The Crookston Ways & Means Committee met on Tuesday night with Councilman Jake Fee adding a motion to the agenda to allow Crookston restaurants to utilize the City’s rentable picnic tables for free to help with reopening for outdoor seating. The checkout will hold the businesses accountable for any damage to the tables.
Fee said Governor Tim Walz said cities should think creatively about ways to help relax guidelines for businesses partially reopening. “I’m not sure if any bars or restaurants will take advantage of it, and it’s not much of a savings as we only rent them out for five dollars,” said Fee. “But the governor did say to think creatively as a city to relax any guidelines and help them to open up outside. If a picnic table can help them, the council said, let’s do it.”
Fee also asked if there were any ordinances that needed to be waived about to allow for serving in parking lots. Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner said most Crookston restaurants include the parking lot in their liability. Asked about businesses with limited or no parking lots along downtown, Weasner said that MNDOT is the authority on those businesses because of the HWY 2 corridor, and unless they relax their restrictions, there isn’t anything the City can do.
The committee also approved the expenditure of $21,190.67 of the $25,000 budgeted for the Valley Technology Park remodel.
The committee also heard a proposal from Laurie Stahlecker that was put together by Crookston hotels detailing changes to the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB). The Crookston Chamber supplied the City of Crookston with written notice on May 1 of its intent to discontinue providing administrative services for the CVB by July 31. Crookston Chamber Executive Director Terri Heggie confirmed they’d continue to provide those services through July or until a decision on the future of the CVB was made.
Under the hotel’s plan, the CVB would temporarily fall under the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA) as it completes the 9-12 month process to gain non-profit status as a 501C6 explained Stahlecker. “We are proposing the CVB goes as it’s own entity,” said Stahlecker. “In the meantime, before it can go into its own entity, we’d have to go under CHEDA’s umbrella just because of the money. We would go into a 501C6 in order to do that, and I’m hoping that individual entity will be approved by the council at the next meeting now.”
Councilman Dylane Klatt asked Stahlecker about guidelines, bylaws, and policies for awarding grants with CVB funds. He said knowing how the grants work is something the council should be aware of before voting. While the current board makes up the primary core of the proposed board by the hotels, Stahlecker said drafts of bylaws and policies could be created before the next Ways & Means Committee meeting. “We can get the bylaws put together,” said Stahlecker. “They aren’t going to be fully in place or done. We can look at, I think Thief River Fall’s would be the best one and kind of tweak it a little bit and send it on to them. And some of the policies and procedures done by the United Way, tweak them and send it on to them.”
Mayor Dale Stainbrook suggested the committee put off a decision until they’d given Weasner the opportunity to compile the full list of CVB options they’d previously requested of her. Several council members agreed with Stainbrook initially while citing the 90-day termination notice to make a decision, while others commented that they didn’t like the delays, including Councilman Bobby Baird, who stated, “this is getting delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed.”
Weasner told the committee she’d have her research into possible routes complete by the next meeting and noted a couple of possible alternatives for the CVB. “There are a few alternatives the city will be having,” said Weasner. “One of them that was brought forward is the CVB going out on their own as a 501C6. There could be an alternative to keeping it within the City. There could be an alternative of getting rid of the lodging tax and disbanding the CVB all together.”
Stahlecker also listed some of the positives and negatives of the CVB operating independently versus under the City and said she’d provide the full list via email to the City Council. “I don’t have them all memorized, but being under our own entity gives us a little more freedom to do the stuff that we want to do,” said Stahlecker. “Any time you’re under the government, you have that bureaucracy and other an entity you do not. I think that would be the biggest thing. Where the advantages of the City keeping it is they’ve already got the people, the programs in place, where we don’t. We have to put it together. But I think having it away from the City of Crookston, having it under its own entity, allows for the businesses to voice their opinions better about what they’d like to see done in Crookston and making it more of a community combined effort CVB.”
The committee opted to wait on making a decision for the full range of options being prepared by Weasner.
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