The Crookston Housing & Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) met on Tuesday for a regular meeting at 7:00 a.m. at the Valley Technology Park.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS
The board first began the process of electing the members of its Executive Committee. All of the CHEDA board members took an Oath to Office to their seat on the board. The board nominated Nick Nicholas to be the President of the board and was elected unanimously. The board then appointed Tom Skjei to be the Vice President of the board and was elected unanimously. The board then selected Phil Schramm to be the Treasurer of the board and was elected unanimously. The board nominated Morgan Hibma to be the Secretary of the board, which the board elected unanimously. Pictures of the boards and the newly elected officials can be seen below-
OLD BUSINESS
The board then heard from Community Development Director Kari Kirschbaum with an update on the 90-acre Industrial Park. They had begun water modeling in the areas to ensure flooding didn’t happen before they added more property. However, they also planned to work with North Star Line to help the Ag Community and the Ag Innovation Campus with shipping and distribution.
“North Star Line is to the south of our Industrial Park, but we wanted to partner with them on some projects to see if we can make some things work out there that will help our Ag Community with shipping and that type of stuff. We’ll see what happens. We’re also working with the Ag Innovation Campus and getting the road going out there. That should be going in this summer,” Kirschbaum explained. “We’re pretty excited about that. It’s been pending for a while. We’re doing water modeling out there, which is being done before we build anything more to ensure the water flow is what it should be and that we’re set up for that.”
The city had received bids for the road’s creation, which was less than what they projected, which could allow for a longer road or with more utilities to make it. They were also working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) on adding an entrance to the route on Highway 75. However, MnDOT was reluctant to add the entrance to the road, so they were working to discuss that further with them. With the projected bids and plans, they expect the road to be completed by the end of the year.
Pirate Drive Update
Reynolds then gave an update on the 60-acre on Pirate Drive. They were also looking at water modeling to prevent flooding again by controlling the water flow to help them prepare for new residential and commercial buildings.
“When they did the original water modeling, that was just for Ag land, but now we have commercial in there, and they have flooding issues down there,” said Kirschbaum. “So, they’re looking at water modeling for that and what we can do with the flow, and once we know where the water flows and how we can mitigate the problems we’ve had with flooding. Then we can make those decisions and know where housing and commercial buildings can go, but we can’t make any design decisions or invite any contractors until we know what we can do to get that flooding under control.”
Discussion Redevelopment of B3 Grant
The board then discussed the redevelopment plan of their B3 Grant. Kirschbaum said they were working on the parameters of the grant and were focusing the grant on the outside of the buildings in the downtown area, with a survey being given around the area. They could offer suggestions on things like building exterior colors, signage, or other additions to make businesses more appealing.
“We don’t have all of the parameters locked down yet. I’m going to send my draft to a few people and some members of the board. We want to call it the I2 Grant like I too want to make everything better, so, it won’t be anything that would fund the inside of a building, like a carpet or a furnace, it will fund the outside,” Kirschbaum explained. “We’re doing this in preparation for the 2027 redevelopment of the downtown corridor, a study done by MnDOT and the city. So, in preparation for that, we want to help some of our business owners. It will be a competitive grant; you’ll have to apply, and it has a point system based on different initiatives that the council decides on.”
Kirshbaum and members of MnDOT have been going door-to-door to local downtown businesses to ask for their participation in the grant and encourage any businesses interested in partaking in the grant.
HOUSING REPORT
Housing Supervisor Theresa Tahran gave a Public Housing Report at the Oak Court Apartments. They continued to have turnover and are processing to fill their vacant apartments. They were also continuing to speak with HUD and Alluma to have more of a presence at Oak Court to help residents get to their appointments. To help with this, they plan on turning a smaller vacant unit into an office for Alluma to schedule appointments.
Section 8
Tahran then gave an update on Section 8, with them currently releasing 151 vouchers with ten clients searching for housing, with them continuing to pull their waitlist every two weeks. Some departments were still down for maintenance repairs.
Workforce Housing
Tahran had no update on their Workforce Housing at 1410 Eickhof Boulevard, as they are still waiting for the snow to melt to start work on it.
MAIN AGENDA
The board presented a revision to their CHEDA Holiday Observances. Kirschbaum requested for the board to mimic the holiday observances that City Hall was taking. The board approved the request unanimously.
Minnesota State Statue 13.591
The board discussed the impacts of Minnesota State Statue 13.591. The Statue requested that the financial information of a business, such as credit reports, financial statements, business plans, and customer lists, not be shared by the board as public data. They could share some of these things when data submitted to them when they provided financial assistance to the business received a benefit from them, such as loans, as this was used with public funds.
Rehab Housing Application
The board discussed a request they received for a $40,000 loan to repair a house to be put up for sale. The board approved the loan unanimously.
HUD Capital Funds
The board discussed a resolution to accept HUD Capital Funds 1-3-2023, which accepted their capital funds from 2022, which totaled $107,184. The board approved the resolution unanimously.
2020 POHP Funds
The board passed a resolution for a borrow resolution for 2020 Publicly Owned Housing Program Funds of $579,728.50 to be used for additions to the Oak Court Apartments, such as a fire alarm system and a new roof to be added in August.
UMC MARKETING PRESENTATION
Community Development Director Kari Kirschbaum welcomed two University of Minnesota Crookston’s Marketing Class students with suggestions on how to develop CHEDA Missions and name. The students had to investigate the community to learn their thoughts on improving CHEDA’s name and mission statement. They created a 10-question survey about the Demographics and CHEDA’s mission statement, with them getting 119 completed surveys. They found that 90.57% wanted the community to be more involved in the organization’s decisions and have CHEDA be more proactive in being more engaged with the community about projects. There were also more agreements in separating the Housing and DEC as many citizens were confused as to where to go for housing projects in CHEDA. The highest suggested names the community agreed on were Crookston Economic Development Center (C.E.D.C.) and Crookston Innovation and Community Success Center (C.I.C.S.C). The students recommended that the board do more to Support the Community, engage more with the community, decide to split or combine the Housing and Economic Center and potentially hold a Community Event to help the community learn more about the organization.
Kirschbaum recommended picking the Community Development Partnership for the Crookston Community Development team and would continue collaborating with Tim Froeber with the Housing unit.
OTHER BUSINESS
Kirschbaum recommended that the organization hold an Open House for the public in the summer to learn more about the organization and help the community learn where it is in case they wish to apply for grants with them.
CONSENT AGENDA
After the Call to Order, the meeting began with the board approving their meeting minutes from their last meeting on February 27 and approving the CHEDA Checks totaling $60,695.18 and EFT totaling $2,338.67 for a Grand Total of $63,033.85. It also included approving the Crookston Housing & EDA Budget vs. the Actual. The board approved the agenda unanimously.
The next CHEDA meeting will take place on Monday, March 27, before the City Council meeting in the City Hall Council Chambers.
