The Crookston Park and Rec board met on Monday afternoon in the City Hall conference room.
The board elected Andrea Brekken as president and Tim Moe as vice president. The board also welcomed new member Charles “Corky” Reynolds.
CROOKSTON COMMUNITY POOL FEASIBILITY STUDY
Crookston Interim City Administrator informed the board that he and Park and Rec Director Scott Butt had reached out to AE2S Engineering to obtain a quote for an evaluation and feasibility study of the Crookston Community Pool. The City is evaluating the long-term future of its community pool and is seeking guidance on whether to continue operating the existing facility, decommission it, or replace it.
The City Council has requested a study with clear cost comparisons, funding considerations, and operational implications for each option.
AE2S’s estimate on the Crookston Pool evaluation and feasibility study was $45,000 to $50,000. The estimate includes engineering analysis, cost estimating, meetings, development of a final report, and presentation to the City Council. The City doesn’t have the money in the 2026 budget to pay for it, so the discussion pivoted to how they can get it cheaper. “The discussion was, how can we reduce that number and still find out the information that we need? And I thought everybody threw a lot of good ideas out,” said Butt. “The nice part is we’ve done two studies in the past of the building, and hopefully we can integrate those in with this new study and reduce the cost.”
Butt added that they are trying to be a financially responsible as possible. “Things are tight, so we want to make sure we’re being fiscally responsible, and hopefully we can get those reduced to a point where we can take them out of the budget we’ve already budgeted for,” said Butt. “Otherwise, you’re looking at trying to budget it for the 2027 year, so we’ll see what they tell us, and we’ll go from there.”
One way to save money on the study is to conduct a structural assessment of the building, because if the building is in disrepair, there is no point in moving on. “I think that’s the intelligent thing to do from that standpoint because if you do a lot of work, you can do a lot of work to the rest of the building, but if you don’t have a roof over it, it doesn’t do you any good,” said Butt. “So yeah, let’s make sure the structure is good before we worry about pumps and that kind of stuff.”
Butt added that they need to look at every option and determine the best financial move for the City of Crookston. “I think everything’s on the table. The park board really thought that we have to look at every option, and I know that’s been the council’s way that they’ve looked at it, is we’ve got to look at all the options and figure out what is the most economic, but smart way to do this,” said Butt. “Until we get those numbers back, obviously everything stays on the table until you figure out which is too costly and and we will go from there.”
RAY ECKLUND PARK REPAIR GRANT
Butt said he was speaking with Taylor Wyum, Crookston Development Director, and that the City could apply for a grant to help fund repairs at Ray Ecklund Park. The repairs and additions they are looking at include building three new pickleball courts at the skate park, repairing the lights at Diamond One and the tennis courts, and other improvements, such as upgrading the bathrooms. “We can either go after it for this year or go after it for 2027, which would help us in adding pickleball courts and helping to redo the lights that would be up there. We have a diamond one that needs a new light pole installed. The basketball court and tennis courts need new lights. We’d also be able to add another picnic shelter up there, maybe redo the bathroom,” said Butt. We’re going to meet with the lighting company tomorrow to get estimates.”
The grant would be a matching grant, and the City can use in-kind contributions to reduce that match. The application deadline is April 1, and the Park Board recommended that the City Council approve the request to apply for the grant.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Section 8AA Baseball tournament has approached the City of Crookston about possibly hosting the tournament. The park board said they would like to, as long as it can host it on different days than the Section 8A tournament, which they host every other year.
The Crookston Sports Center will host the 15UB Regional Girls Hockey tournament from February 27-March 1, featuring eight teams.
The next Park Board meeting will be on Monday, March 9.
