The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority met on Tuesday at noon at the Valley Technology Park. After the call to order, the meeting began with the Council approving the meeting’s Agenda and the board meeting minutes on January 18.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Consent Agenda included approving the EDA Financials and the Status and Financials of the Community Investments and Crookston’s Jobs Loans. It also included the approval of the B3 Grants and Financials and the Financials for Prairie Skyline. Next, it resolved to approve the Crookston Jobs Revolving Loan Fund and the Revolving Loan Status and Financials. The Board then approved the Financials for multiple housing units, such as Oak Court Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher, Workforce Housing, and Rehab Housing Loan Status. The final items on the Consent Agenda were to approve the CHEDA Bills Payable for a total of $224,764.30 and the Financials and Business Incubation of Valley Technology Park. The Board approved all motions unanimously.
HOUSING REPORT
The Board then heard from Administrative Assistant Theresa Tahran on a Housing Report for multiple projects. She first gave a brief overview of the Lead the Way Training progress that the Board members were taking to learn about the housing aspects and responsibilities they have to learn as a part of the Board. A handful of members had yet to finish the Training, but she was hopeful that everyone would complete it by the next meeting in a month. She followed up with a report on their Publicly Opened Housing Program (POHP) on the maintenance completion of Oak Court Apartments plumbing and roofing. “We renovated all of our units and plumbing; tubs, showers, and sinks. That project has come to completion, and we’re just trying to get some final payments settled before we get the closing on that,” Assistant Theresa explained, “As for the roofing project, that will be started this spring. We’re just waiting for the snow to melt, so the architects don’t have to do any shoveling on the roof.” She also reported that they completed 37 recertifications from Oak Court Tenants, and four still need financial information.
Tahran finished her report with an update about the property on 1603 Hoven Lane, a construction site house where students in Travis Oliver’s class from Crookston High School learn and practice construction like shingling, Sheetrocking, and groundwork by building an actual house. The Board was expecting the house to be finished, but there are still some things to finish before they plan to bring in a general contractor to finish. The Board decided to push back any motions until it is finished, either by their next meeting or by holding a special meeting before then.
OLD BUSINESS
The Board then heard from Epitome Energy president and CEO Dennis Egan with their recent projects, explaining all of their projects are on track and was waiting for some permits to be granted in June. He also plans to meet with an Ethanol Plant to have a cooperative meeting with them. Housing and Economic Development Director Robert Barnes began a discussion about an issue with water for the City. “In round numbers, the City of Crookston uses about 300 million gallons of water as a city. Epitome Energy gave us numbers in December 2021, saying that they would need about 280 million gallons of water in a year. That’s roughly about 86% of our current usage, which is more than what our aquafers can meet,” said Director Barnes, “Our Public Works Director contacted the Department of Natural resources, who came back to say our aquafer could not handle that type of increase for any time, let alone a sustained amount of time and a study was going to need to be done by them to review if we were going to go forward. Now we’re at this point, where the Board needed to be aware, that while this project moves down the track, we have this issue with water.” Egan agreed to move forward with the study and the Board agreed to continue with these developments in a future meeting.
Barnes then reported the status of Chickadee Coffee shop that still has equipment belonging to the Board. Barnes was assigned with accepting a consignment to retrieve the equipment to be sold for funds and return the building to the landlord. The Board heard from three proposals from companies and selected a proposal by Wright’s Consignment Sheryl Adams. “For a flat fee of $2,000, they will take out all the equipment, broken and unbroken inside the building will be taken out. So, we’re getting two services; we’re not only selling the equipment but also emptying the building so we can turn it back to the owner,” said Director Barnes. The Board approved all motions unanimously.
MAIN AGENDA
The first item on the Regular Agenda was a B3 Recommendation at RBJ’s asking for a grant. This is the second time they have asked for the loan to increase their kitchen and improve their lighting and seats as the first time the Board could not give a grant due to the timing of winter weather. The final items on the Agenda were resolutions for a Flat Rent Increase for Public Housing and to appoint an attorney for the Board. The Board quickly decided on City Attorney Charles “Corky” Reynolds to be their new attorney. The Board approved of all the motions.
The next CHETA meeting will take place on Tuesday, April 19, at noon at the Valley Technology Park.
