The Crookston City Council met Monday evening.

After approving the agenda for the meeting, the council moved on to the consent agenda. The council approved the August 12 meeting minutes and the City of Crookston bills and disbursements in the amount of $371,870.39. The other three items were placed on the regular agenda for discussion.

There were three items on the regular agenda that the City Council needed to approve. The first was approval of the Crookston Parks and Recreation policy. At the last meeting, the council asked to update it with a hot weather policy. Jake Solberg, the Parks and Recreation Director, updated the policy by adding a section on inclement weather and addressing several weather conditions. The council approved the Parks and Recreation policy.

The next regular agenda item was the approval of the School Resource Officer contract with ISD 593. The Town and School District agree that it is important and necessary to assign a certified peace officer to Crookston school sites. Council approved the School Resource Officer contract with ISD 593.

The third regular agenda item was the appointment of Holley Eckstein as the new finance director for the City of Crookston. City Manager Jeff Shoobridge believes Eckstein is the right person for the job and that it just makes sense that she was with the City of Crookston prior to this appointment. “The more we looked at the candidates, the more I believe that if possible, you should promote from within when the fit is right, and the more we looked, the more Holley really met all of our requirements,” Shoobridge says. Of course, this will vacate the position Holley previously held for the city, and Shoobridge says the city needs to fill another position as well. “There is currently a human resources coordinator position open, and with today’s council decision, a position for an accountant will open,” Shoobridge said.

In conversation with the new Finance Director Holley Eckstein, She says she’s ready for the challenge ahead. “From day one, I’ve been committed to the city of Crookston and its success,” Eckstein says. When asked what her immediate goals are in her new position, Eckstein replied, “We’re just finishing up the audit for 2023, then it’s about catching up in 2024 and then going right into budgeting. We’re right in that time frame for the year, so we’re going to jump in with both feet.”

The Council placed the three points of agreement requiring discussion on the table as items on the regular agenda.

The first resolution was to approve the rezoning of land within a portion of Lot 82.000163.01 and all of Lot 82.00008.00 in the Town of Crookston from Industrial to Light Industrial. This property in the Industrial Park was to be used for a railroad spur. and Karie Kirshbaum of Crookston Community Development and Housing, MNDOT, and the purpose is to create a place; this is phase one, and the first phase is to set this up so we can start exporting some of our crop from there.”

Minnesota Northern received the grant for the work and the turnoff will run at Northstar Lime, the old Simplot building. Kirshbaum explains that tonight’s approval allows them to build some light industrial buildings in the area. “Phase two will be a little more property and today the zoning was changed so we can put some light industrial buildings and some storage units there.” The resolution was approved.

The second item of discussion was the approval of a conditional use permit for property 82.00186.02 for a Scooters Coffee in the parking lot of the new Opticare location. Town Manager Jeff Shoobridge says this is good for the town of Crookston. “For Crookston, it means we will have a coffee shop on the corner of a main street leading into town, and it will be easily accessible.” It will be a very useful thing, and the city is very supportive of that.” The conditional building permit was granted.

The last item brought up for discussion from the consent agenda was a conditional building permit for property 82.00169.00 in downtown Crookston. The property owners had requested that they be allowed to convert a ground floor retail unit into a rental apartment. Council discussion resulted in this item being adjourned. Council will do some research and revisit the item at the next council meeting.

The next city council meeting will be on Monday, September 9th, at 5:30 p.m.