The Crookston Ways and Means Committee met on Monday following the City Council meeting. The meeting consisted of approving the September 24 meeting report and the granting of two extensions for the building of two homes in the Barrette Street Estates dealing with the timeline for the completion of construction. The program used for these projects waives special assessments during construction and the city has had 16 homes built under the project, including several previous homes that had been granted extensions. Councilman Jake Fee said, “It seems fair with progress being made to approve these, it would be different if there wasn’t any progress.” The committee unanimously voted to grant extensions on both homes.
The second half of the meeting consisted up an update on the 2018 Strategic Planning Priorities that were established by the Ways and Means Committee at their January 27 meeting. The strategic planning priorities list included housings, business incentives, Crookston Sports Center entrance repair, Highway 75 bypass lighting, downtown Crookston sidewalks, portable patios, Pirate Drive curb and gutter, the Crookston Pool, daycare, recruitment of a junior hockey team, downtown traffic calming project and community assessment.
During the public discussion of the strategic planning priorities, mayoral candidate Dana Johnson questioned why an update of the priorities was happening at this meeting. She noted it seemed coincidental that these topics were brought up in the candidate forum last week and were now being discussed in the meeting.
Crookston City Administrator Shannon Stassen provided a description, in response to Johnson, of some of the specific discussions and decisions that happened in various committee, Ways and Means, and council meetings. “Hoven Lane, there was at least three meetings to discuss that [with the] public, some were closed, we have discussed working with residential lot owners, that moved 5th Ave South ahead of Pirate Drive.” Stassen added, “We just passed business incentives today, but that’s been worked on for several months, CSC was talked about in this group.” Stassen also referenced the bypass lighting application, indoor pool, childcare center, alternative long-term plan for Pirate Drive and downtown sidewalk discussions the Ways and Means committee has had. And provided the example that the portable patio/parklet project was discussed on another committee, “I don’t know that we discussed the project here, but the DCDP has addressed those and the city has been in a strong supportive role to make those happen.”
Johnson also said, “for the public, the transparency of city government to bring up strategic plan discussion, maybe you’re having those discussions but not everyone knows they are part of the strategic plan.” Mayor Wayne Melbye responded, “I would dare say that anything we talk about here [is related to our priorities], many of these are in other committee work right now and all the meetings [including, CHEDA (Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority), planning commission, etc.] are announced and open to the public.” He also referenced the meeting minutes being available to the public, the meetings are reported in the local paper and on the radio. “The opportunities are out there for getting information, but how are people doing it,” said Melbye. “All the meetings are open, but [people] need to make an effort too.”
The priorities were split into three groups; urgent, important and as time allows. The update says progress has been made in nearly every priority. Housing was listed as in progress and it was noted that the City and CHEDA have met but no new enhanced incentive program has been determined. Two individual projects under the housing initiative were completed, include reducing the lot price for three lots on Hoven Lane to $12,000. All three lots were sold to CHEDA for $1,000 each. The city also said they’ve completed meetings of all residential lot owners, and that input has been used to bring forward priority projects. They used the Carmen View Estates meeting as an example that led to the paving of 5th Ave S. The elevation of the 5th Ave S. project moved it ahead of the Private Drive curb and gutter project, which is listed as in progress. Widseth Smith Nolting has begun the process of determining water management need at Pirate Drive and the entire CSC addition. The city hopes that the additional planning process will lead to better decisions in the future of the project.
Business incentives were marked as complete with CHEDA to adopt the Building Better Business program, water/wastewater incentives put in place and they are considering amendments to the Electric and Natural Gas Franchise Fee ordinances. Also completed was the concrete replacement at the east entrance for the Sports Center.
The parklet also has progressed with the parklet being used on various city streets throughout the summer. MnDOT also assisted the DCDP with creating Language for Limited Use Permit (LUP) that has been submitted to the Federal Transportation Administration. The submission is a request for placement of the Parklets along HWY 2 in downtown Crookston.
All but one of the remaining priorities were marked as in progress, including lighting for HWY 75 bypass and a downtown sidewalk replacement plan. An application for the lighting on the bypass has been submitted to MnDOT for consideration of funding, and the city is awaiting a response.
The city plans to continue to work with the DCDP and Widseth Smith Nolting on alternate solutions to the downtown sidewalk plan after a deeper look into the plan brought up concerns over cost and feasibility regarding ADA compliance.
The city has met with the school district regarding the future of the community pool and will be discussing the pool with the Park Board on October 15. Daycare or childcare continues to be an important topic and results have been mixed. The city has partnered with Tri-Valley Opportunity Council to secure funding from DEED as an incentive for new providers. The goal was 10 new home/family childcare providers and one new childcare cent. To date, Crookston has five new family child care providers with up to 10 spots per provider. Unfortunately noted Mayor Wayne Melbye, “we have also had a few childcare providers close during this time. I think we have a net gain at this point, but it’s not 50 new childcare spots.” Childcare concerns were brought before the council at their last meeting on September 24 by Marty Seifert, from the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities and it was also noted, that lack of childcare was repeatedly mentioned as a concern by employers during manufacturing week tours last week.
The final group of priorities included recruitment of a junior hockey franchise, a downtown traffic calming demonstration project and community assessment. There have been several different groups interested in starting a junior hockey franchise in Crookston. “We’ve had discussions with four different groups or individuals that are interested in Crookston as a possible destination for a junior hockey franchise, said Stassen. “There are a lot of pieces that have to make sense, availability in the arena, cost device, sales of alcohol, fitting into the right league in terms of travel and lots of other little things,” Stassen added the city continues to listen to possible franchises and share information about the arena.
MnDOT will be in Crookston at the end of October to discuss several potential projects related to the downtown traffic calming demonstration. The final priority was community assessment was the only priority marked with no progress, due to the indication that a comprehensive assessment would be quite expensive. The city still feels like it’s a good idea, could be implemented when funding options are found.
