The Ways & Means Committee was introduced Monday night to a possible expansion of the Nature View Development on the northeast side of Crookston. The proposal would be to extend Eickhof Blvd straight north to Fisher Ave in conjunction with the upcoming Polk County Highway Department Project to turn County Road 11 (Fisher Ave) into an urban street from Highway 2 to the east City Limit.
Bob Herkenhoff owns the property where the proposed extension would go and as a trade for the road and infrastructure would donate a 30-acre natural park, in two phases. The first phase would be the north pond created last fall, followed sometime in the future by the second pond to the south. Herkenhoff would then plat 14 lots for home development along the proposed road. “We’re in the planning stages with the city,” said Herkenhoff. “We’ll give them time to think about it as a project we can hopefully pull off and keep the housing going. The north pond I would donate right away. Then I’d have some legal work done that the south pond would be donated in the future when it works for me for some tax reasons and other things. But it would be [the city’s] pond eventually, and both would total about 30 acres.”
The County is working with Widseth Smith Nolting on the design work for Fisher Ave with reconstruction scheduled for 2020, so Herkenhoff said there is a timeline on which a decision has to be made. “We are kind of in time is of the essence here,” said Herkenhoff. “They are turning the county road into an urban stretch with the restriction of one turn lane into my property. We have to decide where to put it now to fit into the project for the county.”
The committee also reviewed the benefits of the trees planted downtown, and Councilman Steve Erickson suggested the city create a plan for replacing trees that die or are taken out for disease. It was also noted that the updated American Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance guidelines would likely result in the trees needing to be taken out or moved further from the buildings if the city underwent a sidewalk and street reconstruction.
The only action item for the committee was approving the transfer of funds from the Special Service District fund for the flood levy protection system to Flood Construction Fund to pay the remaining balance explains City of Crookston Finance Director Angel Weasner. “During the construction of the flood levy project we had a fund opened up to keep track of all expenses and grant monies as is the state requirement,” said Weasner. “We also had our Special Service District, which was all the money that was assessed to every property in the city for 20 years. Those two funds are separate, and now there is a negative balance in the one with the grant because we put the city’s expenses in there also. So now we need to reimburse that fund to get it to zero balance.”
The committee approved the fund transfer unanimously, and it will go on the consent agenda for the July 22 City Council meeting for final approval.
