The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday morning to discuss two topics, invoices for permitting for Epitome Energy and the 2020 CHEDA final budget. The board voted unanimously to pay the invoices from Sunde Engineering and Wenck Associates for permitting as recommended by the advisory committee.
Kurt Heldstab, CHEDA Board President, said the board agreed with the recommendation of the advisory committee, and it was a good day for keeping the process going for Epitome Energy to come to Crookston. “The board with the advisement from the advisory committee said yes they were going to do that, so the motion was carried,” said Heldstab. “We’ll get those invoices paid and continue on the progress and move forward. If anything else comes up, probably start with the advisory committee and move forward. It was a good day for the CHEDA Board and to keep this process going for Epitome to get to Crookston.”
City Administrator Shannon Stassen said the information was known about the four-to-one match before the CHEDA board was made aware of it. Heldstab said that Epitome Energy CEO Dennis Egan was still working with the Department of Agriculture at that time to get the one-to-one match that the Department of Agriculture initially indicated was possible. Board member Craig Morgan confirmed the board was notified at its monthly meeting in October of the change and had three weeks to consider the information, during which time the advisory committee unanimously recommended to pay the invoices. Stassen said that CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth was well aware that the match would be four-to-one on September 13. Hoiseth said he had a document dated September 13 about a four-to-one match, but that Egan told him the same day that they were still working on obtaining the one-to-one match.
Hoiseth said that Egan was informed on October 10 that if permitting were to move forward with no progress towards the possibility of a one-to-one match, it would need to go before the CHEDA Board. Hoiseth said, at that point, the update about the match being four-to-one was scheduled for the October 22 board meeting. “At my board meeting on the 22nd of October, I told people that we had heard about this back in August, and we reaffirmed that with the advisory committee,” said Hoiseth. “We didn’t know it was going to be a fact. We did see a document show up on September 13. However, Dennis Egan, with Epitome Energy, thought we could still work it out with the Department of Ag to get a one-to-one match. Unfortunately, these invoices started coming and needed to get paid to get this environmental work and air permitting underway, so what we did the first week of October was resigned ourselves to the fact we were going to go with a four-to-one match. And I was quick to put that on the agenda for the October meeting of the CHEDA Board. So, everything has been waiting for that match, but everybody in the room, again, just like the last couple of weeks knows fully, this is a four-to-one match, not a one-to-one, unfortunately.”
Last week Egan assured the advisory committee that Epitome Energy would not ask for additional funds for the air permitting and environmental worksheet. Hoiseth said there is protection on the loan if Epitome Energy doesn’t build their facility. “Our exposure will stay the same not to exceed a quarter of a million dollars,” said Hoiseth. “Again, that’s a loan. So, if Epitome Energy does not build their facility, they have to pay us back. If they do build the facility, then we get the money back with interest in the sale of the land. It’s a pretty good deal for Crookston, and we get to keep moving the process forward, which is exciting. We certainly want to do whatever we can to encourage the growth and continued progress of Epitome Energy.”
The $23,350 invoice from Wenck Associates and the $25,000 invoice from Sunde Engineering will be paid from the former Crookston Jobs account explained Hoiseth. “The board talked about which fund we might do that from,” said Hoiseth. “Remember that the City Council appropriated $150,000 towards this $250,000 over the summer. And what we thought was we have $100,000 of money that was given to us through the Crookston Jobs folks, and that is in perfect alignment with their vision, which is trying to create dynamics and economic vitality in the form of property taxes and job creation. The board did today say let’s use that first $50,000 to come out of the Crookston Jobs account. Thankful to [Crookston Jobs] for their leadership and understanding. Of course, they were a one-third owner of this property and kind of initiated the process to obtain that property. So, without the hard work of those visionary folks, we wouldn’t be sitting here in this great position today.”
The board also decided to hold off on finalizing the 2020 budget until the December CHEDA Board meeting.
Tags:
