{"id":14726,"date":"2026-01-28T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=14726"},"modified":"2026-01-28T04:49:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T10:49:54","slug":"thief-river-falls-pool-fund-rumors-put-to-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/thief-river-falls-pool-fund-rumors-put-to-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"Thief River Falls: Pool fund rumors put to rest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thief River Falls, Pennington County<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 City leaders addressed long-running rumors on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The discussion happened at the Committee of the Whole meeting on January 20, 2026.<\/p>\n

Leaders focused on a pool fund and a population rumor tied to Falls Liquor.<\/p>\n

Agendas and minutes are posted on the city website.<\/p>\n

View Thief River Falls minutes and agendas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pool fund balances.<\/h2>\n

City Administrator Angie Philipp said the swimming pool fund held $302,657.38 on December 31, 2025.<\/p>\n

Philipp said a separate splash park fund held $10,795.16 on the same date.<\/p>\n

Officials said the city has not spent the pool fund money.<\/p>\n

The city shares its fund history and past spending online.<\/p>\n

View the city\u2019s Swimming Pool Fund information<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mike Lorenson said some metro cities are closing pools.<\/p>\n

He said pools can be costly and are used less by kids.<\/p>\n

Council member Jason Aarestad said that comparison can miss local demand.<\/p>\n

He pointed to an interest in the City of Warren pool.<\/p>\n

Lorenson said Warren\u2019s pool can lose $40,000 to $50,000 per year.<\/p>\n

Economic and community director Richard Baker said pools cost a lot to build.<\/p>\n

He also said some cities struggle to hire lifeguards.<\/p>\n

Council member Kelly Langness noted Crookston nearly closed its pool.<\/p>\n

Lorenson said the council needs a clear plan for future pool options.<\/p>\n

\"Thief
Thief River Falls Pool fund rumors put to rest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Housing growth and tax tools.<\/h2>\n

Several council members raised concerns about slow population growth.<\/p>\n

They said slower growth can add pressure on property taxes.<\/p>\n

Council member Steve Narverud said many towns face similar issues.<\/p>\n

He said talks with developers have picked up in recent years.<\/p>\n

Narverud said the council has approved some Tax Increment Financing districts.<\/p>\n

Aarestad said some residents misunderstand how TIF works.<\/p>\n

He said TIF is a tax deferral tied to new value in a district.<\/p>\n

The state auditor offers a plain guide to what TIF means.<\/p>\n

Read the Minnesota State Auditor\u2019s TIF explainer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lorenson said a 65-unit market-rate apartment project remains on track.<\/p>\n

He said the site is near Sanford Medical Center.<\/p>\n

He also said a group discussed housing for residents age 55 and older.<\/p>\n

Lorenson said that the talk included possible future annexation.<\/p>\n

Population rumors and Falls Liquor.<\/h2>\n

For years, some residents shared a rumor about keeping the city under 10,000.<\/p>\n

Narverud said city leaders do not control Census counts.<\/p>\n

He said the city does not count people for the Census.<\/p>\n

Some of the talk focused on the city-owned liquor store, Falls Liquor.<\/p>\n

Falls Liquor is listed as the city\u2019s municipal liquor operation.<\/p>\n

See the city\u2019s Falls Liquor page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Leaders said Minnesota law sets rules for municipal liquor stores.<\/p>\n

Readers can review the state law language online.<\/p>\n

Read Minnesota Statute 340A.601<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More guidance is also available from the League of Minnesota Cities.<\/p>\n

Read the League\u2019s guide on municipal liquor stores<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Retail outlook.<\/h2>\n

Baker said the city could add about 40,000 square feet of retail space.<\/p>\n

He said the former ProBuild building is about 22,000 square feet.<\/p>\n

He said a national chain is working through a site design process.<\/p>\n

He said another out-of-state developer is trying to buy land for a store.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thief River Falls, Pennington County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 City leaders addressed long-running rumors on Tuesday. The discussion happened at the Committee of the Whole meeting on January 20, 2026. Leaders focused on a pool fund and a population rumor tied to Falls Liquor. Agendas and minutes are posted on the city website. View Thief River Falls… Continue reading Thief River Falls: Pool fund rumors put to rest<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[11327,772,11328,827,3895,11331,1006,777,7831,11329,11424,2482,11332,824,226,4236,11326,11325,11330,825,778],"class_list":["post-14726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-committee-of-the-whole","tag-crime","tag-falls-liquor","tag-falls","tag-fund","tag-housing-development","tag-minnesota-law","tag-pennington-county","tag-pool","tag-population-10000-rumor","tag-put","tag-rest","tag-retail-growth","tag-river","tag-rumors","tag-sanford-medical-center","tag-splash-park-fund","tag-swimming-pool-fund","tag-tax-increment-financing","tag-thief","tag-thief-river-falls","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14729,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14726\/revisions\/14729"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}