Month: June 2025

SPECIAL MEETING
The Crookston City Council met for a Special Meeting on Monday, June 2, at 5:15 p.m. to appoint Joseph Shostell to fill the vacant At-Large Council Member seat.  The vacancy, declared on May 5, 2025, came following the written resignation of Tim Menard.  When it was time to approve Shostell as the At-Large Council Member, the motion failed with a 3-2 vote. Council Members Fischer, Briggs, and Brekken voted yes, while Klatt and Cavalier voted no.  Council Member Hibma was absent Monday night, and Council Member Jerde showed up late and missed getting a chance to vote.

“Our Charter identifies that five votes are required. During the special meeting last week, it was a 3-2-2 consensus; it wasn’t a vote because it was a workshop at Ways and Means,” says City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge. “It was brought forth to ratify today, and council members present voted the way they did, and we did not reach our five required votes.”

This unexpected turn of events will put off having a full council for a bit longer. “The next step is that it will be brought up at the next meeting for debate on the 16th, two weeks from tonight,” says Shoobridge. “We looked at the possibility of a special meeting next Monday; however, we had some scheduling conflicts, and a vote of this importance, we really wanted to make sure that everyone was involved and available.” The debate, as Shoobridge mentioned, will be on how the council will go about choosing from the candidate pool that was interviewed on May 19.

REGULAR MEETING
The Crookston City Council held its regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall in the Council Chambers.

The regular agenda included the second and final reading of the ordinance for the “Regulations of Cannabis Businesses” in the City of Crookston. Nothing had changed in the ordinance since the original reading. What does the final reading of this ordinance mean for Crookston going forward? “It is now an ordinance of the city. It lays down a template so that we can provide some level of regulations once the state comes through with their framework and their process for licensure.”

The second item was a resolution authorizing the City of Crookston to apply for the Greater Minnesota Housing Infrastructure Grant and commit matching funds.  In the resolution, it is stated that Crookston has been identified as a Workforce Housing Community and a Top Job Center within the Northwest Region by Minnesota Housing. The Greater Minnesota Housing Infrastructure Grant requires a 50% local match to secure the financing. The council was asked to affirm that it has the financial ability to provide and hereby approve up to $500,000 in matching funds as required by the grant program. 

Community Development Director Karie Kirschbaum says she and her staff will work with the City Administrator, Finance Director, and Public Works to consider the best combination of Bonding, Tax Increment Financing, Assessments, and any other financial means for the match. What would it do for the city if they were to receive the grant funding?

 “The EDA is putting together a plan for a couple of cul-de-sacs with some single-family and some twin homes,” says Shoobridge. “What this grant allows us to do is offset some of the cost of installing the infrastructure, the roads, the water, the sewer, to get them ready for building so that they can move forward.” Shoobridge says that grants like this really help to take some of the pressure off the city budget. 

Housing is one of the concerns Crookston has when it comes to bringing people to Crookston, as well as helping our tax capacity. Shoobridge feels confident in Kirschbaum and her team finding ways to support the match for this grant. “Karie and her team are very good at finding grants, so we are counting on them to find some money to help offset that match.” Kirschbaum explained to the council Monday evening that if they cannot find a satisfactory combination of means to offset the matching funds, they will not submit the application. The grant application is due June 12, 2025.  The council unanimously approved the application.

Earlier in the meeting, an item was added to the regular agenda by the council pertaining to the Crookston Public Pool. During the Crookston Forum, Carol Gregg of Fin & Fit addressed the council with a donation to cover all needed repairs at the pool.  The donation was in the amount of $10,500. The council once again had the tough job of deciding whether to continue working with the community to keep the pool open. At the last meeting, a resolution to fix the pool with donated funds failed.

This week, a few new items were added to the list of things needing to be fixed to make the pool operational. The new issue was that a flange connection cracked due to some piping not being secured by brackets. The cost of the new flange and pipe hangars is $3785. That added to the prior repair needs total just over $10,100. The council took into consideration that there are more people and businesses willing to help. “We did get a unanimous vote to move forward,” says Shoobridge. “Jake was sitting in the back, our Parks & Rec Director, and I think he knows right now that we are going forward. Let’s get these things fixed and let’s get the pool back opened up.”

Although the vote was unanimous, both Council Members Klatt and Fischer expressed that they do not intend to approve any city-funded pool repairs in the future. Fischer also reminded his fellow council members that two years ago, they were all handed an inspection report for the pool that listed all the critical and noncritical items needing attention immediately. He pointed out that none of those critical items had been taken care of to his knowledge. Some of those critical items were related to the safety of the building.

Swim Lessons that were slated to start today will hopefully soon be back on the schedule for the Crookston Pool.  It will take some time now to get all the items fixed and the pool to temp of course. The commitment of Fin & Fit has been unwavering, and Carol Gregg tells us that the support comes from many. “Fin & Fit committed to contributing $10,500 to the pool, which will cover the cost of the current repairs,” says Gregg. “We also have assurance from some others that there is more money available, so we would be remiss not to acknowledge that a lot of people in this community are willing to basically put their money where their mouth is and come up and spend money to fix the pool.”