The Crookston City Council met last night at the Crookston City Council chambers in the lower level of Crookston City Hall. Councilmember Steven Erickson was absent from the meeting.
CONSENT AGENDA
The meeting began with the Board approving the proposed City Council Minutes from their last meeting on March 14, as well as the resolution to approve all City of Crookston Bills and Disbursements in the amount of $121,075.76. The final item on the agenda was the continuation of a resolution to approve 2022 license renewals for Gas Fitting and Cement Mason License from their meeting on February 14.
The Board approved all motions unanimously.
REGULAR AGENDA
The Regular Agenda included the resolution of Establishing Precincts and Polling Places for upcoming elections. The Board then continued the second and final reading of the City of Crookston ordinance, City Code Chapter 11, changing section 11.01, “Ward Boundaries.” After a short discussion confirming the new numbers, when the wards would have to be changed again and that it was done with the Conesus of the Tenure, the Board approved the ordinance unanimously.
The Board continued with the resolution to authorize a contract with S.E.H. for an update to the 1978 Crookston Airport Zoning Ordinance of $50,000. The city would pay $15,000, and the State would pay $35,000 to reestablish a runway that was decommissioned a few years ago at the request of the Crookston Municipal Airport. The Board then made a resolution to authorize the Minnesota Department of Transportation Agency Agreement for a Federal Airport Expenses reimbursement for the Airport Rescue Grant for up to $32,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to reimburse eligible expenses at the Crookston Municipal Kirkwood Field Airport.
The Board continued with the resolution to Obligate and Authorize Expenditure of $848,467.30 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Funds the city received from the government. City Administrator Interim “Corky” Reynolds revealed a proposal of planned projects that the money had to go to, known as Qualified Project Funds, with another set of bids that the County Departments could spend how they please, known as Revenue Recapture Funds, which he and other Department heads had planned together to decide where the funds should go. “Since October or November of 2021, Department Heads have received input and made priorities about suggestions about how that money could be spent.” Interim City Administrator “Corky” Reynolds explained, “We really want to prioritize what we call “Shovel-Ready” projects that are ready to go, and they address needs in our community that have existed for a while that address with large sums of money.” The Qualified Project Funds had a balance of $174,783.30 to make improvements to the Wastewater Lift Station Control Systems. The other $671,584 were proposed to go to multiple departments for improvements and repairs, like the City’s IT Department for Infrastructure and Network backup. Corky explained that the equipment they are currently using is no longer being manufactured in stores, all sales of them have ended in 2015, and any customer support for the items ended in 2020. And a single point of failure in the system caused by heat, power loss, water, or dust would cause the entire system to crash, and there is no Off-Site Backup system to recover the data. With these new improvements, they believed that the IT Department will get ahead of the updates rather than fall behind like in previous years. Another project was with the Parks & Recreation Department for Mechanical and HVAC Modifications & Upgrades to the ice rink, as well as to upgrade the Air Temperature Control system. He brought up Parks and Recs Head Jake Solberg to explain that the Crookston Sports Center’s piping and pump system wasn’t communicating well with the control system. One of the arena’s systems ran at 100% output for the entire season, which cost the arena a lot of energy. The Board asked if he could contact the company that installed it to fix it, but Solberg explained that the company was saying the issue wasn’t with the control panel but with the wiring instead. The Board insisted on contacting the company for their failure to have the system work for more than ten years. The last proposed project was to the Crookston Police Department with an upgrade to their garage and Security System to move it and get a better Climate-Controlled Server Storage unit. Police Chief Darin Selzler approached the Board next, requesting for more secure Verizon accounts to protect the Police Stations Accounts and Networks as they process Criminal Justice information and data. “In order for us to process Criminal Justice information data, the server that would access that data needs to be stored at the Police Department.” Police Chief Darin Selzler explained, “With this upgrade, the IT Department asked for new server storage and servers. Which are in dire need throughout the city, and with that, we have a unique location and building in the Police Department where we can house that server that will be in compliance with State and Federal regulations and then add HVAC or heating and cooling to that room to maintain the integrity of that system.” He also believes that moving and upgrading their servers will improve their armory as they store their equipment in the same room as the servers. This way, their equipment, and firearms will be much cleaner and safer from any water or dust from the room they currently have. These projects used a total of $671,584.46, which has given the city $2,099.54 leftover for any future projects. “We were able to put that plan together.” Reynolds explained, “The Department has presented tonight, and the Council ratified our suggestion and recommendation. So we can move ahead now with approximately $800,000 of Infrastructure corrections and improvements.”
The Board then finished the meeting with a resolution to approve a lease of Concession and Advertising for the Crookston Sports Center. Jake Solberg approached the Board once again, telling the Board of the new changes to the agreement, mainly being that the Blue Line Club will pay the entry fees for teams going to tournaments. And through the hockey/skating season, any sponsor food vendors that want to sell food in the Center will have to be approved by the Blue Line Club if they want to sell inside the building.
The Board approved all motions unanimously.
REPORTS AND STAFF RECOMMENDATION
The Board then heard from Corky on his first five days as the Interim City Administrator and about meetings he had with School District Superintendent Jeremy Olson about converting two rooms in Washington Elementary School to childcare centers that will be ready by the first week of April.
The next City Council meeting will take place on Monday, April 11, at 7:00 p.m. inside the City Hall Council Chambers.
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