The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority met on Tuesday morning at the Fournet Building ballroom to discuss the rehab program, Hero’s Rise Coffee, and they paid an invoice from Epitome Energy. The board also received a tour of the Fournet after the meeting (pictures below). We will have more on the Fournet next week when they install the skylight in the roof.
HEROES RISE COFFEE
Heroes Rise Coffee had a loan request as they are looking at possibly moving downtown into the Daroo’s Building or taking over the other half of the building they are currently leasing to expand their canning operation. 
Hero’s Rise opened in November and closed in April because of the equipment failure, and they look at reassessing their next step. “The equipment has been there since Cofe, Chickadee had used it, and then Heroes Rise was using it, and some of the equipment started to fail,” said CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth. “With all equipment, it requires maintenance, and when you shut it down, it is hard to restart it and get it back up again, so they wanted new equipment and buy the time you price it all out you need over $50,000 to start the business back up again it is a lot of debt to service. We want to make sure everything is aligned properly for them to have a successful business in town, and we will work with them over the next few months to make sure the business model is sustainable.”
City Councilman Tom Vedbraaten said three coffee shops in the same location have struggled and questioned if being downtown would be better without a drive-through.
City Councilman Steve Erickson suggested they table the loan request until they know where they will be located and what the owner’s plans are.
HOUSING REHAB PROGRAM
The Crookston Housing Rehab program was started with $150,000 seed money and is for people or contractors to take out a loan at two percent interest to rehab a home in town, and they have to pay the loan back in one year.
The program has been popular the past several years, but this year it hasn’t received the same interest with only one person (Luke Normandin) taking advantage of the program. “We have seen a lot of homes renovated, the property tax base increasing, but something has happened during the pandemic where not as many people are looking at buying homes and flipping them,” said Hoiseth. “Trying to buy a house, get it remodeled, and getting it on the market and selling it takes a little more than a year right now, so I wanted to talk to the board about revitalizing that program and maybe market it a little bit.”
EPITOME ENERGY INVOICE
The CHEDA board voted unanimously to pay an invoice submitted by Epitome Energy that goes towards their $250,000 forgivable loan. The money from the forgivable loan is $100,000 from the now-defunct Crookston Jobs organization, and $75,000 came from Valley Technology Park income, and $75,000 came from the City of Crookston budget directly. The invoice was for Wenck Associates of just under $30,000 for the air permit application work, which brings the total for the permitting process at just over $192,000 from the $250,000 loan they approved for Epitome Energy. 
“That air permit is almost ready, and we are looking at June as submitting it to the MPCA (Minnesota Pollution Control Agency), and hopefully we will have a good result then,” said Hoiseth.
Crookston Mayor Dale Stainbrook asked how many months will it take once the air permit application has been turned into the MPCA. Hoiseth said it could be anywhere from four months up to 18 months. But Epitome Energy and Wenck have been working with the MPCA throughout the entire process, so he assumes it will be on a shorter timeframe. “I think the MPCA knows their role to try to get the businesses up and running,” said Hoiseth. “When you look at MPCA rules, they are pretty elaborate. We understand you have to have all the I’s dotted, and the T’s crossed, and that is what Wenck Associates and Sunde are doing, so when they get the application submitted, the MPCA will be in the know, and the timetable should be much quicker.”
City Councilman Steve Erickson said he would like to see more updates from Egan and be provided some timeline on the project. “The council had looked at it and given the terrible crop conditions in 2019 and then COVID they have had a hard time getting up here to meet with farmers, so everything went into a lurch in the equity drive,” said Hoiseth. “As we move forward, it looks like everything is back on track, and the air permit gets turned in in June.”
MISC
There was a discussion about a meeting time change from 7:00 a.m. suggested by City Administrator Amy Finch. The consensus of the board was that 7:00 a.m. was the best time for all of them. City Councilman Wayne Melbye commented that no time is a perfect time, but the goal was to get the CHEDA Board members at the meeting to have a quorum. Melbye also said to look at the Park and Rec meeting on Monday afternoon. They weren’t able to have a meeting because several board members couldn’t make it.
A request was made that the agenda be made public by posting it on the CHEDA website to offer more transparency. According to state law, CHEDA has to notify the public of the meeting, and posting the agenda isn’t required. Everybody in the room thought it would be good to post the agenda publicly, so they are more transparent.
