The Ways & Means Committee met on Tuesday and tabled two of their larger discussion topics. The first was a detachment request from the City of Crookston by American Crystal Sugar Company for a 6.5-acre parcel that includes a parking lot, guard shack and storage silo. That parcel would then be annexed into Lowell Township.
Both Councilmembers Tom Vedbraaten and Jake Fee commented that the City of Crookston should look at annexing American Crystal into the city before ceding taxable property to other limits. According to the Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner, the City of Crookston receives about $8,000 in property taxes for the parcel. Additionally, the property is also connected to the city sewer and water system. Vedbraaten said if American Crystal Sugar wants all their property in one area, then they should move into town and not out. “I just don’t see why we want to annex it out,” said Vedbraaten. “If Crystal wants to have it in one spot then let’s look at annexing the whole thing into town rather than out.”
The committee asked Weasner to contact the American Crystal Sugar Company’s corporate offices and discuss the request. Weasner said she will bring some options back to the committee. “There has been discussion in the past about a small parcel of American Crystal that is within city limits,” said Weasner. “And removing that to have it outside of city limits. I have not had any of these discussions. It was brought forward as requested and the council has now determined that they want me to find out more information and have some options available.”
The committee also tabled updates to the agreement with the Crookston Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) between the CVB board, Crookston Chamber and the city that was last updated in 2006. The updated agreement would reduce the number of City Councilmembers on the board from two to one, add a board member that holds membership in the Crookston Chamber and add a community member. The updates also included a change in the administrative expenses the CVB pays from 15 percent to not more than 25 percent.
Councilman Jake Fee said he didn’t see any reason why there should be an increase to 25 percent for administrative expenses. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten also questioned why there would be an increase in the administrative expenses instead of putting the money toward the advertising costs. Weasner told the committee they want to put in a not to exceed amount in order to give the Chamber some flexibility with charging expenses. “There was some reorganization of the members on the board,” said Weasner. “They are looking at additional membership of the chamber, not board members, so members of the chamber would be eligible. An additional person on the community side and a lesser person on the council side. Then there was a discussion about the percentage of administrative expenses. We were working toward a not to exceed percentage (of 25 percent) and the council would like to review the information further and see if that percentage needs to be a different amount.”
Weasner added that by making the amount not to exceed, it would allow the Chamber to charge less than 15 percent as well, which the current agreement doesn’t, as it requires a firm 15 percent charge per month. Chamber Executive Director Terri Heggie added that because the number is firm, the chamber has been collecting 15 percent every month, but that because of some challenges during the past year for lodging in Crookston, they would’ve preferred to have charged as little as 10 to 12 percent during that time. Vedbraaten and Fee both said they’d support changing the language to not to exceed but keeping the top end of the rate at 15 percent.
Councilman Bobby Baird said he didn’t want to make any changes without knowing what the budget for the CVB looked like. That sentiment was echoed by fellow Councilmen Dylane Klatt and Clayton Briggs. The changes were tabled and Weasner said she will get the budget information from the Chamber to share with the council. “I just need to request the information to come from the Chamber Executive Director, Mrs. Terri Heggie,” said Weasner. “She will get me the information and then that will be sent out to the full council for their review.”
The committee also approved the appointment of Jen Tate to the Planning Commission to fill the unexpired term of Joe Kresl who can no longer serve that role as he has been appointed to represent Ward 5 on the City Council. Furthermore, Dale Stainbrook said he intends to make changes to the council member’s committee assignments at the next meeting now that the council will have every seat filled. “I want to wait until Joe is sworn in, to re-tweak the council committees for 2020,” said Stainbrook. “I need to ask those two what works with their schedules to see where I can put them. I know with myself I’m really top-heavy with some of these committees, so I’m going to give up some of my duties to them. That doesn’t mean I still won’t make committee meetings but it’s going to be in their wheelhouse instead of mine. There is a little bit of tweaking to do on council committees so it’s kind of a moving target until the next council, ways & means (meetings) to see what we can do with them.”
The committee also approved the purchase of a 2020 Ford Explorer as a squad car from Christian Brothers Ford for $35,895.00. And approved a donation request for a surplus IT network service cabinet to the Crookston Youth Foundation for The Cove. The meeting ended with a closed session for negotiation discussions pursuant to the MN Government Data Practices Act, specifically MN Statute 13D.03, Subd. 1 (b).
