The Crookston Ways and Means committee held a special meeting on Monday evening in the City Hall council chambers to discuss the public works preliminary budget.
During the meeting, the current garbage services the city is provided with were discussed. With approximately five percent of Crookston residents currently using the service, council members and public works believe a new service is a good idea. “In the ’24 budget, I put in a can dumper for the existing garbage truck to add that can service to our current garbage service,” said Public Works Director Brandon Carlson. “We are looking to do a trial of possibly 300 cans, and it would be an elected garbage service for anybody that wanted to use it.”
It is estimated that each can would cost between $150 and $200, along with a $16 per month garbage fee that residents would be charged on their water bill. If residents were to use the service, they would be permitted to put household garbage in that can.
Inflation has been somewhat of an obstacle to work on with the departments on budgeting. Carlson included a four percent increase in materials and a 10 percent increase in health/life insurance for the benefited employees.
Public works need seasonal help, and Carlson proposed a six-dollar wage increase to seasonal employees, bringing it to 18 dollars per hour. It was also suggested that $2,000 went to the public works advertising fund to try and attract possible applicants.
The water fund was also discussed and reportedly has $900,000 left in this year’s budget. These are funds that are available for any needs within the departments.
The south water tower was recently under inspection and reportedly needs renovation by 2027. The project would be a recoating of the entire building. Carlson stated that when the north water tower was recoated, the cost was between $700,000 and $800,000. The north and south water towers are identical in size, both listed to hold half a million gallons.
The budget discussion also included the salary lines for public works employees involving a nine-step process. “Every employee is evaluated annually on their anniversary dates from their hire dates,” said Carlson. “If they are in good evaluations without any correct of actions, they are moved up to the next step of the pay scale.” This is the second year Public Works will be using this nine-step process; it was first used in 2022.
With summer coming to an end, Carlson discussed the street sweeper schedule and budgeting for these possibilities. Public Works recently purchased a new street sweeper and replaced the engine in the original in hopes they can run both at the same time if needed. “As long as we can keep that old one running, there will be two street sweepers running at the same time,” said Carlson. “There will be more labor with two of them going; this will come out of the street sanitation fund.”
The central garage 701 fund’s importance was prominent during last night’s meeting. Public Works currently has an account with a significant garage fund. This fund essentially allows a company to charge an hourly rate for the equipment they use; the money then goes into the central garage 701 funds to put back into new equipment or renovations. Currently, Crookston Public Works has $20,000 in their account, and they would like to charge an additional 25% hourly to their machine usage rates.
