The Crookston City Council met on Monday, April 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the Crookston City Hall Council Chambers.
The consent agenda for Monday’s meeting started with the approval of minutes from the March 17 meeting and bills and disbursements of $1,079,899.32. Also approved as part of the consent agenda was acceptance of a gift of real property described as Luckow’s Landing, a donation from the Crookston Baseball Association of $25,000, $15,000 for the American Legion Baseball program and $10,000 for the Park and Rec Baseball programs, as well as a donation of $6,000 from the Crookston Baseball Association for scoreboard wrapping. The council also declared the Thief River Falls Times as the official newspaper. It approved the 2025 gas fitters license for Bears Home Solutions and cement mason licenses for Geatz Concrete and Willard Swenby. The council also approved the resolution of an updated clean-up policy, appointed Alexander Tappe to the Planning Commission, approved partial payment five for the campground improvement project and awarded the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) project to Neo Electrical Solutions.
The regular agenda opened Monday evening with two items pertaining to the Crookston Blue Line Club. First was the lease and memorandum for the 2025-2027 seasons. The agreement includes annual increases in weekly ice rental fees and a few other minor changes, such as cleaning of specified areas. The council unanimously approved the Lease and Memorandum for the 2025-2027 seasons.
The second item was for the approval of the updated Crookston Sports Center Concession and Advertising Lease and Agreement with the Crookston Blue Line Club for the years 2025-2030. This agreement includes the BLC making the most recent audit of the organization available to the City upon request. The big change came in how the City’s portion of revenues will be held by BLC and utilized by the city for CSC expenses. “We did discuss with the 50% of advertising; the Blue Line Club keeps it for projects around the rink,” says Park and Recs Director Jake Solberg. “Whether that would be glass or new uniforms, something that has to do with the CSC.” Having the funds stay in the BLC account will alleviate some accounting and invoicing requirements while making sure that the City’s 50% of revenues are used to support the CSC. During a discussion on this item, Council Member Klatt identified an opportunity for the Blue Line Club to further raise funds by utilizing the concession stand year-round. “There was talk tonight about looking at ways to maybe have the concession stand open in the off months for events,” says Solberg. “Whether that involves the Blue Line Club running that or just a supervisor, there are some kinks to work out, but just looking at other ideas for our community.” The issues, as was discussed, are the expensive equipment the Blue Line Club owns in the concession stand, it’s not willing to let others use the equipment, and who would be responsible for keeping an inventory for these extra events, all of which Solberg says can be looked into. The council approved unanimously the Concessions and Advertising Lease and Agreement with the CBL Club for 2025-2030.
The next item on the agenda was regarding approval to pay a travel reimbursement submitted out of the budget year by Council Member Kristie Jerde. Jerde submitted a request in March, dated Nov. 22, 2024. “That was brought before the council just simply because it was a closed budget year and it was beyond my ability to approve a previous budget amount, so, asking the council whether they wanted to accept that under this year,” says City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge. “The vote was four to two in favor; however, under our charter, our charter is very specific and identifies that five votes are required. It does not state a majority, so although it had the majority, it did not get the critical fifth vote.” The motion to approve travel reimbursement for Council Member Jerde in the amount of $470.58 failed. Voting yes were Council Members Henry Fischer, Clayton Briggs, Derek Brekken, and Dylane Klatt. Voting no were Don Cavalier and Morgan Hibma. Tim Menard was not in attendance, and Kristie Jerde was not able to vote.
The council moved to its next agenda item, which was for a garbage services contract with Waste Management. The city has achieved over 200 household service signups for the voluntary bin service. “It’s been going back and forth at city council for some time, even prior to myself, about trying to get some type of bin garbage service implemented within the City of Crookston,” says Public Works Director Chuck Getsman. “This time around, it happened to work out.” The bin service went out for bid, and Getsman received three bids, with Waste Management being the lowest responsible bidder. The council unanimously approved the contract with Waste Management for bin garbage services. Getsman says that things will start to move along now pretty quickly. “Waste Management did mention that they should be able to get this implemented by the first of May, so they are gathering bins from other facilities and ordering new bins,” he says. “City crews will work with Waste Management to get those out to the residents prior to the start time.”
The last item from Monday’s meeting was a discussion of potential agenda items of regional impact for the Tri-Cities meeting scheduled for the 29th of April in Thief River Falls. “Every year, there’s a Tri-Cities meeting. It’s East Grand Forks, Thief River Falls, and us here in Crookston,” says City Administrator Shoobridge. “The host city rotates. This year, Thief River Falls will be hosting.” The annual meeting allows the three city councils a chance to get together and discuss items of regional importance. “The council did give us several ideas to discuss for the agenda,” says Shoobridge. “There’s a water co-op looking to provide water for the much smaller cities, housing, childcare, various MnDOT projects and how cities are addressing the city share and the increased cost associated with that as well as workforce shortages. We should have some good things to talk about.”
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