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NORTHFIELD, Minn. -- Neighbors in Northfield are keeping an eye out after a black bear was spotted in a neighborhood overnight Friday.

It's the latest of several bear sightings in Minnesota including some close to the Twin Cities.

"The most we ever get is deer, a fox once in a while," Northfield resident Lauren Vosejpka said.

She can now add black bear to the list of wildlife passing through her neighborhood. It was spotted twice overnight Friday digging through garbage cans and bird feeders.

"To know that is was this close is kind of scary. I mean those suckers are huge!" she said.

Even longtime residents like Dick Audiss were surprised.

"I've never ever heard of a bear in Northfield," Audiss said.

Between 12,000 and 16,000 black bears live in Minnesota, the Minnesota DNR says. For the past 20 years the population has been growing and expanding further south and west. The DNR keeps track of sightings on its website.

"Five years ago you would rarely hear about a bear in Hennepin or Ramsey county and now they are fairly regular if not residents," Three Rivers Park District Senior Manager of Wildlife John Moriarty said.

Last week, a mom and her three cubs were spotted in Elm Creek Park Reserve in Maple Grove. They were also spotted on Saturday and Sunday evening. Moriarty says it's likely the same bear that's lived in the park since 2020.

"They aren't out there stalking people or stalking your pets. The reason they are coming to your yard is because you left a greasy grill, you're still feeding your dog outside. That's not a good practice for any wildlife," he said.

He says most bear attacks involve pets so it's always best to keep them on a leash. Bringing in garbage cans and taking down bird feeders can help move the bear along.

"It's not common to see them. So feel fortunate if you do get to see one," he said.

Another reason why bear sightings seem to be on the rise is that more people have home security cameras that capture them passing through.

Kirsten Mitchell

Kirsten Mitchell joined the WCCO team as a reporter in November of 2021. A Saint Paul native, Kirsten is proud to tell stories in her home state. She graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Go Gophs!) and interned at WCCO during her time there.

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NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Melting snow is feeding the Cannon River in Northfield, and triggering the first flood warning of the year in Minnesota.

Northfield is already seeing some standing water, and the Cannon River – which runs right through downtown – is expected to crest sometime Wednesday afternoon.

"Seeing a huge log sitting in it is a little unusual," said Andy Sibenaller, as he checked out the raging river after work.

Sibenaller and Amy Gerdesmeier received the flood warning and came to see the river for themselves.

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"The last snowstorm we had melted so fast, I was like 'woah,' and then I drove past it the other day and it was crazy, it was so high," Gerdesmeier said.

According to the latest update from the National Weather Service Monday afternoon, the Cannon River at Northfield is expected to crest something Wednesday afternoon at minor flood stage.

Water had already started to flood the soccer field at Carleton College Monday, as well as parts of East River Trail.

"The river walk is kind of a spillway to our backdoor, and so we're the first place flooded in Rice County every year," said property owner David Hvistendahl.

Since a devastating flood in 2010, Hvistendahl has made big changes to his riverfront properties, including Froggy Bottoms River Pub & Lily PADio.

"We had to reinvest in the building, figure out how to make it more river resistant," he said.

RELATED: Minnesota homeowners far more likely to have flood than fire, yet state ranks last for flood insurance holders

Hvistendahl says he moved his AC unit, raised electrical wires and installed flood panels. He's hopeful this year the water won't reach his patio.

"As always, we feel apprehensive because it can turn on just one good rain storm," he said.

Northfield isn't alone. The National Weather Service says river cities south of St. Paul could be in a flood of trouble soon.

"We'll see kind of like a steady rise in the river levels going into next week, to where we could start seeing some spring peaks by late next week," said NWS hydrologist Craig Schmidt.

Kirsten Mitchell

Kirsten Mitchell joined the WCCO team as a reporter in November of 2021. A Saint Paul native, Kirsten is proud to tell stories in her home state. She graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Go Gophs!) and interned at WCCO during her time there.

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More than a century after it was first coined, Northfield’s “Cows, Colleges and Contentment” slogan has stood the test of time. And while the slogan remains popular in the community, city leaders are hoping to add some new branding ideas to the mix.

To help develop develop those ideas, the city launched its Branding Advisory Committee last fall. Led by Jennifer Sawyer, co-founder and partner of Rebound Enterprises, the committee included a wide variety of voices from the private and nonprofit sectors, as well as city government, with several members well versed in branding and design strategies.

Still, the community wasted no time asking for greater public feedback. Over several months, interviews were conducted and an online survey received responses from just under 1,000 people, with current Northfield residents comprising 82% of survey respondents.

All in all, survey respondents were happy with the quality of life and amenities on offer in Northfield. Roughly four out of five said it was likely or very likely that they would recommend Northfield as a high quality option to live, work or visit.

The city received particularly high marks as a safe, healthy and family friendly place to live long term. Respondents were also pleased with the positive and welcoming nature of the city’s people and the engaging and interesting activities available either in Northfield or nearby.

The limited supply of affordable housing was far and away the issue most commonly cited as a weakness. The survey also indicated that while the city’s historic character is a strong suit, it’s not really what draws people to live in Northfield.

To build on that feedback, the council convened a unique work session. Councilors and city staff were seated next to community leaders for deeper discussions, with a goal of boiling down the essence of Northfield into just a few simple, evocative words or concepts.

“Doing good brand work is about simplification and distillation,” said committee member Katie Warren, who was tasked with breaking down the survey results. “If it takes you a paragraph to describe it, you’re not doing it right.”

Bob Thacker, a committee member and career marketing executive, said that identifying the defining characteristics is essential to developing an evocative brand with staying power. Having such a brand also becomes invaluable for the brand owner, driving their sense of purpose.

Thacker cited several high profile branding campaigns that effectively invoked the purpose of a company and built on positive impressions. One example was the iconic Nike “swoosh” logo, which he said serves to reinforce a “brand essence” of “athletic performance.”

Of course, it might seem incredibly unlikely that Northfield could ever come up with branding like Nike’s swoosh or the “I love NY” logo also cited. Thacker told those assembled not to feel any pressure to pull off that kind of miracle, saying that the meeting was instead to serve as a lighthearted brainstorming session.

The centerpiece of the exercise was to identify Northfield’s unique assets, attributes and qualities. The qualities most central to the city’s persona were written down on notecards, with a series of votes used to narrow down the wide range of ideas offered.

To help further develop those ideas, those gathered answered questions like “If Northfield was a food or dish, what would it be?” and “If Northfield were a flavor of ice cream, what would it be?” which garnered predictably funny and unique responses from across the room.

While the colleges may be at the heart of Northfield’s brand, Sawyer said that she’s found the city to be well known for numerous other unique assets, from the onetime presence of Jesse James to the strong arts and culture scene to the Malt-O-Meal plant.

Among survey respondents, the two colleges were cited as the top unique characteristic, closely followed by the city’s charming downtown district, its close connection with the Cannon River, and its high achieving public schools.

Plenty of other assets were cited as well, such as the city’s growing cultural diversity, its proximity to the Twin Cities, its many walkable neighborhoods, the unique resources available to senior citizens and the robust and diverse business climate.

Through several rounds of voting, the room whittled its way down to those assets and qualities collectively seen as most central to the city’s image. Out of that process came a three-word community essence — “Vibrant, Charming, Creative” — which Sawyer hailed as uniquely Northfield.

“You look at that and you say, ‘Would that describe Faribault? Would that describe Owatonna? Would that describe similar towns?’ I don’t think so,” he said.

The discussion will continue at future meetings of the committee, as the group works to encapsulate the community’s modern identity.

Andrew Deziel is a freelance writer. Reach the editor at [email protected].

Roberta Rankin, known to her family and friends as Bobbi, said it was an easy pick when she decided to move to the Northfield Retirement Community 13 years ago.

The long-term care facility was close enough for her kids to visit and the former LPN who spent her career working in nursing homes said there was another selling point: “I walked into this one and it didn’t smell like a nursing home.”

Like many long-term care facilities around the state, Northfield Retirement Community struggled to stay afloat financially amid the pandemic and as inflation climbed. After losing staff to burnout and higher wages elsewhere, it had to close a memory care wing, along with an in-house cafe that catered to residents and visitors.

“We figured it was harder to rebound from a bad reputation and poor quality care. So as our employees shrunk down, we decided to then decrease the number of residents we're caring for,” said Tom Nielsen, president and CEO of Northfield Retirement Community.

The 248-bed community that incorporates independent living, memory care and skilled nursing services is currently running at about 70 percent capacity. Putting aside independent living sections, which don’t require consistent health care for residents, the community is at about 61 percent of what it could be at full occupancy.

With a smaller staff, the center has had to close beds and turn people away.

“We get between 10 and 15 admission calls every day for people needing to come to a skilled nursing facility, mainly from hospitals that are trying to find placement. And people get backed up in the hospitals, and we're just not able to take them. And a lot of them are from this area in this community,” Nielsen said.

Having fewer residents means that a long term care facility takes in less money, since it can’t bill or reimburse for care for empty beds. With mortgage payments, supplies and utilities still eating up budgets, that makes it harder to break even.

“And so right now, we're not making it financially,” Nielsen said. “It's a struggle right now.”

The pandemic, inflation and the state’s broader workforce shortage have caused a unique strain for nursing homes around the state.

And with a $17.5 billion state budget surplus, long term care advocates said that Minnesota lawmakers should earmark emergency money to keep them in business.

Without a quick and significant cash infusion, dozens of nursing homes stand at risk of closing their doors, providers said. And that could hurt residents and rural communities as those displaced may have to board in hospitals or move to nursing homes far away from their family and friends, providers said.

Adam Masloski, executive director of the Boundary Waters Care Center in Ely, said his 42-bed nursing home is now able to accommodate about 33 to 35 residents due to staffing issues. That limitation has already caused disruptions, he said, because the nearest other nursing home is 50 miles away.

“We're the only place in the area. And so it's hard when you have someone that goes down to Duluth for a surgery, and all they want to do is come back home,” Masloski said. “But we can't take them because we don't have the staff. We've had to rely a lot on agency staffing or traveling staffing. And that in itself is expensive, and really not feasible for a small place like ours.”

Providers feel forgotten in budget talks

With six weeks left in the legislative session, lawmakers will consider ways to boost nursing homes — along with schools, other health care providers, local governments and others — as they wrap up the state’s next two year budget.

They’ll take up new funding streams aimed at helping long-term care facilities recruit and retain more caregivers. Human service committees in both chambers have crafted budget bills that aim to boost overall nursing home funding, increase the state’s elderly waiver program, and add grants for critical access nursing homes.

But they vary on how much should go toward each of those spending buckets.

While each plan could offer help to Minnesota nursing homes that are struggling to recruit and retain staff, many in the long term care field say the proposals wouldn’t get to the root of their problems quickly enough to stave off additional bed closures — and for some, shutting their doors altogether.

“We are living with the virus in our settings, still,” Patti Cullen, with the industry group Care Providers of Minnesota, told House lawmakers last month. “This virus decimated our workforce, our reserves, and the spirit of many of our caregivers, and it’s difficult to understand with this surplus why we’re forgotten.”

Nielsen and Masloski said lawmakers should prioritize funding that can boost their recruitment efforts right away. Nielsen said he’s offered sign-on and retention bonuses, tuition assistance, loan forgiveness and free temporary housing to keep caregivers on board. But because the nursing home reimbursement formula is set by the state, he’s not been able to raise base wages.

“We take care of people. I think that our people deserve to get paid more,” Masloski said. “And we can't do that unless we get some sort of funding mechanism from the state to see an increase in rates. If we had all the money in the world, that money deserves to be paid to these people that have put in this time and have been so dedicated to these older folks.”

Rep. Mohamud Noor, a Minneapolis DFLer who chairs the House Human Services Committee, said the proposals are a first step toward stabilizing long-term care settings. Before his committee advanced its omnibus budget bill last month, he said additional funding for elderly waiver grants and workforce recruitment programs could turn the tide.

“The investments that we’re making here today will also help lift up some of the challenges they’re facing,” Noor said. “This is a good day to say, ‘we are starting to tackle the challenges faced by long-term care.’”

In the Senate, Human Services Committee Chair John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, has pushed back on the budget target allotted for his area by DFL legislative leaders and the governor. And he said he would aim to increase the total increase in human services funding by $1.3 billion in the next two years and $1.55 billion in the two that follow.

“We need an additional $570 million in order to really do it,” he said.

Republicans at the Capitol have echoed those calls and said that DFLers should re-write their budget bills to put more toward nursing homes.

“We can’t miss the mark this session. We can’t because it’s going to affect everybody,” Republican Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar of Fredenberg Township said during a recent hearing. “This budget is underfunded to accomplish what the needs are for these seniors and we have to find a solution. And I sure hope we can.”

Lawmakers have a few weeks left to reach a resolution. The deadline to adjourn the session is May 22.

Masloski, with Boundary Waters Care Center, said their decisions could mean a lot to rural Minnesota communities.

“It's a different ballgame for us rural facilities than it is for those that have, you know, 567 different options in a 10-mile radius elsewhere,” he said.

“I've worked here for years, and I've always said that I'll go down with this place if I have to. But I so wholeheartedly believe that we need some help,” Masloski continued. “Anything that the legislators can do will go a long way to keeping these small towns whole.”