The Crookston City Council met on Monday evening at the Crookston City Hall Council Chambers.
The meeting started with a Mayoral proclamation to declare Community Action Month in May of 2023 in honor of Tri-Valley Opportunity Council and all the work they do for the community and the region. Tri-Valley Opportunity Council CEO Jason Carlson accepted the proclamation.
NORTH STAR LIME
Bryan Boll and Phil Schramm gave the council a presentation regarding North Star Lime LLC and its MIF grant application. North Star Lime purchased the old Simplot building on the south end of town and is taking lime from American Crystal’s Crookston factory and turning it into pellets to spread in fields around the area. They have put $4 million dollars into the company already and want to put another $10 million dollars into the business to make it fully operational. $5 million would come from a USDA grant, $3.5 million would come from local lenders, and they are looking at coming up with another $1.5 million.
“We are in the process of building a lime pelletizing plant out on the south end of Crookston, and we are at the point where we need some funding. There are some grant opportunities out there, and we need the city to help us achieve those grants,” said Boll. “The City acts as a pass-through organization, and we have been working with DEED, and there are some state grants that match federal grants. The purpose tonight was to come and ask them if they would be willing to help us get the funding we need to get the project off the ground.”
The project is coming along nicely, according to Boll. “We actually have a lot of the equipment in, we have the ability to start processing pellets immediately,” said Boll. “We recently just received our permit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency so now we are looking for a plant manager, and we’re looking for workers so eventually we will add 20-plus employees to the facility.”
American Crystal was looking at possibly spending $20 to $40 million on a new landfill to deposit the lime, which would cut into grower’s paychecks, and that sparked the idea of the company. “It started as a conversation I had with the factory manager from American Crystal Sugar, Ryan Wall (at the time), and he expressed an interest in not building a new landfill. In today’s environmental climate, landfills are difficult to permit, and the lime is a valuable product. It is full of nutrients, so to put it in a landfill is just counterintuitive in what we are trying to do. To have the ability to take a landfill product and turn it into something usable that we can use across the state of Minnesota, North Dakota, it makes sense to American Crystal, it makes sense to me, and it looks like we are going to be able to pull it off.”
Boll and Schramm received nice applause after the presentation.
DEED GRANT
The council accepted an Innovative Business Development Public Infrastructure Program Grant of $452,000 from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) for the Ag Innovation Campus 10-ton road expansion. “That is money that will go towards the construction of the 10-ton roadway immediately adjacent to the Ag Innovation Campus on the southwest part of town,” said City Administrator Corky Reynolds. “We will get the road construction going, and with other funds, we will get that done by the end of the construction season.”
TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO EDA
The council approved the transfer of funds from the City of Crookston to the Crookston Economic Development Authority (EDA) for the Crookston Storefront Revitalization Program. They are transferring $58,100 to go with the $50,000 already in the fund for a total of $108,000. “The EDA has proposed a program for Crookston merchants monies to upgrade the external fronts of their stores,” said Reynolds. “The funds come from money that was budgeted for a wage study. The city didn’t use a wage study because it used the League of Minnesota Cities wage study, which came at a reduced cost to us, so it won’t increase the budget at all.”
CENTRAL PARK CAMPGROUND IMPROVEMENTS BID
The council approved a bid from Spruce Valley Corporation of $1,107,441 for the Crookston Campground Improvements, which would include 17 units. “We have Legacy Grant funds and Crookston funds in this campground renovation remodel. We are happy with the bid, and now we will start undertaking the construction of this new 17-site campground,” said Reynolds. “We still want to construct a new bath house, and we are looking at some options for how to get the construction within the monetary confines that we have. We think we will be able to do that, and we will proceed, and they have to be done by June 30, 2024.”
