The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) Board voted Tuesday morning to pay out 540 hours in accrued vacation to Executive Director Craig Hoiseth. Currently, Hoiseth has 740 hours of accrued vacation time, identified by auditor Brady Martz as a liability against CHEDA.
Board Chairman Kurt Heldstab said the board discussed the vacation during a closed meeting in September. According to the discussion, Hoiseth’s contract allows for 300 accrued hours of vacation or 150 percent of the annual accrual. But Heldstab said the board had allowed additional vacation hours to be added to the already existing excess annually for several years. “We talked at his review each year, the last two or three years,” said Heldstab. “We okayed that because we said you’ve got to get out, but the last few years, a lot has happened on the plate. It goes back even prior to the last couple of years. Nothing at this point to the hours, but it had started to build. He’s just dedicated to Crookston, and many things going, especially with Epitome that has consumed a lot of time. Even set up the advisory committee, which is more time with meetings, more time at council meetings than in the past. So, yep, we’re going to prevent this in the future from happening.”
Heldstab said the payout would be about $25,000. And he thought it would likely be the Economic Development Authority budget that might take the majority of the hit, which includes the City of Crookston stipend, not the Public Housing funding. “Most of it will have to come out of EDA,” said Heldstab. “We’ll have to do some investigating if we can take anything out of the housing to do this. Basically, he’s 60 percent EDA and 40 percent housing. We’ll have to lump it all together. Part of that would be the stipend (the city) gives us, but also any money we can generate in EDA.”
In the future, Hoiseth would lose any hours exceeding 300, according to Heldstab. “I’ll work with how the system bills those hours to make sure no more than 300 hours are accrued,” Heldstab. “And inform him that vacation has to be taken however he can do it, or he’ll lose it. So, if he wants to take 10 days’ vacation consecutive, it’s got to come back to the board to approve 10 days in a row. I don’t know if we’ll do anything more than that; just the way the contract was written, there are some questions on that.”
Hoiseth did suggest the board could update the contract to allow 1,000 hours of accrued vacation to withhold the payout, but the board voted unanimously to pay out the 540 hours instead.
CHILD CARE
Crookston’s child care crisis was amplified last year when the Sunrise Center closed its doors, but the first signs of relief have started to appear. Following the Crookston City Council’s approval of a conditional use permit for a child care facility, Gotta Love Kids, operated by Janelle Berhow last week, the CHEDA Board approved gap financing to purchase the facility at 202 4th Street East. Hoiseth said the loan would come from funds allocated by the board to be used for child care. “Remember back in June 2019, the board took $50,000 to allocate to what the City Council and CHEDA Board jointly identified as the number one issue facing Crookston today,” said Hoiseth. “This, I’m happy to report, is the first $15,000. It’s a low-interest loan for Janelle Berhow to gap finance and purchase the ALC building (former Crookston Public Schools’ Alternative Learning Center) downtown. That will allow her to start a business there as a day care.”
The board also received an update on a child care center for Crookston. Hoiseth said that the Regal Academy Board had decided to change its name to Crookston’s Little Pirates Company (CLPC) and had located a location within the City of Crookston that recently became available. “Marywood rose to the top of our list of available properties, but they were outside of city limits,” said Hoiseth. “This one, to tell you the truth, was on top of Marywood in terms of desirability and functionality. However, at the time, this building wasn’t for sale. Over the last year or two, this building has come for sale. And it looks like we should be able to make that deal complete. And if we can get the engineering review and work done, hopefully, we’ll see CLPC open up this spring.”
The board approved paying up to $16,000 for design engineering of the facility the CLPC board was looking to acquire. Hoiseth told the board he was very confident CHEDA wouldn’t pay the engineering fee as indications were that CLPC would receive a grant from First Children’s Finance.
HEROES RISE COFFEE COMPANY
In July 2019, Chickadee Coffee Roasters closed the Cofé Bistro. CHEDA took possession of the physical assets within the 1504 University Ave location to liquidate to cover a portion of the business’ debt of $115,000. On Tuesday, Hoiseth said Heroes Rise Coffee Company had reached a lease agreement for the former Cofé location and would like to purchase CHEDA’s assets.
Heroes Rise was recently in Crookston selling coffee, a part of the Downtown Crookston Development Partnership’s efforts to bring food trucks and other merchants to the community. After that day’s success, Hoiseth said Heroes Rise became interested in relocating their business to Crookston and purchasing the equipment valued at approximately $36,000. “We’ve been trying to look at coffee places around a 100-200 miles radius that could use that equipment,” said Hoiseth. “Heroes Rise was on that list, and when they came to Crookston, they had a real good day. We’re excited that the board approved to sell that equipment for what we had it listed for that will allow them to take over operations at the Cofé building. In addition to that, they plan to take the other half of that (building), which used to be Cycle of Threads, through a deal they’ve made with the owner Jeff Evers to put a roasting business in there canning coffee. Really exciting news for Crookston and glad to see that equipment will be put to use with a business with some employees starting up.”
A couple of board members wished to offer the equipment for a down payment of 10 percent, with the remainder due July 1, 2021. But the motion to sell the equipment with a down payment was voted down 4-2. Instead, the board authorized Hoiseth to make the best deal possible explained Heldstab. “We talked about having some type of percentage of a down payment and paying it off by the first of July,” said Heldstab. “This just came up in the last few weeks. A couple of other board members said, let’s let Craig do his job to get the best deal on all of that. Attuned to what the board is saying, let’s get it up and running. Make sure we don’t hamstring them by putting too much money upfront that needs to be repaid. Work out a plan and get the business open. The thing I want to empathize with is he’s taking both sides of the building. We’ve got some bad history with it, but I think this one is going to do just fine, and we’ll leave it up to Craig. The agreement on the equipment will be forthcoming.
The board passed a resolution to purchase parcel 823.04094.00 in Nature View Estates Plat 5 to construct a home by the construction trades class at Crookston High School. And discuss possibly acquiring the open lot at 110 Lincoln possessed by the City of Crookston for in-fill housing.
The board also approved two Building Better Business (B3) grants. The first was to Real Good Bath & Body for $3,000 to expand its production of bath bombs, which comprise 30-50 percent of sales, from a single bath bomb at a time to five at once with a new press and commercial mixer. The second request for $4,000 was from Crookston Building Center to help remove and repave its parking lot, a project estimated to cost $60,000. There is $4,500 remaining in the B3 grant program fund. Finally, the board approved a $70,000 loan at 3 percent over seven years with Adams Heating and Cooling to purchase a building in Crookston in Crookston to open a storefront.
It was also announced the ground-breaking ceremony for the Ag Innovation Campus on Wednesday, October 28, at 1 p.m. More details will be released in the coming days.
