The Crookston Public School District held the final public meeting about the multiuse facility on Tuesday night, with over 30 people in attendance in the Crookston High School Choir/Orchestra Room.
Interim Superintendent Dave Kuehn presented why the district wanted the facility, explaining that their current facilities used for track and football were owned by the University of Minnesota Crookston but were not safe enough to host competitive track and field meets due to the track’s deterioration. Due to them not owning the facility, they could not use their Long-Term Facilities Maintenance dollars designated to pay for upgrades to them since it was not their property. Kuehn then went into the benefits the project could give the district and community. The facility could provide broader opportunities and benefits for students and community members as many groups, including athletic teams and park and recs programs, outside groups for rentals, and let the school host MSHSL playoffs and section track and field meets.
He then went into a summary of the budget, explaining that the estimated costs for the project are $4,964,671 with a Bond Issue Total of $4,965,000, with the Artificial Turf Field’s construction costing $1,182,000, the track’s construction costing $837,000. The Grandstand & Press Box’s installation costing $387,000, the Lighting/Electrical work costing $715,000, and the Site work costing $924,000. The construction cost for the Concessions Stands and Bathrooms would be $178,000, with other Contingency costs equaling about $741,571. Crookston Financial Advisor Jeff Seeley of Ehlers Finance came forward and explained that the state, via the Ag Tax Credit, will cover 70%, using an example of an Ag parcel of one house, garage, and acre. “That’s going to be valued in tax like a regular residential home in town would be. That is going to be a separate category. Then you have the Ag Land and buildings. The first tier, which is just shy of $1.9 million ($1,890,000), generally falls in the Ag Homestead Tax Category,” Jeff Seeley explained. “Beyond that, it falls in the Ag Non-Homestead, which has a tax rate about twice as much as the Ag Homestead. If you have a smaller farm, most of your land will probably be in that lower tax category. All the Ag Land qualifies for the 70% Ag Credit, which is automatic on the tax bill and a reduction that they’ll see automatically.” With the Ag Credit, it would lower the Tax Impact of the 1st Tier from $120 to $51 and from $376 to $161 for other higher values. To learn the exact tax impact of your home or business, you can go to https://www.crookston.k12.mn.us/district-proposedreferendum and click on the Tax Calculator. For Ag Land information, you have to send in your parcel numbers, and Ehlers will send them a customizer tax estimate for owners to learn their tax impact. To contact Jeff Seeley, you can call 621-698-8585 or email him at jseeley@ehlers-inc.com. Brian Berg of ZerrBerg Architects mentioned that the costs for the school are also calculated to include any construction inflation for the summer. When asked if the project would cost more than the amount they had proposed to the public, Kuehn answered the school would make up the difference by either taking away some of the fencing or paving to save money, or the district would find other ways to raise the money.
Kuehn then went into the existing debts the school had already, saying they had four bonds outstanding. These included HVAC Projects with Alternative and Capital Facilities Bonds, which would be paid off in 2034, some Parking Lot Projects that happened in 2015 that would be paid off in 2030, the Bus Garage referendum from 2020, which will be paid off in 2030, and improvements made to the elementary and high school buildings, which would be paid off in 2035. When asked how the referendum would fit with the school’s existing debts, Seeley explained that the existing debt is wrapped around prior issues to create a level debt structure through taxes payable in 2034 with periodic decreases in future years. With this referendum, the school plans to fuse it into an existing debt and mitigate the tax impact over the years. “What we do is when we look at this new proposed debt, we’re going to fuse that in with the existing debt. The idea behind it is while the existing debt payments are higher, we’re going to have the proposed debt payments lowered. So as the district moves through the years and pays off some of these old debts, the new debt will increase the principal payments,” Jeff Seeley explained. “The idea is to keep the debt level over a period of time as opposed to a big spike immediately. It balances out and coordinates the old debt with the new debt.”
Kuehn then went into a comparison of the school’s debt to other school districts, in which he showed Crookston was among the schools with the lowest debt levy compared to other local districts in 2022. “We wanted to share some of the schools that are more like-sized, like Thief River Falls, East Grand Forks, Hawley, and Warroad, the schools we compete against as what they have for debt. No debt is good debt, but the school has some, but when you look at it compared to these other school districts, we’re really on the lower end,” Dave Kuehn explained. “The other school districts have maybe put some more money into projects and facilities, and when you look at it, Crookston is at the lower end of the scale of those other eight school districts.” Tables of the district’s debt can be seen below-
Kuehn then opened the presentation to the public for any questions they had. One audience member asked Activities Director Nate Lubarski how many track meets the school will hold this year. Lubarski answered they will only hold one varsity and one JV track meet this year, and they would both be at East Grand Forks High School. When asked if having a home track would increase the number of track meets they hosted, Lubarski answered they would. When asked what the city would use it facility for, Kuehn replied they had come to a mutual agreement with the city for their children sports on the weekends.
Another audience member asked how the school would maintain the turf, where Brian Berg answered the turf would come with a groomer used to clean anything wanted out of it and could be sprayed with washers thanks to the drainage system underneath it.
When asked if they had any ideas about any sponsorships they could use for the referendum, Kuehn answered they haven’t yet as they were waiting for bids to come in and learn how much they needed first, but they were speaking with several businesses and individuals about potential sponsorships. When asked about its interest rate, Jeff Seeley answered it was at 4.75%.
The vote on the multiuse facility will be on Tuesday, February 14, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. To get a mail-in ballot, you can go to the Crookston District Office from Monday-Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or request a ballot from Marilyn Wahouske by contacting her at 218-281-5313 ext. 3 or email marilynwahouske@isd593.org. You can see more information about the referendum and your property tax credit at the link: https://www.crookston.k12.mn.us/district-proposedreferendum.
