5 More Prayers for Crookston

That the former Carnegie Library can be maintained until a creative re-use can come forward.

That the Banks of Crookston reconsider sponsoring an affordable housing program grant application for the Union Building.

That a new community gathering space evolves downtown, perhaps the four floors of the former Kay’s Attic building?

That City Leaders slow down traffic and encourage the big trucks to use the bypasses, so that downtown is safer, quieter, has more diagonal parking, has more walkability, and is more of a visual pleasure for shoppers and visitors.

That we fight off modern day laziness and endure slight inconveniences with all the strength of our forefathers and mothers.

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Part IV Vision for Crookston

Those who read the Crookston Times Guestbook already know Part IV of “My Vision for Crookston.” And that is BRING MORE PEOPLE DOWNTOWN! In other words, let’s develop what we already have: a beautiful downtown, made so by the vision of the community leaders of the mid-80’s and with help from Minnesota Department of Economic Development Small Cities Grant. Don’t forget the promoters of the Red Lake River goes way back to the mid eighties also! Gene Miller was deeply involved then. He started the movement to restore our river to recreational status.

Do you remember some of those folks? Chuck Hiller, Henry Gredvig, Hilkey, and Ray Ecklund were some that I knew. And by the way isn’t that how the sidewalk pavers got funded? Not through highway 2 improvements, but through that first block grant. It was a grant to the City to fix up downtown and was set up as an interest buy-down grant and a 5% loan program. The loans got paid back and reused through a revolving loan fund that was made just for downtown improvements. They had some money in the fund and they spent it on the pavers. Was all the money used up then? I thought these funds would revolve for quite some time and be available into 2011 or 2012?? Anyway, the loans and the pavers eventually got paid back through tax assessments downtown. How that happened I don’t know. Oh well, one more lost tool to use on downtown buildings. But I digress.

Here’s the gist of my letter on the guestbook, with a few improvements:

The problem downtown is not the older buildings, the vacant buildings, or the image; those are just symptoms of the problem. It is the LACK of “people traffic” downtown. There are not enough customers to buy and therefore pay to repair the buildings, whether they are new or old! There are only two ways to fix that problem. One is through tourism and events, (on Crazy Days, the Brenda Nordlum & Kay’s Attic Rummage Sale made more money than in one month of being open daily!) Another is through housing downtown. For only $4,000, We could get Artspace here to develop the Fournet Building, or the former Villa St. Vincent building into housing for artists! We can encourage UMC to develop downtown housing! Think, for a moment, if their $10 million new student housing could have been created in one of our vacant buildings!! The quick rent up of Central Square is proof.

IMHO, everyone here and their friends and relatives needs to write, email, or call their Ward leader, cc the Mayor, and Dan Johanneck, that tourism and housing downtown needs to be tops on their to-do list, its time for a new block grant, and tell them not to divert us by thinking about tearing out those beautiful pavers: they were put in with state and federal money and paid for by all the businesses downtown! Write today!

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Top 10 Prayers for Crookston

That no more businesses close their doors.

That Metro Plains receives tax credit funding for the former Wayne Hotel.

That Prairie Skyline receives Housing the Long term Homeless funding for the former Union building.

That a developer comes forth to develop housing in the former Professional Building.

That community leaders prioritize developing housing and businesses downtown.

That the former Winter Shows building can successfully come back as a place for equine events.

That people and leaders adopt the idea of a working arts center in the former Cathedral on Ash.

That the Red Lake River is made into a recreational hot spot for Crookston.

That the poor, angry, depressed, apathetic, can’t be done here, misinformed, and gone to the lake folks are revitalized.

That our younger and older generations come back to help us.

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To be or not to be that is the question...

The question is from Patsy, Can a non-profit start up to purchase a business? Sure! But a word of caution - its not a venture for the faint of heart! And some harder questions need to be answered before creating a new entity. A new public charity can take six months to up to a year to form. And it's getting harder and harder to get the special 501 c 3 status with the IRS.

The first questions go out to the owners of the Crookston Bowling Alley, Corral Lanes:

1. What is the sales price? What is important to you? Selling it quick, getting the most money out of it?
2. Will you carry a contract? Be flexible on terms?
3. What is the potential return on investment?
4. What is the net operating income?
5. If a negative cash flow, is there ways to change the situation?
6. As a potential buyer, can I see the books and have my accountant look them over?

Assuming there is some money to made in the business, the second question is: Is there an existing non-profit public charity that needs the bowling alley to raise funds for their charitible cause? Do they have the capacity to operate it?

Third, is a non-profit entity the right choice? What about a Limited Liability Company or a Corporation? There's tons of information on public charities, foundations, and other entities on the web.

And last or perhaps first quesion, since we are in Crookston, can we find a group of five people willing to invest time and money and enthusiasm to form the new non-profit, investment corporation, or LLC with owning and operating the bowling alley as the main means of fundraising or have they all moved to the lakes?

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Let's all just walk..

Check your neighborhood walkability score! Did you know that downtown Crookston has a walk score of 98 out of 100! And the north residential end of town has a 38! So why do keep on with sprawling out the North end of Crookston? Check out this site: www.walkscore.com, and type in your address. Let’s think “green” in March.

Part Three of Vision for Crookston

Part III Oops, I gave it away already: Make Downtown Crookston a destination for thrift, consignment, antique and collectible shoppers. Encourage retired folks, married couples with one income already, and non-profits to start a business. You’ll notice that I mention the type of business owners we need—Business is just too slow downtown now to encourage a single person to open up a business and depend on that business for a living. Not yet, anyway. But if we
• First: Beautify, and slow traffic,
• Second: Address parking once and for all, and
• Third: encourage thrift, consignment, antique, & collectible shops,
More people will come to attend what we already do have: Farmer’s Market, OxCart Days, etc. plus, they will come just to shop. Most of the people that shopped at Kay’s Attic were from Grand Forks! They were on their way to the lakes for the weekend. Or, they were people who used to live in Crookston that stopped by to reminisce about the former S & L Building with its gravity run system for making change. (Anyone skilled enough to put one together? I have a set, a gift from a great friend, John Vraa.) These folks were visiting friends and relatives. Last fall, I had people in the store that came just for the thrifts, and antiques and collectibles. Just in case you didn’t know, we have a new thrift shop that benefits the Humane Society and a new antiques & collectibles store “Timeless Treasures” operated by Cindy LaFleur in the former Mattie’s Menagerie location. Kay’s Attic & Antique Emporium will be changing to a thrift shop that benefits Prairie Skyline Foundation. It’s going to be great, Crookston that is; I just know it.

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Town Square or Town Square? Response to Steve

Hi Steve, Thanks for posting! I’m glad to hear that you’d like to see the same thing, i.e. the downtown preserved, greatly valued for its character and seeing new development from private entrepreneurs as well as I do.

As usual with any vision, there are obstacles and problems to work out. The major obstacle with the town square green space idea is that the City will have a tough time getting approval from the State Historical Preservation Office for such extensive demolition of historic structures many of which were restored with public funds for green space when we do have many beautiful parks, especially the underutilized Central Park. Note we have a park on the corner of the busiest intersection in town, Main & Robert, and no one sits there and watches trucks and cars go by.

My vision involves “clustering” downtown businesses in the two blocks between Loring and Second Street, making the distances shorter to walk, not farther. I’d love to see walking encouraged, but to do so ironically will involve shorter distances not longer ones. (Its no secret we as a nation have gotten lazy) Many people have mentioned on the Crookston Times Guestbook and elsewhere over the years of the need for a central location for the proposed community center. (You know the one that never gets onto the drawing board??) My guess is we will want a roof over our heads for the community center, not simply green space. Since the City and School District chose to destroy not only Central High School but the Junior High School gymnasium as well, our chance for a sizeable central community center may well be gone. If we can concentrate the businesses and eaterys we will have at least a business center. Any vision we choose to follow will involve sacrifice no doubt about it, but we have lost so much already. Watch for my upcoming slide show on the blog.

The City through the Crookston Economic and Development Authority, (CHEDA) is interested in downtown. I believe they are working on a new housing Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for downtown that could encourage private development. It just hasn’t been in the news as much as our new 3 or 4 rink hockey arena which in my opinion is moving way too fast for the money involved.

Reading between the lines on the former Wayne Hotel project, the building won’t be torn down until the next Minnesota Housing grant round is completed the end of October and we hear if the project has this piece of funding in place. It isn’t over yet! The people of Crookston need to influence the City not the other way around. We will have to come up with our own vision and include a strong “How to do it” section, in which major obstacles have been researched. Through people like you and others that are doing some serious critical thinking about downtown Crookston, we can move forward.