A Facebook post by Crookston resident Derek Brekken on Monday, June 1, sparked significant discussion in the community. Brekken posted photos of dandelions, thistle and other weeds in Carman Park. Brekken said he first took notice of the weeds last year and it was just as bad this year. “I noticed it last year and it bugged me,” said Brekken. “Never really put too much effort into it and this year it’s looking just as bad if not worse. I thought it was time. I shouldn’t have to make it noticed because if you drive around you see everything. But to get it out and I guess by the traffic on the Facebook post it definitely got traction pretty quickly.”
He said hopefully the response, there have been over 100 comments and shares, will create some leverage for a change. “I was really happy with it…. that other people saw it too,” said Brekken. “Hopefully, that will get more leverage on something possibly happening.”
Brekken said he hasn’t contacted City Hall or Parks and Recreation recently and he wasn’t currently planning to attend a city meeting with his concerns, “I don’t at the moment but if it continues up, I think I’ll have to try to do something.”
One commentator said they were told by the city hasn’t sprayed in ten years because of the cost and lack of personnel and didn’t plan to start. Parks and Recreation Director Scott Riopelle confirmed it had been many years since parks were sprayed for weeds. “It’s been many years because it wasn’t cost-effective,” said Riopelle. “With over 300 acres that care for it’s pretty difficult and pretty costly to do all of those parks. Highland Park is sprayed and fertilized. We’ve limited it to that the last quite a few years along with we may do some stuff around some playground equipment that needs some stuff or some poles. We do some spraying that way but it’s more of sterilant then a weed spray.”
Asked about alternative weed control strategies, Riopelle said he’d have to look into it. “I guess we’d have to look at it,” said Riopelle. “We’ve had people pull them yearly. When it’s in the playground equipment we have had some people do some spraying in there and take care of it. But that’s about the only stuff we have done.”
Brekken said he hopes the city sees the discussion and takes pride in making the town look nice. “I hope the city sees it and takes some pride in making the town look nice,” said Brekken. “I did do some research and try to find some more on the discussion that was brought up on the gateway through town that included Highway 2, Fairfax Avenue, Fisher Avenue, Main Street, and Broadway. And I think there were a few other streets where most of the traffic goes through town. They wanted to hold businesses accountable for their storefronts and their boulevards making sure it looks nice for people to come through town. How can you hold somebody accountable for stuff like that if you don’t do it yourself?”
KROX saw City of Crookston staff in downtown Crookston spraying weeds on the sidewalks late last week.
COVID-19 has caused quite a few changes the past few months and Brekken said he thought there might be some knowledgeable people who could help clean up parks. “As far as the city doesn’t have the personnel, I realize we have a lot of crazy stuff going on right now,” said Brekken. “And with Park and Rec not having any activities and the amount of temporary help the city hires in the summer, I imagine there are some knowledgeable people that would be willing to clean up parks, pull weeds, paint things, clean stuff up. I realize we can’t justify hiring all the normal staff but if there is work to be done and people willing to do it, it would make a lot of sense.”
The Parks and Recreation Department is working with about half their normal staff, many moved over from other positions explained Riopelle. “In a normal year we have twice as many people working in the offseason to care for everything,” said Riopelle. “Right now, we’re working with half of the staff and a lot of the staff, it’s new to them because we’ve changed duties. So, there is a learning curve. They are doing well and doing their best and that’s all we can ask for.”
Addressing summer youth programs, Riopelle said, before Friday’s updates were announced, they hadn’t yet discussed the possibility of having some type of programming this summer. “We have not,” said Riopelle. “The changes that have come into effect are similar to what they were a week or two weeks back because it’s still in phase two or whatever. So, there is no contact, still have to do stuff in pods. There are a couple of private groups doing stuff with ball on their own but in order for them to do that, we asked that they abide by those rules. We are always looking at what we can in the future. We just aren’t sure how we’ll go about it and how we can get enough personnel to work it.”
He added that he has been in contact weekly with East Grand Forks and a concern they have is staffing, which Riopelle said allowing the staff time to find other jobs was why Crookston made an early decision on summer activities. “I know that East Grand Forks is starting stuff the beginning of July,” said Riopelle. “And they’re doing it for approximately one month, and so is Grand Forks. They’ll be doing the same at least through the Park District is my understanding. I have spoken with East Grand Forks and I speak with them probably each week on what they’re going to do. I think the big thing is they’re going to hope they can get enough personnel to work at this point in time because most people have taken other jobs. And that was part of our reasoning, and I’ve said this before, part of our reasoning for trying to make the call early was to give our employees the benefit of the doubt and let them find other work which we feel is only right. We don’t want to keep them hanging. So, that’ going to be interesting to see how we can do that should we try to come up with some programs in the future.”
