The Crookston City Council met on Monday night at 7:00 p.m. inside the City Hall Council Chambers in the lower level of City Hall.
CROOKSTON FORUM
After the Call to Order, the council was approached by Tim Menard, one of the candidates running for the At Large Council Position, and announced a Meet the Candidates Forum at the Central High School on October 18, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. and encouraged the public to come to the event and the election.
CONSENT AGENDA
The council’s Consent Agenda consisted of approving the City Council Minutes from their meeting on September 26 and the approval of the City of Crookston’s Bills and Disbursements in the amount of $497,031.11. The final item on the Consent Agenda was approving a resolution approving a partial payment estimate of $53,149.50 for the No 1. 2021 REILS Replacement Project. The board approved the agenda unanimously.
REGULAR AGENDA
The council’s Regular Agenda included the second and final reading with respect to amending an ordinance of the City Code Chapter 111 entitled ‘Alcoholic Beverages.’ City Administrator Charles “Corky” Reynolds explained that the ordinance normally prohibited the sale of alcohol during amateur athletic events in the Crookston Sports Center but would make an exception for the University of Minnesota Crookston regular or post-hockey season or any UMC-organized curling contest. “The University of Minnesota Crookston approached the city about a potential exception for the University during both regular season and postseason hockey games. In addition, the University wanted to be able to liquor sold in the arena during University of Minnesota Crookston sponsored curling events,” Reynolds explained. “Tonight, the council had the final reading and passage of an ordinance which exempted the University of Minnesota Crookston sale through a licensee, properly licensed in Crookston, of alcoholic beverages during hockey games at the Crookston Sports Center involving the University of Minnesota Crookston during regular season and postseason play and curling events sponsored by the University of Minnesota Crookston.” Park and Recs Director Jake Solberg explained that the curling competitions would be played on the Gold Rink in the Crookston Sports Center, and they would begin creating ice for it by October 21 and the Blue Rink by November 18. The council approved the ordinance unanimously.
Ordinance Discussion for City Code Chapter 117: Peddlers and Solicitors
The council then included discussing an amendment to the ordinance of City Code Chapter 117 entitled “Peddlers and Solicitors.” Reynolds explained that he had reviewed the ordinance with City Clerk Ashley Rystad to see if it would impact certain mobile businesses, specifically ice cream trucks. They had found that ice cream trucks counted as Peddlers, so the ordinance would not affect them.
Sewer System Improvement Subrecipient Grant with Polk County
The council then began discussing a resolution for a Sewer System Improvement Subrecipient Grant with Polk County to make improvements to Crookston’s lift station control panels. “The city of Crookston requested Polk County, ARPA funds totaling approximately $133,000 for the repair of lift stations,” Reynolds explained. “The County granted that request and submitted a contract to us outlining the parameters, guidelines, and requirements for the city to receive those funds, which was passed tonight.”
Scruffy Tails Budget Request
The council then began a discussion on a budget request from the Scruffy Tails Humane Society of Polk County. Reynolds explained that the Society had requested $10,001 to be worked into the 2023 budget to repair a few of their kennels and purchase a kennel bank to separate the dogs and cats. Scruffy Tails Shelter Manager Nicole Heskin approached the council, who asked her how she believed their grant would help the Society, in which she answered would be used to help with their operational costs to help shelter the animals. The council asked if they could wait another year as this was a significant year for the council, with the city’s levy being raised on a preliminary basis. Heskin replied that they needed the funds as their building is very out of date, and the kennel gates they have are very dangerous to the dogs and cats, as there have been multiple instances of their heads getting stuck in them. Reynolds explained that if the council chose to approve the budget request, it would be a part of the budget items they would discuss in future meetings with other approved requests they had done. However, he noted this could be done with the city’s reserves. Council member Don Cavalier made a motion to fund $5,000 to the Scruffy Tails Humane Society to cover the funding of the creation of the kennels. However, the Society noted that this amount wouldn’t be much of an effect on the Society. The council then remade its motion to approve the request for $10,000. However, the motion died with a lack of approval votes by the council. “The discussion was active, even vigorous, but in the end, a motion was made and seconded, and at the call of the vote, there were three votes in favor of funding and four votes to deny funding. The motion died because it takes five votes to pass a resolution in our charter city requirements. Scruffy Tails is doing a great job, as they indicated and all agreed,” Reynolds explained, “The image of Scruffy Tails has been enhanced. They’re doing a better job running the shelter for these animals, but in the end, the council’s decision was in this year of budget needs and department needs, where we’ve asked our department heads to dig deep into their budgets to make expenditure reductions, that the city was not in a position to award Scruffy Tails $10,001.”
CHEDA Agendas
The council finished the meeting by approving the agendas of the two CHEDA meetings on October 11 and 24 and if the City Council needed to approve all of its agendas for future meetings. The council approved the agendas unanimously.
REPORTS AND STAFF RECOMMENDATION
City Administrator “Corky” Reynolds reported that he had met with the Department heads and said that many of their expenses would be used in the future. He had also met with Chris Boike of the Crookston Public Library about his request to repair the roof, but the lights in the parking lots needed to be replaced, so the amount for the request had increased significantly.
The new Economic Development Director, Carie Kirschbaum, introduced herself to the council and said she was excited to be a part of the community. She gave an overview of what she planned to do with the department and that she had met with students from the University of Minnesota Crookston on some ideas they had to help CHEDA improve.
City Finance Director Ryan Lindtwed reported that he was working with FEMA on all of the reports of the damages from the spring and was going to finish their ARP State Audit for October.
IT Director Chad Palm reported that he had helped the Police Department connect some new computers to help their consoles in their cars to keep them connected to the internet so they could continue to do some connections and processes while out in their vehicles and had installed several other improvements to many other departments around the city.
Parks and Recs Director Jake Solberg reported that the Sports Center will be fully operational within the next five weeks and was currently scheduling several games for the season.
The next City Council meeting will take place on Monday, October 24, at 7:00 p.m. inside the City Hall Council Chambers.
