The Ways & Means Committee had one agenda item, a payment of $4,048 to aid in the plan and participate in a grant to receive $98,000 from the Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails Commission. According to the description on the agenda, the plan would specifically address outreach and marketing strategies that target diverse and underserved populations such as new Americans, Native Americans, people of Latino heritage, low-income individuals, the disabled, the elderly, and those that have not experienced activities on and around the river.
Councilman Jake Fee said if the project is primarily about marketing, the Crookston Chamber as well as the Crookston Visitor’s Bureau, do that for Crookston and that could be a better use of the funds. “See if the money is going to go toward marketing or branding for the people that haven’t had the river experience here in town,” said Fee. “We’re just trying to get a little more information on it. I think a lot of the council felt that if it’s going toward providing that experience for people that haven’t had the opportunity then we’re for it. But if we get lost in marketing or branding that we feel is more of a Chamber or Visitor’s Bureau role then we maybe want to see it play out that way. Just to get more information on where the $98,000 would be spent in each community.”
Parks and Recreation Director Scott Riopelle told the committee the information said that each event, Crookston would have two river-based events, would have approximately $5,100 in expenses such as equipment, instructors, or other needs. Councilman Steve Erickson noted that none of the information the committee received had any of that information. The item was tabled with a request for a more complete picture of the project.
Fee also requested that a committee be put together as soon as possible to create a grant program for Crookston businesses to use approximately $500,000 the city received from the CARES Act. “That’s one item I think I will probably sound like a broken record on eventually,” said Fee. “I’ll be bringing it up at every meeting that we try to get this committee formed as soon as possible and start getting in a situation where the city can be for to be accepting grants for business affected by COVID. The state did not issue any additional guidelines so let’s get CHEDA, Angel and a couple of members of the City Council to sit down to say – how do we want this to look, how are we going to do things, how are we going to accept it? I think the faster that we can get money into businesses that have been affected by COVID is all the better. We now know we can’t use it for loss of revenue. We can only use it for expenses. Really, the city hasn’t had a lot of expenses to take on. It’s extra sanitizer, extra cleaning supplies. I think we’re going to be seeing over $500,000 we can issue on grants. The sooner we can get that into some of these struggling businesses that have been affected by COVID would be a very good thing.”
Mayor Dale Stainbrook said a discussion on a committee would be added to a special City Council meeting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21 but that the city had some time to spend the money. “I’ll have to talk to Angel (Weasner, Interim City Administrator) to see if we can do that,” said Stainbrook. “I know Angel has talked about it and working with CARES Act there is an application process. I’m not sure what all the red tape we can and can’t do with federal money. That would be in Angel’s wheelhouse. And I get it, we want to get moving on it, but, also, we have until I think November 20th to spend this out.”
Stainbrook said there were 31 applicants for the position during the second posting, and David Drown Associates (DDA) had narrowed it down to 13 semifinalists, of which, one had since dropped out. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten asked if the communications with DDA about candidates were being shared with Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority Executive Director Craig Hoiseth because the two positions need to work closely together and Vedbraaten felt Hoiseth should be involved. Stainbrook said he’d talk to Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner, who was not present, about involving Hoiseth, but added that they can’t just send the information to everybody in town.
Stainbrook also told the committee members they needed to review the semifinalist videos for City Administrator that they’d be receiving this week prior to the special meeting next week to select the finalists. “Liza from David Drown Associates are putting together a finalist list,” said Stainbrook. “Each candidate or potential administrator had to send a video, kind of a resume, on why they’d be a good fit for our city. So, as a council, we have to review these 12 applicants and narrow it down to how many we want to bring up for an interview.”
The committee also reviewed the process of tree clean-up on sidewalks and nuisance mowing. Public Works Director Pat Kelly noted that by city code, tree trimming is the responsibility of residents, but the city often will help out if its around sidewalks when they can get to it. Tree trimming and nuisance mowing should be directed to City Hall.
