During the Crookston Ways & Means meeting on Monday night, two parents addressed the council on whether the City of Crookston was going to make an effort to have summer youth activities. Councilman Joe Kresel brought up the recent social media discussions and subsequent news stories surrounding the state of Crookston’s parks. Kresl said dandelions are one thing but thistle is different regarding the spraying of parks and suggested that the city needs to look into spraying.
Crookston resident Ashley Persson-Melsa also spoke to the council along with Jessica Brownsell whose family lives outside the city but brings their kids to Crookston for school and activities. The two said one concern was that parks and recreational areas needed to be maintained even if there weren’t activities before shifting the discussion to whether Crookston was attempting to have those activities.
Both acknowledged the challenge that COVID-19 has brought but said other communities are having these discussions and preparing activities and people are going to go outside the community to do them. They shared concern that the message shared by the city was that they weren’t looking into developing a plan. Parks and Recreation Director Scott Riopelle, who had just said the department hadn’t discussed the possibility of summer programs (here) but was always looking into what they could do in the future, instead told the pair that Parks and Recreation staff had been working on a plan for a while. “We have a plan that we have been working on right along, but we had to wait until we got to a certain point,” said Riopelle. “Yes, at a Park Board meeting it was determined we would not have summer programs. We have taken all of our staff, most people don’t know it, but Scott (Butt) and Andrea (Prudhomme) are working out of the shop. As well as Cody (Brekken) was before he got called into the (National) Guard for 30-45 days. That is our summer staff at the Park Shop. They are doing a heck of a job and are caught up and there has been some spraying done just to go back to that. But we do have a plan, that we would have to talk to the Park Board again that we have coming up (Monday, June 15), which would be summer skills. Now it’s only probably going to be a couple of hours a day, so it’s not going to take care of your kids for the day. We also have to worry about the younger kids because it’s tough for them to physically distance and comprehend at the younger ages.”
Riopelle said he wouldn’t comment after the meeting on what it was the department has been looking into doing until after the Park Board meeting or why he hadn’t shared that they were working on things previously. But he did say during the Ways & Means meeting that they were looking at skills training in sports like baseball, softball, tennis, and basketball. “We are looking at that type of stuff,” said Riopelle. “It would be skill-based. It would help teach kids motor skills. All-inclusive, we’ve talked about not just doing baseball, softball, we may be adding some tennis, basketball, different things. We have looked at different stuff, but we have a Park Board meeting coming up. We have to deal with them first. Plus, we had made these cuts so we have to find the money for this as well. Most people aren’t aware that we had been looking at the right along, but until we know more we aren’t putting anything out.”
Persson-Melsa said their hope was to hear that something was being worked on which they were excited to hear. “We were just hoping to get across that we have young families in this town that support our youth,” said Persson-Melsa. “We were hoping that we could hear tonight that they were working on something, which we heard tonight they were. So, we are excited to hear that and hoping to move forward to see what they can offer us.”
Persson-Melsa said it was exciting to hear that they were going to look into what other communities are doing and discuss with the Park Board what the state’s guidelines will allow. “They said that they are going to look into what other communities are doing,” said Persson-Melsa. “And meet with the Park Board about what Minnesota guidelines will allow them to do for our youth programs. So, that’s pretty exciting to hear.”
Riopelle told the committee that the department doesn’t have the proper equipment to spray all the parks for weeds and that they’d probably need a ranger with a sprayer to do so. Councilman Jake Fee suggested maybe that was something the city needed and Riopelle said he could add it to the budget for 2021.
The committee also approved a plan for the future of the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB). The CVB’s operation will move under the city beginning June 12 until they are able to complete their reformation and get 501C6 status as a non-profit. Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner said once the CVB Board is established and they meet with the city to set guidelines the CVB will be able to restart the grant program. “There is the possibility of grants if everybody can agree on certain guidelines,” said Weasner. “They will be maintained and followed strictly.”
Chamber Executive Director Terri Heggie also talked to the board that the Chamber would like to partner with the city to create a marketing strategy for Crookston. Heggie said the feedback she has been receiving in the community is that the city needs to be marketed as a whole. “Feedback that I’ve been receiving in the community is that we really need to start marketing Crookston as a whole,” said Heggie. “We want Crookston to be a place that people want to move to. That they want to grow their business in, move, raise their family in, even retire in because we have phenomenal health care services here as well.”
The presentation was a precursor to the budget season where the City of Crookston will be asked to invest in a marketing strategy. “As Angel (Weasner) spoke about, budget is coming up for next year and they will be in the planning stages for that,” said Heggie. “We already have a proposed budget for some of the areas that we would like to expand our marketing in and we will present that to Angel, the mayor, and the city council.”
The committee also tabled a request to provide city garbage service to the mobile home parks in Crookston. The committee stated they wanted to ensure that the owners of North Acres and Carmen Terrace were aware of what policies around city garbage and how they are different from their current outside contracts before proceeding. And the committee approved the purchase of a water softener for the pool at $8,759.30 to be used for the showers and drinking fountains. The hope is they will extend the life of the new showers that were replaced earlier this year for more than $38,000. The pool could reopen Wednesday and staff said they are still working on plans to reopen it.
