The Crookston Parks and Recreation board met on Monday at City Hall to discuss pool program pictures, a repair to the pool boiler, and an equipment addition to the pool. The fees are coming in higher than budgeted.
PROGRAM PICTURES
The board discussed how to go about Park and Rec program pictures. The board discussed putting out a contract for bid from the many photographers in the area. Crookston Park and Rec Director Scott Butt said they wanted to get a policy in place. “We’re considering putting in a policy of possibly contracting it out. We haven’t contracted it out in the past, and the board believed that we need a policy to follow,” said Butt. “We’re in our budget situation, and we may have to look at contracting that out to some people and trying to see if we can be more consistent in what we’re doing and really just have a policy that we can follow and make sure that we’re including and helping everybody and going from there. And giving everybody at least a chance to bid on it.“
POOL REPAIR, DONATION, AND NEW EQUIPMENT
The Crookston Community Pool boiler had issues with the float switch, which broke and wasn’t working, causing the boiler to overflow. Grove Mechanical inspected and found the problem. The cost to replace the float switch is $3,300. Fit and Fin donated the money for the repair. “The float valve broke on Friday, and Grove Mechanical got in and checked it right away,” said Butt. “The part has been ordered and Fit and Fin stepped up right away and said that they would use the money that was donated from the lemonade stands. The kids who did the lemonade stand are really the ones who are saving the pool right now. So we want to thank all those people that had anything to do with the lemonade stand because they did an awesome job. Hopefully we get the part put in right away tomorrow, and we’ll get the temperature back up to where it needs to be.”
Butt added that they are purchasing a floating volleyball court, which they will put in the shallow end. The court will be used for an adult volleyball league and will be available for rental. The cost of the court is $2,500, and Fin and Fit will donate $2,000, and the City Park and Rec supplies budget has $500 available to cover the remainder of the court. “We’re going to buy a floating volleyball court that, if you come in and rent the pool, you’ll be able to have it set up with it. We will also start a co-ed adult volleyball league in the water. The main reason we want to do it is to try to add to our adult recreation and provide more amenities at the pool,” said Butt. “Fit and Fin has stepped up and picked up most of this cost. We actually feel fortunate that we have Fit and Fin. I think it’ll be a nice addition to the pool and really start to push us more to a more recreational pool than, you know, the old thoughts of the pool were that it was a competition pool. And now, you know, we’re going to push to make it more of a rec pool.”
FEE COLLECTION HIGHER THAN EXPECTED
Park and Rec has taken in $21,471.13 more than they budgeted so far this year, with more money expected to come in with three more sessions of swimming lessons and sugarbeet harvest filling the campground starting mid-September. “Our Club Kid program really stepped up, and there were more kids than we thought we would get, so that really helped. The passes at the pool were big ones, and then there were just the swimming lessons. We’ve doubled what we expected to make in swimming lessons, and we still have three sessions at the end of the year.”
Park and Rec will be adding another $720 from the Wellness Program. The campground will be full later this month which should bring in more campground fees during the sugarbeet harvest from mid-September through mid-October. “With Express Personnel coming in, we brought in about $12,000 from that last year, so we’re hoping to go beyond where we were a year ago,” said Butt.
The fee collection list is below-
| ITEM | 2025 Budgeted | Year to date collected | Difference |
| Open Swim Fees | $15,000 | $15,369 | $369 |
| Membership Fees | $2,750 | $7,202 | $4452 |
| Private Lessons | $1,000 | $325 | -$675 |
| Swim Lessons | $10,000 | $22,165 | $12,165 |
| Special Events | $2,000 | $2,552.50 | $552.50 |
| Park Shelters | $750 | $1318.53 | $568.13 |
| Camp Ground Fees | $20,000 | $16,695 | -$3,305 |
| Club Kid | $15,500 | $19,625 | $4,125 |
| Adult Recreation | $6,000 | $2,610 | -$3390 |
