The Crookston City Council met last night at the Crookston City Council chambers in the lower level of the Crookston City Hall. The meeting began with the Swearing-in Ceremony of Police Chief Darin Selzler and Deputy Chief Nathan Nelson with their families and fellow police officers.
PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLIC INFORMATION ANNOUNCEMENTS
The Council then received a special presentation from Hybrid Energy LLC representative Dan Joule about Renewable Energy. Using a Step-Up Transformer to turn Power Plant Emissions into High Voltage Transmission to then be transferred to a local substation with solar and wind turbine energy to then to be distributed to farms, schools, and small businesses. In a way to make a large amount of clean energy at a low cost that will help with future fuel and energy costs. He explained that the city would be building a system that would be a smaller version of the current system used in Grand Forks. The system would also cooperate with the Otter Tail Power Company to get maximum efficiency for the city as Otter Tail would purchase the energy created and use it for their services to the city. Mayor Dale Stainbrook gave the idea of putting the Power Plant west of the city’s lagoons which they placed a Cash Farm Lease on. “What it comes down to for the City Council to consider is an agreement that outlines the terms and conditions of what being a community sponsor is,” said City Administrator Amy Finch, “And the community sponsor agreement is what leads to the $25,000 that will be paid per year for twenty years that is intended to go for rural and economic development.”
The Council asked about how the system would be paid for, and Joule replied that Hybrid Energy would cover all the cost and GE Wind Systems has a warranty for any damage and maintenance that could happen to the turbines. The Council then asked if the technology would not work in the cold, sub-zero temperatures that occur in the wintertime, to which Joule replied that the weather should not have any effect on the machines. The Council then asked if there would be any noise problems if they live near the wind turbines. Joule answered that there wouldn’t be a problem as they were designed to be quiet while they operate. Councilmember Kristie Jerde recommended that they reach out to the Grand Forks City Council before making a motion, with Councilmember Cavalier agreeing with the idea. The Council made a consensus with representative Joule to gather more information from the Grand Forks City Council’s experience with the system before taking any action.
CONSENT AGENDA
The Consent Agenda included approving the proposed City Council minutes from their last meeting on February 28 and approving all the City of Crookston Bills and Disbursements in the amount of $524,554.86. The Council then approved the Agenda for the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority Regular Meeting that’s happening today. They then approved the Cash Farm Lease Property of $14,000 at the Crookston Sports Center and the reconditioning of two 30,000 Gallon Filter Pressure Vessels to Classic Protective Coating, INC. Next was the resolution to approve the payment to KLM Engineering INC for Design Services regarding the pressure vessel filter tanks. The last item on the Consent Agenda was the resolution to approve the candidates Ellie Koepp for the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau and Andrea Brekken for the Park & Recreations Boards. The Council approved all motions unanimously.
REGULAR AGENDA
The Regular Agenda included the approval of a donation from the Crookston Baseball Association of $38,000 and a Lease for the Crookston Sports Center-Blue Line Arena. Parks and Recs Director Jake Solberg approached the Council to announce a change in the agreement, allowing the Blue Line Club to temporarily rent the Arena and make them responsible for all of the maintenance to the building except for the ice itself, which the Parks and Recs Department will maintain. The Council also resolved to approve the Execution of Satisfaction for Rehabilitation Loan Program Flexible Installment Loan Note and Rehabilitation Loan Program Mortgage and the Execution of Satisfaction for Rehabilitation Loan Program Deferred Loan Repayment Agreement and Mortgage on behalf of Rosetta J LaRochelle. City Attorney Charles “Corky” Reynolds approached the Council to explain that during a real estate transaction, it’s been discovered that mortgage satisfactions were not filed by the city while the person who has taken out a loan has either paid off or met the conditions of the loan with the city. With the action approved, Rossetta LaRochelle can now move forward with her real estate transactions. City Administrator Finch and the Council discussed how they could figure out if others had fantastic satisfactions that need to be filed. “My suspicion is that they are probably paper files, and that does get challenging as we’ve transitioned over the years from paper files into logging things into our software systems. So that’s something we’ll have to explore a little bit,” she explained.
The Council then resolved to approve the upgrades to Karn Field Stadium’s Lights & Electric Control Panel. Parks and Recs Director Jake Solberg approached the Council, explaining that the Baseball Association had approached him, showing him that the field’s lights are very poor. The Association wanted to donate $10,000 to get new lights for the field and have them inspected before the season’s start and put in a new electric cabinet to make it much safer to turn on the lighting system for the field. The Council then moved to approve the purchase of land parcels 82.00129.00 and 82.02352.00 that were discussed at the City’s Planning Commission meeting. . The property was an old Otter Tail Coal Fire Power Plant that the city was originally given as a “right of way” agreement, but the city used it mostly for snow removal and public works. But this was not covered under the State’s “right of way” agreement, which then caused the city to forfeit it back to the State. The County can then assign a market value to it, which the city can then buy back. “The Planning Commission did recommend approving that purchase to the City Council. When a particular issue is brought up at Planning Commission, surrounding residents are notified to come to the Public Hearing,” said Finch, “We did have the residents that live adjacent to that property attend the Planning Commission where they shared their concerns and past challenges they had with debris in the snow. After the Planning Commission, they had a successful conversation with the Public Works Director and confirmed this evening that they were satisfied with that conversation and with the city purchasing it.” Then they resolved to approve the new redistricting of the Ward Boundaries for the City of Crookston that the Planning Commission had approved last Tuesday. City Administrator Amy Finch explained the process she had gone through with the Planning Commission to come up with the plan and how they moved the borders of each Ward around to make the population even for each Ward. “We proposed a redistricting map that was approved at the Planning Commission by a four to one vote to move on to the City Council to approve,” she explained, “We had some good discussion about the process we went through, what our averages were and the population metrics that we have and City Council approved the resolution and set the Public Hearing and did the first introduction of the Ordinance.” The final item on the Agenda was the resolution to approve the contract and appoint Charles “Corky” Reynolds as the Interim City Administrator. The Council approved all motions unanimously.
REPORTS AND STAFF RECOMMENDATION
City Administrator Finch then congratulated Chief Selzler and Chief Deputy Nelson on officially being sworn in to the job. And reported to the Council of the grand opening of the Breastfeeding Room that was added in the Crookston Sports Center. She also mentioned that this meeting would be her last meeting and thanked the Council for all of their work over the year she was here and believes that they have done quite a lot of great things for the city before reporting that Interim City Administrator Corky Reynolds would now help lead meetings in her place.
Parks and Recs Director Jake Solberg gave a report on the latest happenings in the Crookston Sports Center, with the Figure Skating Club performing over the weekend and high school spring sports teams beginning their practices inside the Center. He also mentioned that many jobs still open for the spring in his department were available to anyone.
Chief Selzler approached the Council thanking the Council for the ceremony, and gave a report for the department. Looking to make a few hires and offers to some candidates for new officers and stagnating the training work of the officers to train them all properly.
Each Council member gave Administrator Finch their thanks for her service and well wishes for her future endeavors.
The next City Council meeting will take place on Monday, March 28, at 7:00 p.m. inside the City Council Chambers.
