It looks like the City of Crookston has a new Crookston Housing and Economic Development Executive Director as Karie Kirschbaum resigned as Mahnomen City Administrator to take the job in Crookston. 
Kirschbaum is the former mayor of the City of Gary and one of the founding members of the Norman County Economic Development Authority (NCEDA).
She and her husband were inner-city community activists networking with government, churches, and non-profit entities to restore families, help those with addictions, transition the homeless back into society and work on overall community development for over 20 of those years. She also spent many months on the mission field in Africa, the Philippines, Mexico, Europe, and others.
Since her return in 2010, she helped found Gary Cares in 2011, a non-profit serving the Norman County area, and is a navigator for Shock & Awe youth philanthropy. Combined, since 2011, the organizations have brought over $300,000 into Norman County. As mayor, she worked with the city council to update city parks and streets as well as creating a recreational area in the Gary Pines.
As former chair of the NCEDA, she led efforts with the NCEDA board, area residents, city administrations, and local farmers, to bring industry into Norman County. In 2021, over $100,000,000 in building began, bringing 70+ jobs to the communities.
Our friends and R and J Broadcasting in Mahnomen had the story below on their website.
“The City of Mahnomen will soon begin the search once again for a new City Administrator. The Mahnomen City Council held a special meeting on Monday night, July 25th to accept the resignation of Karie Kirschbaum. Kirschbaum served as the City Administrator for just over a year after taking over for Mitch Berg, who left to work for the University of Minnesota-Crookston. Kirschbaum will be making a similar move as the new Community Development Director for the City of Crookston. She says she has very much enjoyed her time with the city of Mahnomen and her passion for Economic Development encouraged her to take the next step.”
We hope to have comments from Crookston City Administrator Corky Reynolds by Tuesday morning.
