The big news out of the Crookston Planning Commission Tuesday night was that City of Crookston Building Official Matt Johnson has handed in his resignation as
he’s taken a position as Director of Plant Services at RiverView Health. “I handed it in a little over a week ago to move on to work for RiverView Health,” said Johnson. “My last day is February 1st. Like I said to the Planning Commission it’s been a pleasure to work with them. This group has done a lot of work in the last five years with comprehensive plans, ordinances changes and now working on the gateway overlay district.”
Johnson will be working with City Administrator Shannon Stassen, Fire Chief Tim Froeber and Public Works Director Pat Kelly on a plan to fill his duties until a new building official is hired. “They’ll just kind of split them up in a way that makes sense,” said Johnson. “We’ll have to have a designated building official until they can get someone hired. And maybe if they can get someone hired, it will be like I did, and a new hire would have to work their way up to the position.”
The planning commission also approved the plat to take what was Outlot A behind the Barrette Street Estates and split it out to Outlot A1, A2, and A3, broken up by Spruce and Fir Lanes. The updated plat is a continuation of the plan previously approved to build two cul-de-sacs behind the Barrette Street Estates. “Essentially there was Outlot A in the original plat with the right away and utilities,” said Johnson. “This essentially split that into three pieces and extended the right way to the cul-de-sacs.”
The commission then forwarded a resolution to City Council to sell the Outlots to the Northwest Multi Housing Authority with the plan they will put in a trail system back to the 30-acre natural area created by Bob Herkenhoff. “This is similar to what the planning commission did for the lot behind the Fournet Building,” said Johnson. “The State requires that any time City Property is sold it be reviewed by the Planning Commission to make sure the sale it meets the requirements of the comprehensive plan. So they passed a resolution recommendation on to City Council that the sale goes through.”
