The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) board met on Tuesday, approving the paying of an invoice to Industrial Process and Management Consultants, LLC, for $7,000. Last week, a motion to recommend approving the invoice died without a second during CHEDA’s Epitome Energy Advisory Committee meeting.
CHEDA Board President Kurt Heldstab said he’d spoken with the members of the advisory committee over the last week and learned that none of them opposed paying the invoices as much as they were waiting on someone else to make the second. “The next one or two days, I had personally contacted all but one of the board members,” said Heldstab. “I haven’t been able to get a return call from him. Nobodies got an issue with the invoice. I can’t explain why it didn’t go through the advisory. They were all in agreement. The one thing about it is it was for permitting. And that’s what we have the money ($250,000 loan for permitting expenses) between the what the city and CHEDA funded.”
Jim Lambert, project manager for the Ag Innovation Campus, spoke with the board on the scope of the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council’s plans. “It’s an exciting project that we’re looking at being the Ingersoll and Highway 75 intersection,” said Lambert. “There are 10 acres, and we’re looking at developing an Ag Innovation Center. It will be a place to do applied research, some teaching, and training. The main part will be a small soybean crush plant, which will enable us to do value-added soy products. That will be the anchor of the Ag Innovation Campus, but we’ll also have facilities for small companies to do pilot testing, get technical assistance, production testing, and commercialize their products. The idea would be those companies would spin off and build their own facilities creating more jobs and economic development in northwest Minnesota.”
The Ag Innovation Campus is expected to receive a previously awarded $5 million grant from the State of Minnesota this summer. That money will be used to purchase equipment, secure permits, and possibly start the first phase of construction explained Lambert. “We are expecting a $5 million grant from the State of Minnesota around July 1,” said Lambert. “That initial monies will be used to source some equipment for the crush plant, do some of the permitting, and then building. The building will be built in phases. The first phase will have some offices available, some labs, small soy crush plant, and some bays for some of the soy innovation projects that have been funded through the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. And then, as we have funds available we’ll expand and build more bays in that facility.”
Crookston Inn operator Laurie Stahlecker also spoke with the board about the plans the hotel groups are working on to revamp the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau and to see if the CVB could temporarily operate under CHEDA while seeking their non-profit status. Stahlecker said the board structure would remain similar to the current CVB. “The way I looked at it, we kind of kept the structure the same as the current CVB,” said Stahlecker. “I think that will work very well. Maybe adding more of the retail side of the business to it. Otherwise, there is not much we can move forward with until we get approval from the city, of course.”
The CHEDA Board expressed would be willing to be the temporary host of the CVB while they are getting their non-profit pending the decision of the city council. Stahlecker said she intends to present the CVB’s new plan of operation to the Crookston City Council at their next meeting on Tuesday, May 26.
The board also made a significant contribution to the Crookston Chamber’s Chamber Buck program that ran last month. Originally, CHEDA had agreed to pay for all the Chamber Bucks issues through April 20, which came out to $5,140. During the discussion about possibly increasing the amount of the program CHEDA would pay for, Mayor Dale Stainbrook suggested that CHEDA pay for the entire program because the Chamber operates on a limited budget that will also be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a second motion, the CHEDA Board approved another $9,860 to pay for a total of $15,000 of the $15,880 Chamber Bucks issued.
CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth said he appreciated the board making that decision as the program was important for Crookston businesses during a depressed economy due to COVID-19. “Originally, in speaking with the Chamber, we discussed a 20-21-day program,” said Hoiseth. “It ended up being a 30-31-day program, which was fine. The board recognized that and wanted to participate because it was a nice venture for spending locally in a depressed economy. Buying local was very important, so the board decided to move forward to foot the bill for the entire Chamber Bucks promotion basically. I appreciate the board doing that, and certainly, the community was a big benefactor of that.”
The $15,000 for Chamber Bucks exceeds what CHEDA had available for promotions for the year, so Hoiseth said they would tap into some reserve EDA funds to cover the rest. “We have a few funds established, but most of them are restricted funds, so we don’t have that many that we can take to leverage them,” said Hoiseth. “The community investment platform was $350,000. We’d like to keep that intact because we see that there is opportunities there that if we take that new money, we can go out and get grants and apply for other types of programs. So, we’re just going to take this amount of money, in the neighborhood of $15,000, for the Chamber Bucks program from the EDA fund which is money that’s been available because the staff has been working so much on the HUD platform to build up reserves.”
The board also authorized legal collections action against Paul Kezar and A+ Mobile Brakes for an outstanding revolving loan. The outstanding loan is for $4,272 plus accrued interest. Hoiseth said there hadn’t been payments on the loan for a couple of years, so they will go through collections to retire the loan. “A+ Mobile Brake Repair has been a business we’ve had a revolving loan with for quite a few years,” said Hoiseth. “The past couple of years they haven’t been making any payments. So, the board decided today to move forward and bring it to collections. We do have a pretty strong collateral backing those loans, so we’ll be able to go after and receive that collateral, then retire that debt.”
The board also discussed the Construction Trade class house built by students at Crookston High School. With distance learning in place since March, progress on the house located at 1603 Hoven Lane was halted. Hoiseth said the plan is to hire a contractor to complete the house and start a new one in the fall if school is in session. “The school closed down, so the students weren’t there anymore,” said Hoiseth. “They’ve done a really nice job of getting the house to a certain place of completion. We’ll probably hire a contractor and get that placed finished up so the school kids can start a brand new one next year. The Oak Court project, we’re going to reinitialize that. The plumbers and contractors will be back on site this week or next to reboot that now that the stay-at-home order has been lifted.”
The final update to the board was a document from the Regal Academy Board updating their status on bringing a new child care center to Crookston. With cash flow limited do to the rough local economics in the last year, they are no longer sure if the Marywood location east of Crookston is viable. And are looking at other sites including the Lincoln School building and property on Marin St. Hoiseth explained to the board that some of the business partners for the center had to reduce their commitment to the center. “Marywood is a big facility,” said Hoiseth. “It costs a lot for operating costs. Some of our business partners were having a tough year last year, so they weren’t able to make quite as strong a commitment on a monthly or annual basis. We’re looking at all the spots in town again. We’ve looked at them two to three different times before. There is a new space that has become available that the board is looking at reconstituting a warehouse space into a child care center. We’ll see if we can hear more about that in the upcoming months.”
Hoiseth also added that Marywood remained on the list of possible locations despite the concerns over expenses to remodel, rent, and operate at that location. Regal Academy’s child care center application has been submitted to the state for approval, who will hold it until a location is determined.
