Crookston City Council met on Monday, March 3, in the Council Chambers at City Hall.
Debra Cooper from Tri-Valley Opportunity Council was on hand to get a declaration signed by Mayor Stainbrook Monday evening. “I asked the mayor to proclaim March 16-22 as National Child and Adult Food Program Week,” said Cooper. “It’s good to see that our city will support nutritious meals for kids.”
The consent agenda for Monday’s meeting was approved unanimously by the council.
On the regular agenda, the council was asked to approve re-zoning the parcels in the southernmost block of the central business district from Commercial to Residential. “Really straightforward, it’s south of Loring Street, everything in that block is already Residential,” says City Administrator Jeff Shoobridge. “Our downtown development plan identifies that block as being residential in the future. We were looking to get ahead with the Hwy 2 project coming up and all of the confusion that may come from that. We want to get ahead of that, get it rezoned appropriate to what is already there and to be more conducive to what could be there.” The council approved unanimously of the rezoning.
The other item on the regular agenda concerned the approval of the Crookston Water Supply Aquifer modeling. “Periodically, you want to make sure your aquifer is healthy,” says Shoobridge. “This study will help identify how much capacity it has and our anticipated ability to withdraw from the aquifer without damaging it because we want to be very good stewards of our environment.” Shoobridge said that funds had been set aside for this study two years ago, and the city is just getting around to spending them. The council unanimously approved the resolution regarding the groundwater modeling in the amount of $53,000.
A couple of items came up in the Council reports. The Building Department has gone live with GoGov. “GoGov is an online permitting process. It allows residents, instead of having to fill out all of the PDF forms, print them out, fill them out, bring them in, and hand them in to Greg, they can go online, type them all in, upload the documents, and send them straight to Greg’s desk,” says Shoobridge. “Greg is our Building Official, obviously. It really will help us streamline things and takes a lot of the hand paperwork out of it.”
The other item was the resignation of Utilities Director Brandon Carlson. “He and I had spoken some time ago. He has many family endeavors; we wish him well. He will be absolutely missed in the city,” says Shoobridge. “His dedication to the city has been incredible, I believe he’s been with the city for 17 years. He is working with us to move forward; we wish him well in any endeavors he pursues.” Shoobridge pointed out that many residents may know that Carlson is a partner out at Minakwa Golf Club and that he isn’t going anywhere just making some changes. Shoobridge also said that HR is working with the Public Works Director to fill the Utilities Supervisor position.
The Meeting was adjourned after Council reports.
