The Crookston Ways and Means Committee met on Monday evening and discussed the demolition of the old Tri-Valley Building, the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority, and heard from the West Central Regional Water District.
WEST CENTRAL REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT
The committee heard from Lucas Spaeth of the West Central Regional Water District, which covers portions of Polk, Norman, and Cass Counties. The West Central Regional Water District is working with existing water systems, large or small, to help larger communities optimize and sell additional water to rural residents. Spaeth said they would like to buy water from Crookston, as the city’s water plant is only at 25 percent capacity, which could allow them to provide water to the water district. “We want to be upfront with the city of Crookston, where we have built out right around Crookston. We have a lot of rural residents in the area that are very interested in it, as well as small communities that don’t want to put the capital investment into their own infrastructure,” said Spaeth. “They want higher quality water than the wells that they’re, you know, performing on, you know, just alleviates some of the small problems, but also a way to really optimize and make it a truly regional approach.”
Spaeth said they have had some meetings with the DNR, and he said the City of Crookston is well aware of the DNR’s concerns about their aquifers and the potential for overuse. If the aquifer level is adequate, the city could provide water. The City of Crookston’s plant capacity is typically used by 25 to 30% of its plant capacity. It means that they can produce a lot more water as long as they can find decent water in the aquifer or some other way to provide the raw water to the plant,” said Spaeth. “The city would make a little bit of a margin on it, and they’ve got a little bit of extra money to keep putting back into the plant.”
The committee thanked Spaeth for his presentation and asked a few questions, and no action was taken.
TRI-VALLEY DEMOLITION DISCUSSION
The committee received some bad news about the possible costs of demolishing the old Tri-Valley Building in downtown Crookston. The original demolition costs were estimated at $650,000, so the City of Crookston planned to apply for a Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development grant for that total, with the City providing a 50/50 match of $325,000. One of the requirements of the DEED grant was an engineer’s estimate, and AE2S said they believe the demolition would cost around $1.3 million, excluding tipping fees, hauling, and other fees.
Interim City Administrator Darin Selzler said he gave Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority’s Taylor Wyum permission to apply for the maximum grant of $984,000, which the city would have to match at 50 percent, or $ 492,000. The total cost to the city if Crookston received the grant would be $866,000. “If we don’t receive the grant, the next opportunity to apply for this grant would be August 1st, which would be too late to have the building demolished in 2026 or before any of the 2027 DOT Highway 2 reconstruct projects,” said Selzler. “We’ve had some meetings with AE2S. We’re currently working with them to draft the proposal, and we will publish a request for proposal for the demo project. But regardless of whether we receive the grant, we are going to have to demo that building in 2026. So that means that we would likely have to include the demo cost of Tri-Valley into a bond. We’re actually meeting, a few of us are meeting with Ehlers on Monday, February 9, to discuss bonding for the industrial park. We’ll also be discussing or bringing up options or ideas for bonding for the Tri-Valley project.“
Selzler said he, AE2S, Public Works Director Chuck Getsman, and Matt Upgren from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, who is leading the Highway 2 reconstruction project, met last week and discussed the options if either way. “MnDOT is confident in their design that if the building were there, semi-traffic and vehicle traffic would be able to make that turn on that intersection. However, if the building were removed, they would likely consider purchasing some of that property, recessing that intersection, and making more room for pedestrians. As we know, it’s with that building there, it’s a very tight intersection for pedestrians to stand on that corner and wait and monitor for traffic,” said Selzler. “Talking to Matt and AE2S, if it were decided to take this building down in 2026, which we’re fairly confident we can do, they would redesign that intersection to accommodate that.”
CROOKSTON HOUSING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY RESTRUCTURING
They are looking at restructuring the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority. There has been a strained relationship with prior community development directors and housing, and prior community development directors and city administrators. With the change in executive director at CHEDA, Selzler said it was a good time to implement the restructuring, and he is proposing changes. “The executive director title of CHEDA would be removed from that job description. The community development director would still oversee the community development city budget and the EDA or cheetah budget. The community development director would remain a direct report to the city administrator, as they have always been, and would continue to work with the cheetah board on current and future community and economic development projects,” said Selzler. “The housing director’s job description will also have some minor revisions, and moving forward, they will also be a direct report to the city administrator, not the community development director. However, to do this, the CHEDA bylaws would need to be revised to state that the executive director of CHEDA would be the city administrator, and would continue to be responsible for the housing budget, and they would report to the CHEDA board.”
Selzler said the CHEDA Board needs 14 days’ notice to change the bylaws, so it will be a month before they can make the changes. The committee reached a consensus to move forward with the plan.
