The Crookston City Council met on Monday evening in the City Hall Council Chambers.
The meeting started with the approval of the updated state airport fund grant agreement, as the City of Crookston has been awarded for the construction of a five-unit hangar at the Crookston Municipal Airport. The State’s participation in the project will not exceed $61,750.22 with the remaining project costs funded through federal and local sources.
The council approved a gas fitting license for Bears Home Solutions.
2024 AUDIT RECAP
The regular agenda began with Sheanne Hediger, CPA at Baker Tilly LLP, who gave a 2024 audit recap. The audit took longer with staffing changes at the city and Baker Tilly. Hediger said it was a clean report. New City of Crookston Finance Director Jon Roscoe said all the findings were expected. “The numbers are a little older, but the overall controls and information that she talked about of just really the turnover the last few years and the staff, they did what they could do, but that caused the delay in the timeline,” said Roscoe. “And some of the findings that she had to include in the audit report related to reconciliation, bank reconciliation, and segregation of duties. That was all expected, basically, because of all of that transition.”
With the 2024 audit complete, work is underway to complete the 2025 audit in time for 2027 budget discussions. “I think about mid-June we’re going to get started. But we’re starting now. We’re getting information put together, and we’re already trying to update some of those controls, recommendations that she had,” said Roscoe. “We’re already starting to get those pieces implemented now so that hopefully it’ll be a much smoother process and we’ll get that audit report out much more timely this year.”
FEBRUARY 17 CLOSED MEETING SUMMARY
Crookston interim City Administrator Daren Selzler gave a summary of the closed session from the February 17 meeting. Those in attendance at the closed meeting were Mayor Dale Stainbrook and City Council Members Joseph Shostell, Don Cavalier, Derek Brekken, Dylane Klat, and Morgan Hibma. Also present were Interim City Administrator Darin Selzler and Community Development Director Taylor Wyum. Selzler could only offer limited information due to the ongoing negotiations and non-disclosure agreements, but he gave the following summary: “The purpose of that meeting was to discuss a potential land sale of parcel number 82.0016301 (in the Industrial Park). The meeting was held as a result of a purchase agreement submitted to the City of Crookston,” said Selzler. “The purchase agreement and potential development options on that parcel were discussed. The purchase agreement was not accepted at that time; however, the next steps were discussed, and the next steps moving forward were to occur at a future meeting.”
LEAD SERVICE LINE REPLACEMENT
The council approved an application to the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority for financial assistance to replace lead service lines. The City of Crookston intends to undertake a Lead Service Line Replacement Project to improve the safety and reliability of the municipal drinking water system and will apply to the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority for a loan and/or grant from the Drinking Water Revolving Fund for the Lead Service Line Replacement Project as described in the application in the amount up to $350,000. “The city has 14 identified lead service lines, slash galvanized lines that need to be replaced. So we’re just working to get those replaced this summer. So the city is doing their inventory,” said Seaver. “We’re just working through the process right now of application, getting those plans set. That stuff will be sent off later this month. And then we’ll do another task order for the construction part, which would be that remainder of that grant that we’re getting.”
If awarded, this loan/grant will be at no cost to the City of Crookston.
