Month: November 2024

The Northwest Regional Corrections Center in Crookston reported the following arrests –

Loren Junior Larson, 52, of Crookston for DUI

Adriana Arroyo, 35, of East Grand Forks for 3^rd Degree Drug Possession

Ricky Allen Karel, 39, of East Grand Forks for 3^rd Degree Drug Possession

The post ARREST/FIRE REPORT NOVEMBER 26 first appeared on KROX.

The Crookston City Council met Monday, November 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers of Crookston City Hall.

The meeting started with a presentation by Ehlers, which provided an overview of city funding. Todd Hagen from Ehlers gave the presentation. He talked with the council members about putting a Financial Management Plan into place over the next three months. Ehlers will utilize city audits from the past several years and 2024 and 2025 to help the city set up a 10-year road map toward financial health. Hagen mentioned that the city hiring Ehlers at this point was really good timing.

The consent agenda included the approval of the meeting minutes from November 12, approval of bills and disbursements for $405,946.90, and adopting the 2024 street improvement projects, including the reconstruction of Houston Ave from Hunter Street to South Ash Street, bituminous mill and overlay of North Broadway from South Sixth Avenue NW to Fisher Avenue, and bituminous mill and overlay of Third Avenue NW from Bruce Street to Old Trunk Highway 75.   The Consent agenda was approved unanimously by the council.

There was a public hearing regarding increased water and wastewater rates for 2025. The hearing was open to the public, and after no comments, it closed.

The first item on the regular agenda, resolution 8.01, was regarding adopting the proposed assessments for unpaid water and sewer charges and current services.  With this resolution, all unpaid code enforcements, mowing charges, and water bills will be made a special assessment against the properties involved.  City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge explains. “It’s very straightforward; it’s just that any delinquent water/sewer bills that are owed, those move forward, and at the end of the year, we have sent numerous notifications throughout, and at the end of the year, the city has the opportunity to file for those amounts due on the taxes on the properties involved,” says Shoobridge. “So other taxpayers don’t have to absorb that loss.” The resolution was approved unanimously.

The next item was the approval of the Non-Profit Organizations Requests for 2025.  After receiving clarification from legal, the opinion is that the city does not have statutory authority to provide grant monies to Get Kids Outdoors.  The Attorney General recommends not funding private recreation programs.  Fred Parnow from Get Kids Outdoors attended and spoke to the council.  He let the council know that Get Kids Outdoors is not a club, no membership is needed, there is no board but just volunteers working together to get kids as many opportunities to do outdoor activities as possible. The council members wanted to help Parnow and his organization but felt very strongly that they must follow the Attorney general’s recommendation.  The other five non-profit organizations were approved unanimously for their grants as they were laid out at previous meetings.

Resolution 8.03 was regarding a conditional use permit with respect to parcel 82.0679. The property, 1504 University, is owned by Jeff Evers and is being leased to Radhwan Alwanan and Ali Alfureedy.  The occupants want to open a retail tobacco store.  This is the second recent request of this kind for this location.    The Crookston Planning Commission recommended that the Crookston City Council grant a conditional use permit.  The council unanimously approved the conditional use permit.

Next was a resolution vacating a portion of 4^th Avenue South and Vance Street upon petition of a majority of abutting landowners. The Council was provided with a petition with the signatures of a majority of the landowners abutting the property to be vacated. The city council’s approval makes it possible for Tri-Valley to continue its plan to build a bus garage on the property and open up the land to more building opportunities. The City Council unanimously approved the resolution.

The council was also asked Monday night to approve a resolution to retain an attorney to assist the City of Crookston in evaluating the City Administrator and clarifying the roles of the City Council/City Administrator.  The Crookston City Attorney feels that it may be an inherent potential conflict if he were to be involved in the evaluation of the City Administrator and wishes to bring in an outside attorney to assist in the matter.  Mayor Dale Stainbrook and other council members spoke out about the cost of hiring a lawyer when the city budget is already in trouble. Stainbrook also says the evaluation process has worked in the past. “In the past, we have always done it in-house,” says Stainbrook. “Basically, I feel we are hiring outside help to do the job that we should be doing.”  There were too many missing pieces even to make it a consideration, says Stainbrook. “I think it was pretty vague; we didn’t have a lot of information as far as what’s this going to cost or how the framework was going to be done. I just don’t want to pass on that there’s a form out there that our previous administrators, that’s prior to Amy Finch, the council got a worksheet and rated our city administrator, and that was then either turned into the Mayor or a council member that was interested to tally up the points, the concerns, and the recommendations.” Mayor Stainbrook feels very strongly that the City Council can do this, and he was not the only one.  The resolution failed at a vote of 5-3.

Last on the agenda was a resolution to approve the Leagues of Minnesota Cities Roles and Responsibilities Workshop for the City of Crookston City Council and City Staff.  This resolution came about as the Crookston City Attorney spoke with the League of Minnesota Cities, Council members, and city staff about clarifying their roles and responsibilities.  All members need to agree to voluntarily participate in a Roles and Responsibilities Workshop through The League of Minnesota Cities.  The workshop is free and will be scheduled sometime in January/February.  The Council approved the resolution unanimously.

The meeting was adjourned and after a short break the Council went into a Budget Workshop to review the preliminary budgets to include facilities.

Council Budget Workshop

Tonight’s Budget Workshop started with the council reviewing the six budget scenarios the City Administrator had put together per the council’s request.  Three of these had the pool budgeted in.  As has been the case in previous meetings, the council is still trying to find a way around closing the pool.  Discussions were had about pool rate increases and higher rates for out-of-town users.  It seems that there is still no budget option that is going to get Crookston putting money back into reserve funds this year.

When asked how the budget session went tonight, City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge said this. “It went fairly well, council is kind of giving staff and I direction where to go,” says Shoobridge. “ We have narrowed down the options; we are really looking to get some feedback from the residents regarding facilities versus tax rates,” Shoobridge says there are always tradeoffs one way or another.  He is hoping that, moving forward, they can find something equitable for everyone in the city.

We also asked him how things looked as far as the pool goes heading towards decision making time. “They have given direction, they want to move forward with two versions, one of which does include funding the pool, the other, does not include funding the pool.” Shoobridge agrees that just being prepared is a good practice. “Right now the thought process, the feeling that I got was that the council is open to keeping things as they are but again we are really going to be holding off our final decision until the truth and taxation on December 9.”

The frustration can be felt sitting in council chambers as council members throw ideas around in an effort to make the budget work.  We asked Jeff Shoobridge how things got this bad.  Why has the city found itself trying to dig out of a hole? “Not looking to the future for many decades, funding from reserves, things that should have been funded through other means, without strategically planning,” says Shoobridge. “ This council has done a good job in starting the framework in moving forward with some strategic plans.”

It’s not all about using funds the wrong way, says Shoobridge. “Our budgets have always been artificially capped in the past at 2%, 3%, and as a result, staff has been forced to make due. The unintended consequence of that, a few years ago, was that the city’s wages were very much lower than the comparable wages for similar positions in the region, and from 2022 to 2023, they did have to meet an adjustment that had a significant impact on the overall operating budget every year so the city could fill open positions and be competitive with hiring the best candidates for those positions.”

The post City Council gets Presentation by Ehlers on Financial Mangement Plan and then goes on to discuss budget first appeared on KROX.

The Crookston School Board met on Monday evening in the Crookston High School Choice/Orchestra room.

2023-24 AUDIT
The meeting started with Brian Opsahl of Brady Martz and Associates presenting a draft of the audit for 2023-24. Opsahl said it was a clean audit, but he suggested keeping a close eye on some things. “I did point out that the general fund went down about $1.9 million dollars compared to the previous year, and a lot of that was related to capital outlay expenditures for some ongoing projects,” said Opsahl. “The general fund balance came in at 7.9% of the expenditures, or the unassigned balance did. The fund balance policy for the district is 10% so it is something to keep an eye on.”
The board agreed to move approval of the audit to the December 9 meeting because they received the draft a few minutes before the meeting.

JOHNSON CONTROLS CONTRACT
The school board approved a three-year contract extension with Johnson Controls for $68,830 each year. “They come in and fix our heating system and filters and all that stuff,” said Superintendent Randy Bergquist. “We were able to get the contract without raising it three to five percent each year. I suppose they thought we were a good customer and I am pretty excited about that because any way we can save the district money by extending something we need anyway for our students, our staff, and community members is something I want to go forward with.”

AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION COMPLIANCE LETTER
The board unanimously approved the American Indian Education compliance letter, which is a new requirement by the State of Minnesota. Crookston School District American Indian (Native American) Liaison Dave Emanuel, who is in his ninth year in the position, said the Crookston School is doing great, especially when compared to the rest of the state. The Crookston School District has an American Indian Parent Advisory Committee (AIPAC), which tells the board if Emanuel is doing a good job or not. “I was here today for a letter of concurrence or nonconcurrence. The AIPAC said that they agree with what I am doing with the program. It is a powerful tool for the committee to give a yes or no,” said Emanuel. “There are several rule changes by statute, and number one is if you have 10 or more Native American students, you have to have a committee. If there are more than 100 Native American students in your school district, you need an education coordinator to ensure the kids are moving towards graduation.”

Emanuel said people are surprised to find out how many Native American students are in the Crookston School District. “It is kind of shocking. We have roughly 150 students, with 60 over at Highland School, and that isn’t counting the kids at Washington School,” said Emanuel, who added there is another change coming. “In the legislature, they said the native language was being forgotten. It was something the schools basically cared much about, so they made a rule change, and you must offer it now. Bobbi Jo Hebert will get the training and work with the younger kids, and then we will have an online option for the juniors and seniors next year.”

PSEO CREDIT CHANGE
The school board also approved a change to Post Secondary Education Option (PSEO) credits in the Crookston High School yearbook. “The change is for students withdrawing from a PSEO class in the middle of the semester after the drop date that the University gives will result in an F on their high school transcript,” said Crookston High School Principal Matt Torgerson. “The reality is that we are trying to hold the students accountable. We give them plenty of warnings of being a college student versus a high school student and the choices they make could doing PSEO could affect their high school. It isn’t meant to mess up anybody’s situation or their academics, it is really meant to hold the students accountable for the high level of rigor they signed up for.”
The change will start in the spring semester.

CONSENT AGENDA/MISC.
The board approved the consent agenda, which included the resignation of special ed teacher Meghan Jeffries and Highland School teacher Amanda Wolf. They will be doing an interview for the special education teacher position on Monday. They will also interview three candidates for the Assistant Technology Director position on Tuesday.

Several school board members wanted to mention that they chip in $30,000 a year towards the Crookston Community Pool and will do so until 2027 even though they no longer have a swim team and don’t use it for physical education classes. They brought it up after disparaging comments from Crookston City Council members. They also pointed out that they paid $122,000 to the city for the Crookston Sports Center this year, and they put $250,000 into the pool the year the City wanted to take over ownership from the school district.

Crystal Meine of the AIPAC and Dave Emanuel speak to the board

Brian Opsahl of Brady Martz and Associates gives the draft of the 2023-24 audit

The post Crookston School Board approves a 3-year Johnson Controls contract extension, a Native American compliance letter, and a chance to PSEO credits first appeared on KROX.

Attorney General Keith Ellison joined with Minnesota Board on Aging Chair Maureen Schneider and Senior LinkAge Line’s Medicare Product Manager Kelli Jo Greiner to raise awareness around a significant challenge facing more than 60,000 Minnesotans with Medicare Advantage health insurance plans.

Background
During Medicare’s Open Enrollment period, from October 15 – December 7, people on Medicare can shop around for the health insurance plan that best meets their needs. Original Medicare covers things like hospital stays and outpatient care, with the option to add supplemental coverage for things like vision care, prescription drugs, and dental care. Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private insurers but approved by Medicare, and these plans bundle together original Medicare coverage with additional supplemental coverage all in one plan. They typically offer a wider range of coverage with less flexibility in which providers you see.

The Problem
This year, a number of health care providers in Minnesota have decided to not accept specific Medicare Advantage plans. Seeing a provider that does not accept your Medicare Advantage plan could result in care with either a much higher out of-pocket cost or care that is not covered at all. The result is that Minnesotans with Medicare Advantage plans may have dramatically different options in health care providers under those plans. This includes the possibility that a provider that someone with Medicare Advantage has seen this year, or even for several years, may no longer accept that person’s Medicare Advantage plan next year.

“It’s my mission to help Minnesotans afford their lives, which is why I am raising the alarm around some significant issues with certain Medicare Advantage Plans,” said Attorney General Ellison. “If you receive health insurance through Medicare, please spend some time reviewing your options before December 7, and please urge any friends, family, and loved ones on Medicare to do the same. I am also calling on members of the media to use their platforms to share this critical information far and wide to help ensure Minnesota’s seniors are not forced to spend a year stuck in a health insurance plan they cannot actually make use of.”

“This year, more than ever, it’s so important for Medicare beneficiaries to review their Medicare plan before open enrollment ends,” said Kelli Jo Greiner, Senior LinkAge Line Medicare product manager. “Providers and networks have changed and costs have increased. People need to make sure they have the right plan for 2025.”

Non-Participating Providers and Plans
Below is a list of health care providers who have decided not to participate in particular Medicare Advantage Plans, along with the plan or plans they are not participating in and the areas of Minnesota they serve.

Name of provider	Area served by provider	Medicare Advantage Plan
Allina	Statewide	Humana
Avera	Southwest Minnesota	Humana
Essentia Health System	Northern Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin	Humana
M Health Fairview Health Care System	Statewide	Aetna, Humana
Mayo Clinic	May be statewide	HealthPartners
North Memorial Medical Center and providers	Primarily Metro area	Humana
Sanford Health	Western Minnesota	Humana

Who Is Affected?
Senior LinkAge Line has estimated that more than 60,000 Minnesota Medicare beneficiaries are impacted by this change. One particular area of concern for Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Minnesota Board of Aging is ensuring this information reaches people in Greater Minnesota who may have a more limited selection of health care providers.

Advice from Senior LinkAge Line on Actions Minnesotans on Medicare Should Take Immediately

1. Decide if it’s important to you to continue to see your current health care provider. If it isn’t important to you, you still should review your current plan in the Medicare Plan Finder to ensure your coverage and costs have not changed. If they have changed and you are concerned about this, review other plan options in the Medicare Plan Finder to find the best coverage for you in 2025. Click here to see slides from Senior LinkAge Line on navigating Medicare Plan Finder.
2. If you do want to continue to see your current health care provider, you also need to visit the Medicare Plan Finder at https://www.medicare.gov/ to review other plan options and consider enrolling in a new plan.
   • Create an account with a username and password.
   • Enter in your current prescriptions.
   • Enter in the pharmacy you use.
3. Decide which plan(s) you want to explore further.
4. Go to those plans’ websites and search the provider list to make sure your provider(s) participate with the new plan(s) you are interested in.
5. Enroll in the plan you choose by either calling the plan directly or enrolling online on the Medicare Plan Finder tool.
6. If you have questions or need more help, you can call 1-800-MEDICARE 24/7, or you can call the Senior LinkAge Line at 800-333-2433.
   • Please note the Senior LinkAge Line is experiencing very high call volume and wait times may be longer than normal.

Why Is This Happening?
Providers have given a variety of reasons for no longer accepting specific Medicare Advantage Plans, including:

• Reimbursement is too low and does not cover the costs of care.
• Plans frequently deny services and care that providers believe are medically necessary.
• Plans do not pay the providers in a timely manner.

About Senior LinkAge Line
The Senior LinkAge Line is a free, statewide service of the Minnesota Board on Aging in partnership with Minnesota’s area agencies on aging. The Senior LinkAge Line helps older Minnesotans and caregivers find answers and connect to the services and support they need. It is Minnesota’s federally designated State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), offering unbiased help with Medicare statewide.

The post MN Attorney General reminds seniors of big changes to Medicare plans in 2025 first appeared on KROX.

The City of Crookston now has a sign-up sheet located in City Hall for recipients for Toys for Tots.  Names will be taken through Thursday, December 19. 

Recipients must be 14 years of age or younger and must live within city limits.

All presents will be wrapped and delivered on Tuesday, December 24 (Christmas Eve), between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.

Donations are also being accepted.  To donate, stop by City Hall or mail your donation to Crookston Water Department at 124 North Broadway, Crookston, MN 56716

The post Toys for Tots sign-up now available at Crookston City Hall first appeared on KROX.

Ahead of the holiday season, Governor Tim Walz today announced $5 million in new funding to put food on tables across the state. Governor Walz made the announcement and joined volunteers to stock shelves at the Neighborhood House food shelf in St. Paul.

“All Minnesotans deserve to sit around a full table and spend time with loved ones during the holidays,” said Governor Walz. “Minnesotans are generous people who do their part to ensure their neighbors have what they need – and this funding will go a long way to supporting those efforts. I’m grateful for our partnership with organizations working to tackle food insecurity and distribute these funds quickly.”

Funding is authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act and will support food shelves amid increased visits and strains on the emergency food system. Funding will also support eligible Tribal Nations and American Indian Food Sovereignty grantees. The Department of Children, Youth, and Families will partner with The Food Group to distribute funds to food shelves across the state.

The post Ahead of Thanksgiving, Governor Walz Announces $5 Million for Food Security in Minnesota first appeared on KROX.