The Crookston Ways and Means Committee met twice on Monday evening. The first meeting was to discuss the budget for the Building Department and Technology Department. The committee is meeting every Monday to discuss the budgets of different departments.
The second meeting was after the Crookston City Council meeting and the first topic of discussion was a projector system for the City Council Chambers in the lower level of City Hall. Information Technology Department Head, Philip Barton, as requested by the City Council, had an estimate of costs for a new projector system at $3,140. The cost was projected maximum’s and there would be an extra cost for an electrician. “We determined the most cost-effective scenario for the level of usage that we will see and maximize usefulness in that particular room, which is a tough room to handle projection,” said Barton. “For this scenario, we are coming up with hardware cost just a little over $3,000 and there would be some necessary electrical work, so we are trying to keep it frugal and come up with a reasonable solution.”
Barton said the flat, white walls will be used as the projection screen and if needed they can use a special paint if the walls don’t work. Barton said he stayed on the frugal side because the projection system won’t be used a lot. “We don’t want to drop $20,000 on something that’s only going to get used a couple times a year,” said Barton. “Our current use case is, we see heavy use cases when there are a lot of public hearings near the end of the year and the really big one is the finance director’s Truth and Taxation hearing and things related to that. Maybe we see usage of it about five times per year.”
The Downtown Crookston Development Project committee was on the agenda, but when KROX talked to members of the committee earlier in the day (for an upcoming story) they said they knew nothing about it until they saw it on the agenda. The DCDP was pulled from the agenda and will be on the next meeting’s agenda to discuss 2019 project recommendations.
Instead of the DCDP, Crookston Park and Rec Director Scott Riopelle told the committee that they had received two bids to fix the concrete work at the Crookston Sports Center east entrance (main entry for players and parents). The concrete has heaved and the entry is uneven causing a safety concern for people using the entrance. Crookston Concrete was the low bidder at $13,175 and the money will come from the arena fund. “On the east end of the arena, we have had some heaving. It raises and lowers throughout the season and we talked about grinding down the concrete, but that doesn’t work if it moves in both directions,” said Riopelle. “They will remove the existing product, put in some drainage on the one side, we will do some sub-work below the concrete taking out some old fill and putting in some new and putting in a couple layers of insulation as well. It is very wet out there and we needed to do something for the safety of the people that use the facility and we think we will have a good product in the end.”
The committee unanimously approved the Business Subsidy Policy. The policy was crafted by city staff, the city attorney, and the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority director. The city doesn’t have a policy and it is required for large subsidies that are provided to businesses at $150,000 or more.
The Water/Wastewater resolution passed unanimously, but not without lengthy discussion. The resolution is to give a large business moving to town a break on their water bill if they reach a certain level. Councilman Steve Erickson questions the parameters with no wiggle room and thought the required size of the business was too large and should be lowered. Councilman Jake Fee said if they have to approve each individual business they should start with lower requirements. Erickson added the city should be proactive on getting any business we can into town. After the discussion, it was decided to move forward with the resolution.
The Code of Conduct policy has been a sticking point with most council members and Councilman Erickson said the charter takes care of it and with a new council coming in January, they should leave it and let the new council decide if they want it. Fee said they could add a couple items to the charter at the December meeting if they wanted. The council allowed the policy to be dropped and will not be discussed the rest of the year.
