Crookston budget shortfall prompts debate over closing community pool as residents plead to save it

Crookston leaders and residents spent Tuesday night weighing how to close a multi‑million‑dollar gap revealed in the city’s 2023 audit, with multiple residents urging the council not to cut the community pool.

At the meeting, a resident who identified herself as Anna Olgard Bracken told the council she and her four children rely on the Crookston pool and that she had submitted a petition with “over 1,100 signatures” asking the city to reconsider cuts. “I urge you to reconsider these cuts to our youth programs,” she said during the open forum.

City staff said the audit disclosed a more constrained picture of the city’s finances than previously reported. “When we got our audit in September, that audit was an absolute game changer,” Jeff told the council, describing new entries and accounting errors the city has begun to correct. He said the city has $10.7 million on the books but that roughly $5 million of that is restricted by statute or…