The Crookston Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night. After approving the meeting reports for the August 26 and September 4 meetings, the committee was informed by City Administrator Shannon Stassen that no one had come forward to serve on the interview committee for the open Ward 6 seat. The committee voted to include all the current council members but made clear they’d like anyone who still comes forward with interest to join the committee said, Stassen. “We’d love to have involvement,” said Stassen. “This was a deadline to check-in. We were thinking we’d have several candidates and maybe could weed it down. The Council was pretty clear if people are still interested in serving on that committee, we’d welcome them to be a part of that process. I think it’s really important that the members that are represented have an opportunity to weigh into this.”
Stassen said two had applied to go through the interview process for the open position with the deadline to apply to be September 19. “So far two and we still have until the 19th,” said Stassen. “I think we’ll have a good pool of candidates whether it’s just the two that we have or if there is a couple more. What I’m hoping is we have a good discussion about the future of Crookston, the future of Ward 6. That’s what happened when the interviews were done with the Mayor, and I thought it was a positive thing.”
The committee also gave staff the go-ahead to proceed with requests for proposals for providing sanitation services from a private company to the City of Crookston. Stassen said people frequently request the addition of larger wheeled garbage containers, which would require a substantial capital investment by the City of Crookston. Additionally, with a retirement currently planned, Stassen said the time was right to look at a change because it wouldn’t come with a reduction of active staff. “This is the time to look at it as we end this year and head into next year,” said Stassen. “It doesn’t mean we are going to go that route, but we’ll have a good idea after we get some proposals back and go through them. We can make a decision on taking up a contractor on that, maybe revamping something we do or staying with what we have. So, we’ll know more after we get those proposals back.”
Several council members brought up concerns about losing cleanup days or getting rid of grass clippings. Stassen said those questions would be considered when preparing the request for proposal. “Those services will be part of the questions that will be asked of any contractor, what services they do provide,” said Stassen. “In initial conversations with a couple of them, they do most or all of that, so that’s good. The difference would be, for instance, for a cleanup week, it would be available to their customers. So, if half the city is signed up and half aren’t the ones that are customers would get that service. Right now, everybody gets that opportunity for a cleanup week. That’s important, cleanup weeks are important. We’ll discuss that very deeply before we made any decision, I’ll promise you that.”
Councilman Steve Erickson suggested that if they went with a contractor, the city should negotiate a few to keep any service such as cleanup week available to all residents even if it still meant including some fee on the water bill. The committee also sent parcel #82.10372.00, which is unbuildable, to the Planning Commission for a land-use determination in preparation for possible sale. Stassen told the committee one party had expressed interest in the parcel if it is put up for sale.
The committee’s last piece of business was allowing staff to go forward with the creation of an ordinance to regulate distilleries, brewpubs, growlers, and microbreweries. There has been some interest in creating those types of establishments in Crookston and Christine Anderson, Small Business Development Center, said she is working with a couple of people interested in opening those types of businesses in Crookston. City of Crookston Finance Director Angel Weasner said there are State Statutes that regulate those types of establishments and require ordinances for them. “There are specific statutes related to microbreweries, brewpubs, and distilleries in place,” said Weasner. “All of those need to have regulations put in place by the city. We can only be more restrictive than State Statute or just adopt State Statute and keep it as is. It will be discussed and reviewed at a later date. I have to pull together a bunch of information regarding all three types of entities and craft an ordinance along with the City Attorney and ensure we are getting everything included.”
Members of the committee said they wouldn’t want to be too restrictive to deter these types of businesses from coming. Weasner said she was thinking along the lines of making sure grain wasn’t stored outside. “With a distillery, they want to have grain,” said Weasner. “I want to make sure there is no grain stored outside. We want to make sure it’s stored inside so it’s not laying out for pests or people to see.”
