The Crookston Board of Parks and Recreations met on Monday afternoon inside the City Hall Conference Room. After the Call of Order, the board began the meeting by approving the minutes from their last meeting on December 19, which the board approved unanimously.
MAIN AGENDA
The board first began discussing its Squirt A District 16 & 15U Olympic Regional Tournaments. Parks and Recs Director Jake Solberg reported that Minnesota Hockey had asked him if they wanted to run the Minnesota Squirt A District tournament, which he agreed to do. On the same day, they would host the Girls 15U Olympic Regional Tournaments. “We’re going to bring our Squirt A District 16 tournament to Crookston on March 4 and 5. That’s six teams out of our district (Crookston, Roseau, Warrod, Bemidji, and Thief River Falls), so there should be a good little tournament for them. Then for the Girls 15U Regional Tournament will be four teams (Proctor/Hermantown, Moorhead, Alexandria, Wright County),” Parks and Recs Director Jake Solberg explained. “The regional tournament is a tournament before States, so they’re going to take the top two teams out of that tournament, and they’re going to move on and go play in the State Tournament. Expect a good weekend of hockey. There’s ten teams plus UMC on Friday and Saturday night, so there will be a lot of hockey that weekend and a big kicker to end the season.”
Solberg then went into some ideas he had come up with around the rink for parents and families to partake in between or after the games, like a set of cutout picture boards, Chuck-a-puck, 50/50 raffles, and a dinner for parents and players on Saturday night. He also proposed hiring a musician or DJ to play for the adults and an arcade area for the children at the Crookston Inn. Solberg also suggested opening the pool and having a special deal with the Crookston Grand Theatre for movies. They would also create some welcome signs and flyers to be posted around the town for the visiting teams. Solberg explained he was going to meet with the Crookston Blue Line Club and attend the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau at their meeting on Thursday to further discuss other ideas for the players and their families. He opened the board to give him any ideas or other suggestions on things they could have for the tournament they could potentially add.
Crookston Sports Center
The board then discussed updates at the Crookston Sports Center. Solberg explained he had contacted their contractor SCR Northern Division for the new compressor for the ice rinks, but they had not given him a timeline on completing it. “They put the order in, and we’re just on waiting terms. I never got a timeline, so we’ll just keep chugging along out there, though,” Jake Solberg explained. “Things are running okay for right now. We’re maintaining it, but as soon as we get the compressor to the rink, it’ll be put in as soon as it gets here.” Solberg explained that if he still has not heard any response from them by the end of the week, he would continue reaching out to them next week to gain a timeline. He reported the CSC’s ice was currently at 23-24 degrees, where he wanted them at 18-19 degrees. He also reported they had replaced the public Wi-Fi router in the Sports Center after they had received multiple complaints.
The next Parks and Recreations board meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 21, at 4:45 p.m. inside the Crookston City Hall Conference Room.
