The Crookston City Council met on Monday approving the bills and disbursements of $387,902.99 and approving the April 12 meeting minutes.
The City Council unanimously passed a resolution ordering plans and specifications for the Central Park RV Campground. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten expressed concern that residents of Crookston weren’t sold on the idea of the campground. “As I talk to the public when I’m in stores or gas stations I haven’t really heard from the public that this is a good idea,” said Vedbraaten. “I’ve heard some of the council people think this is a good thing to do. But I think this is a lot of money for something I don’t think the public is sold on.”
Mayor Dale Stainbrook said that naysayers to a previous campground plan for Crookston wanted it to be put in Central Park. “Well, you know, years ago we had a chance to put an RV park in our city,” said Stainbrook. “It would’ve been privately owned, and it went south. Everybody, the naysayers, that did not want it at Castle Park said why not Central Park. That’s all I heard – put it in Central Park. So, here we are back to the drawing board.”
It was indicated that several cities in the Red Lake River Corridor Group – Thief River Falls, St. Hilaire, Red Lake Falls, Fisher, and East Grand Forks – could be negatively impacted if Crookston failed to follow through on a grant it previously accepted. Parks and Recreation Director Scott Riopelle said he didn’t believe Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails, who provided the grant would be likely to fund further projects along the corridor if Crookston backed out. Crookston City Administrator Amy Finch said he was uncertain how a decision by Crookston not to build the RV campground would impact the other communities. “There are communities that submitted projects along with this,” said Finch. “It is one piece of a larger grant that Crookston is a recipient of. As part of that, we will have some matching dollars that are budgeted to upgrade our bathhouse facility. Make it safer, easier to use, and more amenities for people that are staying there. Yes, it could impact other people and their projects they submitted for. I would have to get some other information from the grant administrator on how that would look if the City Council decided at some point not to move forward with the project.”
The City of Crookston has until June of 2022 to complete a campground before the funding expires. Councilman Steve Erickson asked if that could be extended due to the high cost of construction related to COVID-19. Erickson said his concern is that the city doesn’t end up with a lesser campground because of current inflated costs. “We just went through that with the Ag Innovation Center,” said Erickson. “They have to downsize a little bit. My concern was what are we going to get for our investment in this. After COVID the cost of different things has gone up tremendously. Getting the ball rolling on this is what we have to do but at the end of the day, I hope we get a bang for our buck doing this project.”
Finch said seeking an extension was a valid question given the other community projects that have shown significant impact from inflated construction costs due to COVID. “I think that is a very valid question,” said Finch. “We do have other concerns on other projects in our community that are either stalled or scaling back due to cost of materials. A good question to ask. I don’t know the answer to if that’s allowed or not. We do have until next summer, June 2022, to have construction complete. So, how those prices will impact actually impact this project are unknown at this time. The plans and specs will really help us nail down where we can be when we go out to bid. As I stated tonight, we will always reserve the right to protect the city to reject any and all bids. If someone bids on the project and it comes in completely outside of the grant budget that’s something we’d have to come back to look at. That means either scaling the project back, phasing the project, or discussing whether to do the project. We needed the plans or specs to get to that point and move forward with some of those decisions.”
Following a public hearing at which no one spoke, the Council unanimously passed an annual resolution approving the Wellhead Protection Plan. Another resolution authorizing acceptance of a Coronavirus Grant for the Airport was also approved. “We got notified there is an FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) grant for coronavirus response and relief that our airport is eligible for, for $13,000,” said Finch. “Our City Attorney and Airport Consultant (SEH) has reviewed it, staff recommends, and it was approved tonight to accept the grant to help support the operations of our airport. We’re trying to take advantage of any grant opportunities coming out and watching all of the relief funds. This happened to come up a few weeks ago and after vetting it out felt like we had to bring it forward.”
The City Council had several presentations, including two proclamations declaring April as National Volunteer Month and declaring May 9-15 National Skilled Nursing Care Week. Crookston Public Library Director Chris Boike gave a presentation on the library. Boike said they will be keeping many of the changes the library had made, such as the option for curbside pickup, post-COVID as things return to normal. Boike’s presentation starts at the 6:20 mark in the video below.
City Attorney Corky Reynolds also made a presentation on the legality of banners and flags within the city in response to a number of complaints to City Hall, Councilmembers, and the City Attorney’s office. Reynolds said in broad terms that signs which have to be read can’t be legally addressed due to free speech rulings by both the U.S. and Minnesota Supreme Courts, but signs that interfere with traffic or resemble government signs may be regulated. “In our ordinance, it says, ‘it is not the purpose or intent of a sign ordinance to regulate the message displayed on a sign – free speech, expressions of opinion with which we may not all totally agree’ -,” said Reynolds. “But again, keep in mind, if you have to read that sign in order to make a judgment of whether it is acceptable it’s probably not something that can be addressed legally. What our ordinance anticipates, what the police department has observed, and what we work with is, ‘signs by reason of position, shape, color, or illumination which interfere with traffic, traffic signals, or traffic signs are not permitted.’ Signs that resemble any official marker, state or federal erected by a government, or display words as stop or danger and are not placed by a government agency are not allowed within the City of Crookston.”
