The Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) met on Tuesday for a regular meeting at the Valley Technology Park.
After the Call to Order, the meeting began with the board approving their meeting minutes from their last meetings on July 12 and 25. The board approved the minutes unanimously.
CONSENT AGENDA
The consent agenda included approving the EDA financials and the Crookston Jobs Loan Status and financials. It also included the approval of the B3 Grants and Financials, the Financials for Prairie Skyline, and the Financials for Epitome Energy. The board approved the payable bills, where they would pay for a total of $47,049.06. The final item on the Consent Agenda was to approve the Financials, Building Occupancy, and Expended Business Incubation of Valley Technology Park. The board approved the agenda unanimously.
HOUSING REPORT: TAHRAN
The board heard from Administrative Assistant Theresa Tahran on a Public Housing Report, saying the occupancy at Oak Court Apartments was now at 94% and that they were trying to get a contractor for a unit that was offline for the HUD to commence some renovations.
They are looking to purchase a new security system and are scheduled to meet with several security companies.
Last week, there were two apartment fires, where one forced a tenant to live in a hotel for a few days. “We did have an apartment fire last Monday. Crookston Fire Department Chief Frober was very gracious and helped us get things lined up with the Red Cross, where the resident was able to stay at a local hotel for a couple of days,” said Tahran. “We got a cleaning company in, and we were able to get her back in her apartment by Wednesday or Thursday afternoon.”
Tahran said the residents would like to hold more gatherings like cookouts, game nights, or movie nights and looked to do a joint City Council-CHEDA event in September. Chairperson Klatt also supported this idea and proposed making annual events for them all at the beginning of summer.
PUBLICLY OPENED HOUSING PROGRAM
Tahran said the Oak Park Apartments architect was getting ready to send out bid advertisements for the roofing and smoke detector project in the newspapers by the end of August and open bid offers by mid-September. Tahran gave an update on the voucher program report saying that they had given out 133 vouchers and were looking to increase the amount by five vouchers every two weeks.
1603 HOVEN LANE SALE
Interim City Administrator Corky Reynolds said the housing project at 1603 Hoven Lane is complete, and the sale has been finalized. The only outstanding issue they had to discuss was the payment with the school, with a verbal agreement with former Superintendent Jeremy Olson saying that if there was a profit on the house, the school would get an additional $4,000. But, there was no profit on the sale of the house so there would be no gift to the school. He said he had explained this to Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn, who understood the conditions, leaving CHEDA with $6,700 to go into their workforce funds.
Reynolds noted the school is not doing construction this year and CHEDA had a lot on Eickhof Boulevard that they had purchased from the city and needed to begin construction of a home on the open lot before December 31, or else CHEDA will have to pay a $10,000 penalty. “One of the conditions for the purchase on those lots on Eickhof is that there must be construction started within two years of the date of purchase,” Reynolds explained. “We are fast approaching that two-year date, and we will be asking for requests for proposals from contractors to initiate construction of a home on the lot that we own on Eickhof Boulevard prior to December 31, 2022, which is the end of that two-year period.”
Reynolds recommended that the board make a motion to begin advertising to find contractors for it before the deadline, which they did unanimously.
OLD BUSINESS
Reynolds gave an update on the Colborn property infrastructure. He said he had spoken about bidding on the ARC road but was told there was no reason to bid now and should wait until spring.
EPITOME ENERGY
The board got an update on the Epitome Energy project, and the EAW report is being reviewed by the city, the Water Department, and other departments. The EAW statement said there would be no ill effects from the use of water by Epitome Energy, if it came to fruition. The city had been requested to potentially supply gray water to the facility to have treatment given to it. He explained that the Pollution Control Agency agreed that it was an activity that could be done, and treatment would have to be done on the water coming in and going out of the facility, but there shouldn’t be a negative impact with that type of water if the facility is constructed.
PRAIRIE SKYLINE FOUNDATION
The board began a discussion on the Prairie Skyline, where Theresa Tahran reported that revisions had been submitted to the state and was waiting on the response.
CHICKADEE COFFEE AND SNOW LOAN STATUS
The board got an update on the Chickadee Coffee and Snow loan status. The CHEDA attorney had drafted their complaint and submitted it to the Polk County Sheriff and said that they were looking at a potential loan repayment of $135,000.
APG – ELLIOT STEINBRINK
Reynolds gave an update on the status of the APG Development legal entity, saying he was still trying to contact him but has heard no response. Reynolds then recommended that the board direct him to write him a letter about their plans for its development. Recommending to give APG 10 to 14 days to respond or else they would forward with other entities on the property. The board agreed with this proposal and told him to move forward.
MAIN AGENDA
The board discussed a CHEDA revolving loan for Adams Heating & Cooling. Reynolds reported that he had prepared a recommendation for a loan of $65,000 for a $147,000 project, but that they cannot ask for a loan of more than a third of the project’s cost, so he spoke with the Adams to have the loan amount changed to $49,000 for 60 months with three percent interest, which they agreed to. He reported that the company now met the recommendations and recommended they move forward with the loan. The board approved the loan unanimously. They also did the same with Jeff Evers’s Loan of $75,000.
B3 GRANT TO JERDE INSURANCE
The board finished the meeting with a discussion on a $4,000 B3 Grant by Justin Jerde of Jerde Insurance back in April 2021 to complete various invoices for his business within the time of April 1, 2021, to May 1, 2022. “It was passed previously, a grant of up to $4,000 for Jerde Insurance to do some advertising, purchase some office equipment, and create some signage for the building,” said Reynolds. “What we were validating today was the exact invoices that Mr. Jerde has paid so we could pay him out of the grant proceeds up to $4,000.” The invoices covered about $2,983.06 and recommended that the board authorize the payment and other future payments required by Jerde to complete the grant by the end of the month.
The next CHEDA meeting will take place on Monday, August 22, at 6:45 p.m. in the Crookston City Hall Council Chambers.
