The Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night. The committee had been hoping to receive an update from APG Development, however, City of Finance Director Angel Weasner said APG Development was not ready to present an updated project to the committee as planned.
“I spoke with the developer and they are in the final stages of deciding if they’re going to move forward,” said Weasner. “They will be submitting a proposal to me so we can have a discussion and know what they’re requesting.”
A business subsidy between APG Development and the City of Crookston, as well as a purchase agreement for the land the project was originally proposed (south of Casey’s General Store) with the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA), was approved September 26, 2019. However, no one from the city or CHEDA contacted the developer to inform them of the progress, and the developer contacted the city in February about the project. The land use determination and variance approvals on the project are still valid, so any change requested by APG Development on the project would likely relate to the purchase agreement or business subsidy agreements.
The committee also approved a CARES Act fund purchase of $23,063.56 from HB Sound & Light for livestreaming equipment at the Valley Technology Park. Councilman Jake Fee said that anything that can be done to make meetings appear more transparent will be good for the city. CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth said that equipment would be available for non-CHEDA community meetings as well. “Some of the appropriations for the CARES Act funding was to have virtual or remote live-streamed meetings,” said Hoiseth. “This request was simply to install that equipment in Valley Tech Park. That open space is available not only for CHEDA meetings but also for other community entities that might want to use that space and livestream to get their meetings out more transparently.”
Councilman Dylane Klatt asked if something similar could be done in the Council Chambers and Weasner said a proposal should be ready for the next meeting. “It is a city facility and we’re going to utilize CARES Act money to purchase some livestream audio and video equipment,” said Weasner. “We have been in the works of looking at that for City Hall in the Council Chambers as requested by the City Council previously. I will be sitting down with the department head responsible for that (IT Director Philip Barton) later this week. It should be able to come to the Ways & Means on October 12.”
The committee also approved the 2019 City of Crookston Audit. Normally the auditor presents the report in late August or early September, but with COVID going on the council was asked to review the audit to see if they had questions necessitating a presentation. The audit will be available on the City’s website Tuesday morning said Weasner. “We did really well,” said Weasner. “There weren’t a lot of changes this last year because we didn’t have any big items that occurred. We’d taken over the pool previously, so that wasn’t included (in changes). When we did the budget to actual (comparison) we were close to everything. All we had to do was accept the audit so it will be posted on the website tomorrow.”
The committee also discussed the possible purchase of the Golf Terrace Motel by John Bridgeford. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten said he’s received an email from Bridgeford that he was interested in turning the motel into apartments. The committee expressed a desire to not drag out the possible approval as they discussed that the current zoning for the area was commercial and any zoning change or conditional use would need to go through the Planning Commission. Mayor Dale Stainbrook said Building Official Greg Hefta is currently researching the options available to the city and Bridgeford. “I know he is working with Greg to get this to Planning,” said Stainbrook. “They would have to make the recommendation which way to go. It does sit in a commercial place. He is looking to make apartments out there rather than short or long-term stays with the motel. I think listening to the feedback, the Council is okay moving forward with this, we just have to change some zoning out there in the commercial area.”
Street projects were also brought up at the end of the meeting including that there would be a proposal from the Downtown Crookston Development Partnership for bridge lighting at the next meeting. Fee also asked when the 2021 street improvements, including a possible bridge upgrade, would be proposed, and Public Works Director Pat Kelly said he usually meets with the City Administrator on his proposal in early October and then brings it the committee, saying that would likely also occur on October 12.
MnDOT will also be making a presentation to the committee for a downtown street project that includes the downtown sidewalks at the next meeting according to Weasner. “There is going to be a meeting on October 12 with MnDOT,” said Weasner. “We will be discussing the sidewalks downtown and reconstruction of the roads. We are working in conjunction together and we will be discussing that night whether the city is interested in putting some dollars toward a preliminary design so we can have discussions in the future.”
The proposal from MnDOT builds off a downtown Crookston traffic calming discussion held in Crookston on October 30, 2018 (here). Weasner said that the presentation will be a plan to move forward with one of the designs from that meeting.
