The Crookston Ways & Means Committee on Monday night discussed potentially moving fall clean-up week up to late September before settling on continuing to plan to hold in the last week of October as in years passed.
Public Works Director Pat Kelly told the committee that a lot of residents use fall clean-up week to dispose of leaves and garden waste and that by moving it up, a lot of trees would still be holding their leaves. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten asked if earlier in October would work better, and Kelly said that the city has other pickups during weeks earlier in the month, such as recycling. Councilman Bobby Baird also said many people in the city are involved in the fall harvest earlier in October and wouldn’t have the time to get things put out. The committee voted unanimously to keep the fall clean-up planned for the last week of October.
The committee also considered a request from the last Crookston Forum, a period for community members to address the City Council on items not on the agenda, to allow residents to connect their sump pumps to the city storm system during the winter. Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner noted that City Code 52.16 prohibits the discharge of sump pumps into city water systems currently, and a change would require a change in the city ordinance.
Kelly said no state requirement disallows sump pumps to be drained into the city system but noted the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency discourages it. Vedbraaten said the water table is high on the north end of Crookston and made a motion to change the ordinance so people with basements would have an easier time in the winter. “There is a lot of areas in town they’re already hooked into the system,” said Vedbraaten. “In that area, the water table is very high. If you’ve got an eight-foot basement, your sump pump runs all the time. If they can switch it over, so that in the wintertime you can run it through the drains, they don’t have the great, big ice chunk sitting out there and trying to bust that loose all the time. We’ve got new houses going up. If people want to build an eight-foot basement and not just a slab, they can do it and not worry about the ice out there.”
Kelly said a change would likely want to include an application and permit for draining sump pumps during the winter but added that there would probably be fewer issues during the winter months. Weasner said a change of ordinance would require drafting new language, and holding a public hearing meaning a vote by the City Council on an amendment to the ordinance will be more than a month away. “It will be a little bit longer than a month,” said Weasner. “We do have to call for a public hearing, but we have to have the language first for people to review. Then, we call for the public hearing, have the public hearing, and then it has to be published.”
The committee also received a request for a five-year tax abatement for a new business in Crookston on parcel 82.00012.01, also known as the Simplot Building, at the end of S. Main Street. Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority Executive Director Craig Hoiseth was asked if he had spoken with the business and if a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district would make more sense. Hoiseth said he hadn’t had any discussion and couldn’t give an opinion on a TIF district without seeing a business plan.
Weasner said the information she received was for a for-profit business with six-to-eight full-time employees that would benefit the environment. “They had put in their business plan that it would help the environment because it would be taking a product from American Crystal and re-using it in something else.”
Baird asked to table the discussion citing a need for more information such as drawings and a business plan. Weasner said the information was received by the city late but would be provided to the council before the next meeting, “I will provide the council with a map of the location, and the numbers that were given to me by the county to see if they’re interested in proceeding with the tax abatement request.”
Weasner told the committee that the county estimated a $60,000 increase in property valuation but said after the meeting, there was no additional information available about who or what the business requesting the abatement was.
