The Crookston City Council met Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall in the Council Chambers.
The Consent Agenda for Tuesday’s meeting started with the approval of City Council Minutes from December 30, 2024, and January 6, 2025, meetings and the approval of the City of Crookston Bills and Disbursements for $921,986.57. Also approved as part of the consent agenda was a resolution regarding approving the license renewals for 2025 Gas Fitters and Cement Masons. The City Council Committee Composition for 2025 was updated, and the appointment of the Boards and Commissions for 2025 was approved in the consent agenda as well. The last item on the consent agenda was the approval of the 2023 Pay Equity Report.
The regular agenda opened with a resolution authorizing the acceptance of the redevelopment grant for the Red River Valley Winter Shows. On September 27, 2024, the City of Crookston was awarded $1,487,000 from the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development to complete the Winter Shows project. City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge informed the council on the worth of the project but also made sure that they were given enough information to understand best and worst-case scenarios. Ultimately, the council voted to accept the redevelopment grant for the Red River Valley Winter Shows with a 6-1 vote.
Community Development Director Karie Kirschbaum told the council she and her team at the EDA will be working diligently to find ways to cut down the City’s portion of the project’s cost. She says she is excited about what lies ahead for The City of Crookston. “I’m really excited about it, I’m excited, and I really want to thank the community for being so supportive,” says Kirschbaum. “All the different entities that have been working with us for the last two years, behind the scenes, phone calls and email, so I’m excited about that.”
Kirschbaum says there is a lot of opportunity ahead with the project. “I’m excited for the opportunity to bring new business in. I’m excited for the opportunity to see the Red River Valley Winter Shows group continue their mission; I mean, they do so many great things.” What are the next steps? “We will give an offer to the Red River Valley Winter Shows for the property, and if they accept it, we will own the property,” says Kirschbaum. “Then we will get the grant, receive the grant, apply for the grant, and then we will look at putting out bids for demo.” After that, Kirschbaum says there is a lot of grant work to do to try to offset the city’s cost.
One council member, Derek Brekken, did not agree with moving forward with the Winter Shows Project. “Looking at the budget and the issues we are having with money, we have multiple commercial lots that are vacant and for sale,” says Brekken. “We have buildings all over town that are vacant for businesses to enter and are not being utilized.” Brekken also mentioned acreage on the south end of town that is available for commercial use as well.
The next item on the regular agenda was a resolution calling for a public hearing on proposed modifications to the development program for municipal development district no. 3, the proposed establishment of tax increment financing, and the proposed adoption of a tax increment financing plan regarding the Winter Shows project. This item was contingent on the approval of the RRVWS project to move forward. The council unanimously approved this item as it is necessary to move forward with the RRVWS project.
The Council unanimously approved the resolution regarding the engagement of Clifton Larson Allen, LLP, to perform specific accounting services for the City in 2025. Clifton Larson Allen, LLP will continue to provide professional accounting services such as bank reconciliation statements and accounting support through December 31, 2025. City Administrator Shoobridge says things are going in the right direction, and they hope to start backing off the need for the additional service later this year.
Item 7.04 on the regular agenda was for discussion regarding the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Active Transportation Infrastructure Grant Program to existing Fairfax Trail West along 3rd Ave SW. Then, north and northeast follow Old Hwy 75 towards downtown. The City is looking to apply for a $200,000 grant to cover the engineering costs for this project. Shoobridge explains that while most of the Trail project is covered by grant funds, there is always a catch. “As everyone knows, all grants come with strings, so this one does not cover engineering,” says Shoobridge. “There is another federal grant out that will cover up to $200,000 in engineering.” The total engineering and acquisition costs for the project are $391,000, leaving the city to cover the cost of $191,000. “We are moving forward, although we have, as drafted, $191,000 in city shares. This is a scalable project,” says Shoobridge,” So, as we move forward when we get the federal money match grant, we can then rescale the project to match.” This way, says Shoobridge, if the city doesn’t have a source for the other $191,000, they can scale the project down a little to meet that and still be at zero cost to the city.
Item 7.05 of Tuesday’s agenda was for discussion regarding the policy and procedure regarding the City Administrator’s Performance Review. Each council member had recently received review paperwork for Administrator Shoobridge and was asked to fill it out. At the Administrator’s request, all Department Heads were also asked to fill out a review. Vice Mayor Morgan Hibma tallied the reviews by scanning and entering them into a spreadsheet. There were some concerns from a few council members that the procedure being used was not acceptable. After discussion, it was decided that changes could be made to future review processes using the ideas and suggestions discussed. Still, they would continue with the Administrator’s review as it was put together for today’s meeting.
The council went into a closed session to discuss the City Administrator’s Performance, with a summary of the closed session by City Attorney Tanner Holten to follow.
The meeting was opened back up, and Holten relayed that the summary of the closed session needed to be carefully written, and he needed some time, so he deferred it to be read at the next City Council Meeting. To clarify, we briefly talked with Vice Mayor Morgan Hibma. “Basically, under the statute, it does give us to have that summary presented at the next meeting,” says Hibma. “ It was a longer closed session, and to be able to gather all that information and be able to share what we can, he would just like to have the time to put it into a summary to be presented at the next council.”

