The Crookston Housing & Economic Development Authority held their monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at Valley Technology Park. The main agenda for the meeting had a few items for approval and one discussion item. Community Development Director Karie Kirschbaum also updated the board on what developments for Septembers Rodeo.
The board approved meeting minutes for both the February 25 meeting and a special meeting that was held March 4. The special meeting was set to consider a revolving loan request for the owners of AmericInn on Hwy 2, in Crookston. The owners have been doing extensive renovations on the building which was built in 1997 and was purchased by the current owners January 28, 2024. The revolving loan request which was for $75,000 at a 6% interest rate over one year and will serve as gap financing on the over $3 Million dollar renovations. The board approved the revolving loan at the March 4 special meeting.
The first item on the regular agenda for Tuesday’s meeting was for approval to apply for RFP Bring It Home State Vouchers. “The Bring it Home State Voucher Program, they’ve been kind of in the works with that,” says Theresa Tahran, Crookston Housing Director. “So basically, rather than Section eight, which is federal rental assistance this would be more of a state program.” Tahran says that if the application were approved by the state it would bridge a gap in rental assistance. “Right now, an allocation of $95,484, with about 10-13 vouchers and admin of about $19,000-$25,000,” says Tahran. “It’s basically to help families with more renal assistance rather than the federal dollars. Currently we have a wait list for our section eight so this would allow us to pull some more and get some rental assistance for others.” The board approved unanimously for Tahran to submit the application for the program.
The next item was for approval to apply for RFP HUD Emergency Safety Grant. This is something that has been applied for in the past and if awarded would be used at Oak Court. “We will be applying for exit lighting at Oak Court,” says Tahran. It’s just public housing for the Emergency Safety Grant and we will also be doing door controllers for handicap doors.” The board approved unanimously to apply for the Emergency Safety Grant.
The next item was asking the board to approve of funds in the amount of $1550 to go to the Early Childhood Initiative Childcare Summit. The money would be used to help defer the cost of the meal that will take place during the Childcare Summit coming up April 22-24, 2025. The board approved unanimously of allotting these funds to the Childcare summit. The board was also asked to approve of funding for a new daycare portable sink in the amount of $1,700. There are two new daycares going into Washington School in the near future and as part of licensing one of them needs to have a portable sink. The board approved unanimously of funding the portable sink.
The last item on the regular agenda was a discussion on the Pre-Bonding Project Costs for the Industrial Park Development. Kirschbaum says that in 2023 with the Industrial Park USEDA grant opportunity was proposed the Crookston HEDA approved using the Crookston Jobs Fund to cover upfront engineering costs. The grant is a federal grant and has been delayed but is expected to be announced soon. If the grant is awarded Kirschbaum says the City Council will vote on accepting the grant, bonding for the remaining costs and applying for a BDPI grant from DEED to offset city costs. Should the city move forward the Crookston HEDA will seek reimbursement for the upfront costs it covered. These reimbursements the Crookston HEDA would seek are in the amount of $77,552. Next steps will be to review and coordinate with the City to consider the necessary actions for reimbursement as the project advances.
Kirschbaum updated the board Tuesday on the progress made with the Wojo Rodeo. “We are meeting weekly out here at Valley Tech Park at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday mornings, so if people are interested in a portion or a part of working with that on the rodeo for us, that would be exciting,” says Kirschbaum. “We had originally started out with a different name but we ended up on a very innovative name and I know you can’t wait to hear it. It’s going to be the Crookston Rodeo.” People have really turned out for the event to help in all areas of the planning and they are moving forward to make it a memorable family event. “We have a good team. Keenan, our Marketing person from the city is working with us to get that out there,” says Kirschbaum. We just put together our sponsor packets. We kind of finalized that yesterday and our ticket vendor, we worked on that.”
As reported earlier this year the dates for the Crookston Rodeo are kind of in line with some other great events that happen in Crookston each year, including Pioneer Days, the King of Trails Garage Sales and more. “The dates will be September 5 and 6. It will be out at the CSC and the arena will be placed on the east side of that,” says Kirschbaum. “And inside we will be having Cowboy Market Place.” The team is full speed ahead now that they were able to overcome the one hurdle that was holding things up. “As you may have heard, we had to put everything on pause until we located bleachers because we did not realize how hard they would be to find when we come right in the middle of football season, other people are renting bleachers and here comes the Crookston Rodeo,” says Kirschbaum. “We are excited about that and we really want to encourage the community to put it on your calendars.”
The next Crookston HEDA meeting will be on April 29, 2025, at 7:00 a.m. at Valley Technology Park.
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