The Crookston City Council and Crookston Housing & Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) met for a special meeting on Thursday morning inside the City Hall Council Chambers in the lower level of City Hall.
CROOKSTON CITY COUNCIL REGULAR AGENDA
The only item on the City Council’s Regular Agenda was to approve the Special Crookston Housing & Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) meeting agenda for Thursday, November 3, at 7:15 a.m., which the council approved unanimously and then adjourned.
CHEDA CHILDCARE ACTION
The CHEDA board began their meeting to discuss an action plan for childcare. CHEDA Executive Director Karie Kirschbaum reported that she had met with future Childcare Center All4Learning Owner Stefanie Okroi to learn the issues for the Childcare Center and what they needed to get it operational. Okroi told her they needed certifications and CDAs for each of her staff, which she has been paying since last March, and Kirschbaum learned that CHEDA had set aside $15,000 allocated for childcare. “We went through her needs, and she only needed $425 for each of her six staff members and then have to complete an estimated 120 hours of schooling for childcare,” Kirschbaum explained. “So, this particular money that we’ve set aside today is up to $15,000, plus she has to pay wages for that, so once the employees have completed the certifications, the state will reimburse $425 from each and up to $600 per staff. When that’s reimbursed, we’ll put that back into the city funds to be reallocated to another childcare project.” The board then asked Okroi what the state’s status was on the state’s funds for the childcare action. She and Minnesota State District 1B Representative Deb Kiel reported that they had not received any word from the licenser about the progress of completing the regulations. “There are many different kinds of regulations that don’t make a lot of sense for a childcare center. My licenser is at times very hard to get a hold of, but we also need to get staff that are qualified in the state, where they have to have a CDA or an Early Childhood background,” Stefanie Okroi explained. “That has been a challenge with keeping that, but now that we have the funds to have my staff do the training is going to be an amazingly big push.” The board approved the grant unanimously.
The Crookston City Council will next meet on Monday, November 7, at 7:00 p.m. inside the City Hall Council Chambers, and the Crookston Housing & Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) will next meet on Tuesday, November 15, at 5:00 p.m. inside the Valley Technology Park.
