The Crookston Park Board held their monthly meeting on Monday afternoon at the Crookston Community Pool. The Park Board meeting was also attended by representatives from the City Council, City Staff, and Crookston Public Schools. Mayor Wayne Melbye, City Administrator Shannon Stassen, Crookston School Superintendent Jeremy Olson, and Crookston School District Transportation, Grounds and Facilities Director Rick Niemela were all in attendance. 
The meeting focused primarily on the Community Pool and whether the Park Board agreed with previous discussions by school and city officials that a transition of ownership to the city may in the best interest of the community. The Park Board voted unanimously to move forward and bring the discussion to the Crookston Ways & Means Committee. The discussion would be on the ownership, including the financial burden that would fall to the city. That vote brings the transfer of the pool from the school district to the city one step closer to becoming a reality.
During the meeting, the park board learned of the upgrades the pool has undergone in recent years, with most major upgrades being made since 2014. Rick Niemela discussed the various cosmetic and equipment changes that have taken place including a new air handling system and dehumidifier, new filter system and surge tank and the nearly completed update to the exterior façade. The façade still has work to be completed on both the north and west sides, which would be covered under the levy the school district has for the operation of the pool. “They went over the improvements that had been made in the past 5-10 years, with a lot of the mechanical systems being replaced,” said Parks and Recreation Director Scott Riopelle. “They have made a number of big upgrades to help us in the future and hopefully will go to the council and see about taking over the facility.”
Niemela highlighted the following upgrades the Crookston School District has made to the pool.
2002 – Fixed the exterior walls. There are two layers of walls with insulation in the middle.
2006 – New fire alarm system
2013 – Tiled the pool bottom and new LED lighting
2014 and 2015 – New surge tank and filters, new air handler, new dehumidification system and new electrical
2015 – New roof, new boiler (low pressure)
2016 – Repaved the circle driveway and new bleachers.
Park Board member Becky Kofoed made the observation during the meeting that normally when organizations are discussing the transfer of ownership in a facility, you may be dealing with a facility that needs a significant amount of repair and that isn’t the case with the community pool. Kofoed noted a change in ownership is more about providing more consistent services to the community and improving programs. “We feel that with Park and Rec we have more opportunity to expand the programming portion, because that’s what our jobs are and the school is looking at education for their people and that’s where they should be [focused],” said Riopelle. “This just helps ensure the community that we can have more programs at this facility and have it open for them.”
After receiving the recommendation from the Park Board, the Ways and Means Committee will likely discuss taking over ownership of the pool at their next meeting on Monday, October 22.
Also, during the meeting, Park Board Chair Don Cavalier asked Riopelle to address the rumor that the Sports Center was in poor condition after a member of the audience submitted a question to candidates at the Candidate Forum on October 1. “We do upgrades at the sports center constantly, there is painting that was just recently was finished and we’ll be turning over to ice pretty quick, so it’ll be mostly touchups through the winter,” commented Riopelle. “The facility is used heavily and depending on the time of day there may be something that doesn’t look quite right on a particular day, but we do try to on top of those things and keep it looking good.” Riopelle also welcomed people to come and check out the facility including this weekend during the Big One art and craft fair which is expecting more than 200 vendors.
The Sports Center will primarily be in a state of transition over the next few weeks as the staff has already removed most of the turf from the gold rink in preparation for this weekend’s event. Following that event, the staff will put the sports floor down in the red rink for the Halloween 3 on 3 basketball tournament that will be held on Sunday, October 28. The staff will also be laying the ice in the main arena for that start of the high school hockey season, with practice starting on Monday, October 29 and will host the first high school game for the season will be girl’s hockey vs. East Grand Forks on Tuesday, November 13.
The park board also discussed the possibility of increasing the length of sand and turf volleyball seasons in the future with Riopelle and his staff. They plan to explore it but will need to look over the logistics of a longer season, including other users, before making any changes. The next park board meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 19.
The group listens to Crookston School Superintendent Jeremy Olson
