The Crookston Chamber of Commerce, Crookston Visitors Bureau, and Downtown Crookston Development Partnership (DCDP) recently joined forces to reinstate the Beautification Committee. The Committee’s goals are to encourage adoption and maintenance of area planters, hanging baskets, spaces that could use some TLC to create a more welcoming environment for residents and visitors, walkability, preservation, and other collaborative ideas.
Chair of the Crookston Visitors Bureau Board Nell DeBoer talked about some of the history with the Beautification Collaboration and why they wanted to join forces to ramp things back up. “It has been under the Chamber of Commerce for quite some time in different roles,” said DeBoer. “There ended up not being a chair for the board anymore, and when that happened, they only kept certain pieces of it together. The DCDP, CVB, and the Chamber all expressed interest in keeping the Beautification Collaboration and ramping it back up, so we sat down together and came up with an idea to bring forth to the city.”
The idea is that each group will have specific areas and aspects they will be responsible for throughout the city of Crookston. DeBoer shared what the Chamber will oversee. “When we met, we each chose what parts we were going to be responsible for,” said DeBoer. “The Chamber has an interest in keeping the Downtown planter adoptions going with a renewed focus. They’re also going to keep the adopt a hanging basket as well.”
DeBoer also mentioned what areas the Crookston Visitors Bureau would take care of. “We’ve expressed interest in maintaining the brand-new entrance sign by American Crystal Sugar, as well as other areas that may need adoption.” Said DeBoer. “Will also be running the social media pages and being responsible for maintaining that as well.”
The DCDP will also be responsible for a portion of the city as well. “They will be responsible for maintaining the Welcome to Crookston sign by UMC,” said DeBoer. “They are also going to be working on a walkability study and helping the Visitors Bureau with running the social media sites.”
Beautification awards will also be handed out throughout the summer of next year. The different categories for the awards will include storefront, landscape businesses, and presentations of a church or non-profit.
Updates on what the Committee is doing and working on can be found on the Crookston Beautification Collaboration Facebook page by clicking this link www.facebook.com/crookstonbeautificationcollaboration. Potential items that could be addressed in the future include seasonal banners and decor, partnerships with the City of Crookston, University of Minnesota Crookston, local service clubs and other volunteers, and working with the city on the maintenance side of beautification.
The Committee will also be looking for volunteers who are interested in helping with the Collaboration. For those interested in volunteering to help the Crookston Beautification Collaboration, they can contact the DCDP, Visitors Bureau, or Chamber for more details. They will look to start ramping things up sometime in February or March of 2022.
