The Crookston Ways and Means Committee met on Monday following the City Council meeting in the City Hall council chambers. This meeting included a discussion regarding grants and the upcoming city budget adjustments.
The meeting opened with grant discussion regarding the presentations given by Crookston organizations such as Scruffy Tails Humane Society, Golden Link Senior Center, Crookston Aquatic Boosters, Benedictine Living Community, Tri-Valley Opportunity Council, and Downtown Crookston Development Partnership (DCDP).
The following organizations have received consensus from the Ways and Means Committee with the city council approval pending-
Aquatic Booster in the amount of $6,000, Scruffy Tails in the amount of $20,000, DCDP in the amount of $10,000, and Tri-Valley Opportunity Council in the amount of $15,000. Grant distribution is not finalized, nor have final decisions been made for the other organizations mentioned.
These organizations gave presentations to the Ways and Means Committee on October 23, requesting specific amounts of funding.
The Golden Link Senior Center sent representation to the meeting on Monday to further discuss their grant request and how they would use the funds. The Golden Link is requesting in the amount of $119,376 from the city, which is nearly $30,000 more than they received in 2023.
President of Directors for the Golden Link Senior Center Tammy Parkin explained to the committee that these funds are much needed for various issues, including costs of salaries and capital improvements to their aging building.
“The grant that we are asking the city for is for our manager’s salary, custodian salary, and all of the utilities,” said Parkin, “Anything that has to do with fixing up the building. Our building is old. It needs upgrades, our electrical needs upgrades, and our utilities are going up because of our old breaker and lighting system.”
The Crookston Parks and Recreation Department has $78,000 committed toward the Golden Link Senior Center heading into 2024. If the full grant request is approved, the city contributions would be approximately $42,000, which equates to a 1.5% tax levy increase for the city.
“If we got this funding, it would mean we could keep our doors open,” said Parkin, “We could offer more programming for the seniors in the city of Crookston and surrounding areas. It’s tremendous that the city even offers this grant. But it would mean the world to us.”
After discussion of the grants, the Committee established that the grant requests be plugged into the 2024 budget and find out what the tax levy would be set at. “What was discussed tonight was the possibility of some additional items being added back into the budget,” said City Administrator Corky Reynolds, “Those items would increase the levy, so the charge from the committee to the administration and financial director is to add back certain items and tell us what that potentially does to the levy.”
The Committee was presented with the newest proposed levy increase set at 18.038% for the city before the grant discussion took place. The 18% levy increase coordinates with a 3.38% tax increase.
Reynolds explained that he and the Financial Director have been charged with not only adding the grant requests approved by consensus into the budget but also the reinstatement of a marketing position for the City of Crookston back into the budget. This would be a potential $130,000 increase in the city budget, equating to an approximate 4% levy increase.
To watch the full council and Ways and Means meeting, click here.
