The Crookston City Council met on Monday in the City Hall council chambers.
PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE CITY’S ALCOHOL ORDINANCE
The meeting began with a public hearing regarding citizen input for the proposed changes to the city’s alcohol ordinance. Previously, the council members indicated interest in breweries and micro-breweries. The current city ordinance shows that breweries and organizations as such cannot operate in Crookston, and the council charged City Administrator Corky Reynolds to review changes that could be made to allow such businesses to possibly begin operations in the future.
“One proposal that we reviewed was adopting the state statute. There is a state law on breweries,” said City Administrator Corky Reynolds, “This allowed breweries, micro-breweries, and in-house brewing and consuming. But this did define what a restaurant was.”
Crookston bar owners Dave Thompson (Captain Crooks), Paul Gregg (Former owner of Irishman’s Shanty), and Mike Paul (owner of IC Muggs) spoke at the public hearing. They addressed the council, stating that if the city adopted the state ordinance, it could affect our local bars and liquor stores financially if both off-sale and on-sale weren’t stated in the city statute. A common example that the bar owners explained was that a larger corporation (for example, Walmart) could simply come to town and place an off-sale location, which could take business away.
Each owner recommended that the council leave the ordinance while allowing brew pubs or independent entities to begin operations that sell take-home products from their business. “We don’t want to allow the devaluation to our businesses,” said Paul Gregg, “Or to water down what we have stood by for all of these years, which is having an on-sale and off-sale together. We’ve all served the community for many years, and I don’t think Crookston wants any of the stand-alone off-sales or businesses that would devalue all of the local businesses we have here.”
Along with changing the current city statute stating liquor-selling businesses must operate as on-sale and off-sale, a change including what is considered a restaurant would come with it. After reviewing state statutes, it was determined that IC Muggs and Captain Crooks do not meet restaurant requirements. Therefore, they wouldn’t be able to sell liquor on Sundays. “They were concerned about that,” said Reynolds. “They expressed that they have operated under this city ordinance, interpreted more broadly that they must sell more meals. They wanted me, the city, and the city attorney to be more aware of that.”
The council has charged Reynolds to review and ultimately adopt the state statute while changing the definition of what is classified as a restaurant to accommodate both IC Muggs and Captain Crooks. If approved, both businesses will be able to sell liquor on Sundays.
REGULAR AGENDA
The meeting continued with the council approving the resolution regarding the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Citizen Participation Plan, which pertains to renovation and allocating money for downtown single-family homes, rental units, and apartments. The city has applied for $1.4 million for this project.
“We can renovate such things as windows siding,” said Reynolds, “Just bring them up so that they’re more habitual. The council acted on four components tonight. We as a city needed to be sponsors, authorize the application to be signed by the mayor and city administrator, and adopt a citizen participation plan that outlines the steps the city will follow in terms of getting citizen input.”
The council also held a discussion that needed action to be taken regarding the discussion on submission of material before future city council meetings. The city has developed a new policy for community members who want to present any material to the council that they submit the material/items to the city hall (whether electronically/or on paper) before 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, the week before each council meeting. “There is considerable work that goes into establishing an agenda,” said Reynolds, “Preparing resolutions relevant to the materials being presented and also for presentation to the council. We want the materials here so the I.T. department can appropriately deliver to council members computers as well as the larger screen T.V.’s.” The council unanimously approved the new policy for material submissions, and it was agreed upon that this new system would allow each council member to review the material and each department to digest the points in question or need to be studied prior to meetings.
The final item that was approved was the resolution regarding CliftonLarsonAllen, LLP, providing assistance concerning the 2023 audit preparations, procedures, and services. This company has also been approved to assist the city and its Finance Department with the recent resignation of former city Finance Director Audrey Passa.
The consent agenda included the approval of minutes from the February 26 council meeting and the approval of bills and disbursements in the amount of $353,109.76. It also included the approval of acceptance regarding a donation from the Crookston Baseball Association to the Crookston Parks and Recreation Department.
The Crookston City Council will meet next on Monday, March 25, at 5:30 p.m. in the City Hall council chambers.
To go back and watch the full council meeting, click here.
