Tuesday night in a meeting about the child care need and importance at Valley Technology Park questions were raised about $50,000 that the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) Board had allocated in May for the buildout of Marywood to support Regal Academy. Erika Leckie, director for Regal Academy, said she was confused about why that money was no longer available to Regal Academy because they still need it to get off the ground.
CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth explained the steps that led to that money being re-allocated for all child care solutions in July. “Well, you remember back in May the board allocated $50,000 for the buildout or the operations center of Regal Academy,” said Hoiseth. “Concurrently to that we started to apply for some grants – Northwest Minnesota Foundation, Otter Tail Power Company, Halstad Telephone Company, and Crookston Township – all came forward with some significant grant dollars that covered the cost of the buildout which was fantastic. Ultimately, I brought that back to the board in July that those dollars had come in. And the board approved to receive those dollars and appropriate those for Regal Academy. That $50,000 question was still sitting there so, we basically said it goes back into the pot with the $350,000 that came from the city. But the board was very receptive toward spending that money for a child care center or child care local providers to ease that problem. There just haven’t been any requests that have come but certainly that $50,000 is still applicable for the child care solution in Crookston.”
If that money is no longer going to Regal Academy, how can it be applied to child care in the community? Hoiseth said that in order for the board to approve the expenditure of funds there needs to be a request or application for those funds. “Essentially you need to have a business just like any other request of CHEDA,” said Hoiseth. “You have to have a business, a business model – a plan or some sort a financial that’s available – then we determine the source and use of funds like we always do and try to create more leverage for the use of those funds. Certainly, Regal Academy has a great application in now so they should be seeing that coming forward. Other child care centers around locally or local providers, we’d love to engage with those folks and say how can we maximize the dollars we have available to minimize the child care shortage in Crookston.”
There is currently no policy or procedure put in place by the board for using the $50,000, but Hoiseth said he is willing to meet with local providers and discuss a plan so he can put together a model for the board to consider for the allocation of those funds. “Absolutely, I think I’ve reached out to some of the local providers and saying – hey I’m willing to meet and have a discussion if we want to build some sort of a policy, procedure or plan on how that could happen,” said Hoiseth. “That’s the board’s decision, not mine. But I’ll certainly take in all that information and develop it into a working model that the board can consider. Child care centers are operating as a business now and probably, they could simply put in a loan application. And perhaps the board might even consider a very low-interest or maybe even forgivable loan depending on what the application is entailing. The board is very receptive toward continuing to work on the child care situation in Crookston. But, we were fortunate to receive the grants and we did make a commitment that if the grants were successful we’d reduce our commitment on the front end of Regal Academy. You could go back in the minutes of the May meeting and see that we did discuss that. But moreso I think the bigger question is what’s the need and Joan [Berntson] was here last night talking about the need in Crookston. The board certainly hasn’t lost sight of that and wants to continue that discussion forward.”
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