Prior to the fireworks at the conclusion of Tuesday’s Ways & Means Committee that we reported on yesterday, the committee moved forward with several topics during the meeting.
The first was the review of the twice-a-month recycling collection, which as previously reported showed a drastic drop-off in utilization (58 percent) between the first and second pickup. The committee voted in favor of the staff recommendation to return to once a month pickup, but left the door open for future exploration, including a second test run or investing in larger bins.
The second item on the agenda was a suggestion from MNDOT that the City of Crookston creates a steering committee to research downtown traffic calming. The plan is to have an open active listening session for the community and then request that community members sign-up to be a part of the steering committee. All councilman seems to be willing to at least look into the discussion and hear from the community, while both Councilmen Steve Erickson and Jake Fee expressed, they wouldn’t support anything financially that didn’t include improving the downtown sidewalks.
City Administrator Shannon Stassen described the premise behind the steering committee. “MnDOT has suggested we form a steering committee and do some additional research into downtown calming, safety measures,” explained Stassen. “It’s kind of a call to anyone that would like to serve to put your name forward and we’ll talk that list to the council for approval.”
A rough date thrown around was having a public meeting led by City staff the Week of November 26 and establishing a steering committee representative of the population from that meeting explained Mayor Wayne Melbye. “We’re going to invite the whole City to come down and talk or listen, preferably listen, and then weigh in and say I’d be interested in getting on that committee,” said Melbye. “It’s been going on for 10 years already so it’s not going to get done overnight.”
The goal for the steering committee would be to have some preliminary recommendations for council around the end of February. Melbye also added, “I get that you have to have people from both sides, but if you have an equal number of people are both sides are you going to get anything done.”
Councilman Bobby Baird, Fee and Erickson declined to comment on the steering committee.
Next on the agenda was a couple of minor adjustments to the 2019 revenue budget with adjustments to the fee schedule. The City would like to set rates for equipment change-outs for HVAC and Water Heater/Fixture change-outs at $60 for the first two units, with an additional $15 for the third unit and beyond. The committee approved that set rate unanimously.
The second part of the revenue budget discussed was a fee increase of $5 for rental license fees within the City of Crookston. The increase was passed unanimously increasing the rate to $25, with a maximum rate per dwelling unit of $500. This was the first increase in the rate in five years and it was suggested by Erickson that the fire department, who manages the fee, review the fee schedule every two to three years.
The final two items on the agenda also dealt with the Crookston Fire Department. The first was a request to allow City staff to work with the City Attorney to develop language allowing the City to recover expenses from individuals for intentional fire calls outside city limits. Examples of how this ordinance would be enacted would be for intentional fire calls, such as someone burning during a red flag who has been told not to and arson. The City currently has the limited legal authority to collect for these expenses and the committee approved City staff to work to develop better language that will establish the language they can use to legally recoup those expenses.
Staff also resubmitted a request to purchase a reader (message) board for the fire department. Stassen explained what the board would be used for. “This reader board would be public announcements, safety announcements from the fire department or any other city-related business.”
The previous submission had been approved for a $6,000 expense to purchase a board, however, The previous submission had been approved for a $6,000 expense to purchase a board, however, due to quality concerns they requested an approval to increase their spending limit to $13,500.
“In looking at the equipment and what [initial specs} showed from an overseas vendor and talked with some other cities that used the vendor,” explained Stassen. “Those cities said if it was up to them, they wouldn’t do it again with that vendor, so we started looking into Daktronics.”
Fee said he was glad to see staff didn’t spend the money on subpar equipment, while Councilman Bob Quanrud questioned the need for the board.
Due to grants received by the fire department throughout the year staff had determined there are significant funds in the fire department’s 2018 budget to handle the increase in cost up to $13,500. The committee approved the increase with a split vote as Quanrud and Baird voted against the motion.
