links organization. Three Links operates long-term care facilities in Northfield, including the new Millstream Commons Assisted Living facility. Clancy again arranged to have a new vehicle as a prize for a hole-in-one….but no winner.

The golf tournament and dinner were well attended by lots of folks from Northfield and the surrounding area. It is great to see such excellent support for raising funds for the Three Links Foundation.

I chatted with Rich Falck, the son of John Falck. Rich told the assembled group how much Three Links meant to his father. John was the original organizer of the golf fundraiser and the chairman for each of the previous years.

It is great to have Three Links Care Facility in Northfield providing quality care to our fragile and elderly residents. I thank Pat Vincent and everyone that works at and keeps Three Links running well for the great job they do. And a big thank you to all the area individuals and businesses that provide financial support to Three Links at this golf event each year.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:05 AM | Link

 
I participated in National Night Out again this year in Northfield. I've tried to have a table at the event since it was organized and generally distribute information about home safety and security, as I did again this year. The event was very well attened. ...free hot dogs, chips and ice cream always help attendance!

The Crash Dummies were out strolling around saying hello to folks.

McGruff the crime fighting dog was a hit with the children.

The Northfield Fire Department had several of their vehicles on display. Children could get an up close look at the equipment.

Northfield's big festival, Defeat of Jesse James Days, includes the crowing of a Queen and her royal court. The young women vying for those positions were also visiting with people.

And the Defeat of Jesse James Days Junior Royalty was also there, shown here with me and City Councilman Dixon Bond.

Rice County Attorney Paul Beaumaster was there distributing information about a program to stop elder financial abuse.

Police Chief Gary Smith was enjoying visiting with people all evening.

I thank Community Service Officer Josh Malecha (center in photo) for the work he did in organizing National Night Out this year.

The needed rain held off long enough for everyone to have a great time. It was a fun evening of visiting with good friends and meeting new people.

Posted by Ray Cox at 4:34 AM | Link

 
Our work at the Northfield Historical Society Museum is just about wrapped up. We installed the new cabinet work about two weeks ago. The work includes a nice sales desk for the retail shop, as well as a work desk for other tasks. The staff really likes the layout of the cabinet work as it allows them to see most of the museum while on duty.

I had many comments about the project over the weekend while I was in and around Bridge Square for the Vintage Band Music Festival. It is good to know that so many people noticed the work the Historical Society did to improve things. One of the benefits of the work will be the creation of a new ‘nook’ for a permanent Northfield exhibit…watch for further announcements about that.

Posted by Ray Cox at 11:40 AM | Link

 
If you need a fun activity to do this weekend, come to Northfield for the Cannon River Paddle Classic. This is an event sponsored by the Cannon River Watershed Partnership. It will be held on Saturday, August 5th from 12-4PM. Canoes will put in the Cannon River at the Ames Park in Northfield. There are two events: a 3 mile fun race ($15 per boat registration) and a 6 mile competitive race ($20 per boat registration) There are even ribbons and prizes!

All the registration fees are being donated to the Cannon River Watershed Partnership (CRWP). CRWP does a great job watching over our watershed….come to the event on Saturday and lend your support. And if you are not a member of CRWP please consider joining.

Posted by Ray Cox at 7:52 AM | Link