The Crookston Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night, agreeing to organize a meeting to discuss the future relationship between the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB), the Crookston hotels collecting lodging taxes, and the Crookston Chamber of Commerce.
Cory Dallager, manager at AmericInn in Crookston, spoke to the Crookston City Council on Monday about the hotels in Crookston wanting something to change with the current operation of the CVB. Dallager cited other cities where the visitor’s bureau operates independently of the city’s Chamber and said Moorhead just recently made a change to work separately because they were dealing with some of the same issues Crookston has been. “We’re just trying to address and promote Crookston a little bit better,” said Dallager. “How it’s been going, there has been some confusion and everything with the board—trying to move forward with the hotels all on the same page right now. We’re all here to promote Crookston, bring business to town, fill our hotels, and then, bring more business to town. That’s all kind of our goal. We want to move forward, and it’s not been moving the right way for quite a while here. Hopefully, we can get that resolved with a meeting with everybody.”
Councilman Bobby Baird brought Dallager’s comments up again during the Ways & Means Committee, where Councilman Tom Vedbraaten asked why the council was discussing the issues when things should be worked out between the Chamber and CVB. City Attorney Corky Reynolds explained that the City of Crookston has an agreement for the Chamber to provide services to the Chamber and CVB and that the city would need to give a 90-day notice if it wanted to terminate that contract.
Crookston Inn operator Laurie Stahlecker told the committee that every other CVB in the area has it’s own website and promotes its own marketing to promote events. Stahlecker said the CVB webpage on the Chamber website has no mention of the upcoming Eagles Convention, and the need for the webpage to be updated to reflect that has been brought up at past meetings.
Councilman Clayton Briggs suggested that a meeting be scheduled to discuss the future relationship. Mayor Dale Stainbrook suggested a meeting be held between the chairs of both the Chamber Board and CVB Board, the Chamber Executive Director Terri Heggie, and the City Council liaisons to each board to determine the best course of action before the next Ways & Means Committee meeting. “It’s a little bit of sticking point, and I think the discussion is we’re not all on the same page,” said Stainbrook. “We just need to get the Chamber chair, CVB chair, the council members on those boards, and the hotels together to ironed this out. We all are positive about Crookston and want all the businesses to be successful. Let’s get together and see what the issues are, try to tweak it, and move forward.”
The committee also approved the Land Option Agreement with Epitome Energy. City Administrator Angel Weasner said one change completed was to Section 10 of the land option with the addition that the city may not unreasonably withhold consent for the assignment or transfer of the option agreement. “There was concern about the meeting having to do with the sale of the property between Epitome Energy and another property,” said Weasner. “The city still wants to have control, but we added that the consent would not be unreasonably withheld from the city. So, as long as they are still fulfilling the obligations, it would be approved.”
Another area of clarification the committee asked for last week was to ensure that Epitome Energy would be liable for any lost crops on the city’s cash farm lease if the, if the land option was executed, said, Weasner. “The developer will indemnify the farmer for any damages that would be occurring to his crop as a result of the growth of that area,” said Weasner. “We wanted to ensure that it was there because we are looking at a future lease unless the land option gets executed immediately. However, we do not expect it to be executed immediately, so we are looking at a future farm lease to occur.”
The land option will have a three-year term for $3,000 when executed, with two one-year extensions for $1,000 each. The execution of the land option would require the soybean crush facility and biodiesel plant to be built within the 3-5 years of the land option. The committee approved the land option agreement unanimously, and Epitome Energy will now review it.
The final item discussed was a modified schedule in the search for a City Administrator. Stainbrook asked the committee if they thought upon reading the struggles with finding qualified candidates during the first attempt if they should consider raising the starting salary range to a floor of $115,000. The discussion was split on that decision with Councilman Don Cavalier making a motion, seconded by Councilman Dylane Klatt, to bring a vote on raising the salary floor, which failed to pass by a 5-4 vote. The committee then discussed if there were other alternatives to raising the salary floor, such as providing health insurance from day one of employment rather than waiting the standard 30-days before beginning coverage. Councilman Steve Erickson requested that Weasner contact David Drown Associates (DDA) to inquire if they had any suggestions for tweaks that could be made in the listing to attract more qualified applicants. He added that he wouldn’t be opposed to raising the salary floor if they had more information from DDA about their suggestions. Erickson voted no on the motion Monday night to raise the salary floor.
The committee will have time to consider possible changes to the position posting, as the position is scheduled to be reposted on May 28. The committee is expected to meet twice before then, May 11 and May 26. Assuming the city administrator position is posted a second time on May 28, Weasner updated the committee on what the key dates in the timeline would be for the new schedule. “There are three key dates that we will be looking at,” said Weasner. “The city will be holding a selection of finalists on July 21. That is when the council will determine who they want to select as a finalist. The interviews will be held on August 12 and 13. There will be an evening gather, so some community members can beet the potential candidates. But, the decision will be finalized in August.”
