The Ways & Means Committee met on Tuesday night with Tri-Valley Opportunity Council CEO Jason Carlson providing an update on the Agassiz Townhomes. “I was just here to provide an update on the Townhomes to the Council as it’s been a while since I’ve done that,” said Carlson. “I was able to share that 24 of the units either fully leased or spoken for. Also talked a little bit about what’s left to do. The final lift of asphalt, the landscaping and a few final punch list items for this spring.”
With 24 units leased or spoken for, six remain available but Carlson says they have been successful in their goal to fill the units with families. “We updated the Council on the fact that are a number of fairly large households,” said Carlson. “We really wanted to make sure that this was family housing and I think we accomplished that goal in large part. We certainly added 30 quality affordable homes to the community so that’s mission accomplished. We’re just working through the last few issues. We had some issues on the venting for some of the furnaces that we’re getting addressed. I stressed the partnership between City, CHEDA and Tri-Valley as well as the local employers that contributed. That can’t go unsaid and probably should be said more than it is. It’s unique, and Crookston should be proud.”
The committee asked Carlson if there would be a park in the area and he said yes, and also that Tri-Valley is looking to add some raised garden beds as well. “The question was asked would there be a park there and there is a sidewalk around the courtyard area,” said Carlson. “The playground equipment is there and one last touch we’re trying to accomplish is getting some raised garden beds in that area. There are a lot of benefits to that for mental health, family budgets and aesthetics.”
Councilman Jake Fee also provided an update on the Crookston Convention Center and Visitors Bureau. “We gave the 2018 report for the CVB and just want to report to the Council what we use the three percent lodging tax for,” said Fee. “Some of the things we did this past year were to award over $12,000 for marketing grants to bring events to Crookston with the main goal of overnight stays. The other one, we print over 18,000 Visitor’s Guides every two years and we have it out at Fisher’s Landing Travel Centers, hand them out in welcome bags and send them to other travel centers in and out of state.”
The committee also approved the 2019 committee and board assignments for the Council members:
Members of:
Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority – Tom Vedbraaten, Steve Erickson
Charter Commission – Dale Stainbrook, Guy Martin
Convention & Visitor’s Bureau – Fee, Bobby Baird
Development Policy & Review – Fee, Cindy Gjerswold
Downtown Crookston Development Partnership Board – Clayton Briggs
Lake Agassiz Regional Library Board – Briggs
Pine to Prairie Drug Task Force – Briggs
Planning Commission – Stainbrook
Polk County Planning & Zoning – Baird
School/City/Pool – Erickson, Don Cavalier, Martin
Liaison to:
Airport Commission – Stainbrook
Chamber of Commerce – Baird
Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority – Stainbrook
Library Board – Briggs
Park Board – Cavalier
Other:
1st Vice Mayor – Stainbrook
2nd Vice Mayor – Briggs
The meeting concluded with Vedbraaten commenting that he read the Monday story on KROX about Fisher Ave and while he understands the Parks equipment can’t handle a large amount of snow on that trail that leads to the school and might be worthwhile to get the street crew over there sooner than later. Adding that other trails can wait, but having a kid ran over on Fisher would be worse than an accident on the street.
