The Crookston City Council met Monday evening in the Crookston City Hall Council Chambers.
The Council approved the August 12 meeting minutes and the City of Crookston bills and disbursements of $371,870.39. The other three items were pulled and moved to the Regular Agenda for discussion.
The first item on the agenda was the approval of the Crookston Parks and Recreation policies. At the last meeting, the council asked that they be updated with a hot weather policy. Jake Solberg, the Parks and Recreation Director, updated the policies by including an Inclement Weather section and addressing multiple weather conditions. The Council approved the Parks and Recreation policies.
The next regular agenda item was the approval of the contract for the School Resource Officer with the Crookston School District. The City and the School District agree that having a licensed peace officer assigned to the school locations in Crookston is both important and necessary. The Council approved the Contract for School Resource Officer with ISD 593.
The third regular agenda item was to appoint Holley Eckstein as the new Finance Director for the City of Crookston. City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge feels Eckstein is the right person for the job and that her being with the City of Crookston leading up to this appointment just makes sense. “The more we looked around at the candidate pools we had, I am a believer in promoting from within whenever possible, when the match fits and the deeper we looked Holley really fit all of our needs,” says Shoobridge. With Eckstein moving to Finance Director, there is another position that the City needs to fill as well. “I currently have open an HR Coordinator position, and with the Council action tonight, that does open a space for a staff accountant,” said Shoobridge.
Speaking with New Finance Director Holley Eckstein, she says she is up for the challenge in front of her. “From day one, I have been committed to the City of Crookston and to the success of the City of Crookston,” says Eckstein. When asked what her immediate goals are in her new position, Eckstein had this to say. “We are just wrapping up the Audit for 2023, and then it will be to get 2024 caught up and then jump right into the budgeting; we’re right in that timeframe for the year, so we will be jumping in with both feet.”
The Council brought the three Consent items needing discussion to the table as Regular Agenda items.
The first was a resolution to approve the rezoning of real property within a portion of parcel 82.000163.01 and all of parcel 82.00008.00 in the City of Crookston from Industrial to Light Industrial. The property located within the Industrial Park would be used for a railroad spur, and Karie Kirschbaum of Crookston Community Development and Housing explained that this came to be because of a grant by MNDOT. “ The purpose of that is to create a place; this is phase one, and the first phase is to get that set in so we can start to export some of our crops out of there,” said Kirschbaum.
Minnesota Northern Railroad got the grant for the work, and the spur will be up by Northstar Lime, which is the old Simplot building. Kirschbaum explains that the approval tonight enables them to put in some light industrial buildings in the area. “Phase two will include a little more property, and they changed the zoning today, so we can put some light industrial in there, so we can put some storage units in there,” said Kirschbaum. The resolution was approved.
The second item brought for discussion was the approval of a conditional use permit with respect to parcel 82.00186.02 for a Scooters Coffee in the parking lot at the new Opticare location. “What it means for Crookston is we will have a coffee shop on the corner of a main street coming into town, and it will have easy access in and out. It will be a very beneficial thing, and the city is very supportive of it,” said Shoobridge. The conditional use permit was approved.
The final item that was moved to discussion from the Consent Agenda was a conditional use permit for parcel 82.00169.00 (on 2nd Street) in downtown Crookston. The property owners asked that they be allowed to turn a ground-level storefront unit into a residential rental unit. The Council discussion led to this item being tabled, and the Council will do some research and revisit the item at the next council meeting. Part of the issue is that having a first floor apartment in that location goes against the comprehensive plan.
The next city council meeting will be Monday, September 9, at 5:30 p.m.
