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Orono City Council <br /> Orono City Council <br /> Work Session <br /> Monday,July 23,2018 <br /> Council Chambers 5:00 p.m. <br /> Discussion followed regarding training and conclusion of the efforts of all assets involved. <br /> Walsh asked if anyone else has any other questions. <br /> Resident Tom Waiser,mentioned that he has the upmost respect and admiration for the fire <br /> department in their efforts of the past 3-4 years however he feels that this incident left the <br /> neighborhood feeling a little uncomfortable with the length of response time it took Long Lake <br /> Fire Deparhnent to arrive at the scene. Waiser also mentioned that he was not aware that the <br /> Assistant Chief had been the first to arrive on scene and appreciates the facts that have been <br /> presented thus far in the time line. He also mentioned his concern regarding the absence of <br /> hydrants in the area. <br /> Van Eyll mentioned that the Fire Deparirnent and Orono has to be comfortable with mutual aid <br /> departments getting to the fire first and that sometimes mutual aid has to respond quicker in <br /> order to full repose. We had 22 fire fighters working at this call and that is not a small group for <br /> one call. Van Eyll noted that he does not feel that we are lacking any of the necessary <br /> equipment, etc as well. Van Eyll also note that the Long Lake Fire Department always evaluates <br /> their performance and take it very seriously and also circle back to implement it into our training <br /> calendar. <br /> 2. Budget Discussion <br /> Finance Director Ron Olson began the budget by mentioning that due to the increase of the <br /> City's Taxable Market Value,the City's tax levy can increase by 3.51% ($190,000)without <br /> increasing the City's tax rate. Olson noted that building permit revenues have been going <br /> through the roof, although it is only temporary and during past discussion we had decided not to <br /> build them into the budget. <br /> Walsh mentioned that he has seen people tearing down million dollar homes and rebuild larger <br /> million dollar homes. We may want to budget a little extra to anticipate this growth. Walsh <br /> wants to pay attention to that and plan ahead so that we will not need to increase the levy as <br /> drastically in the future. <br /> Olson also noted that the city will blow through the revenue on the budget which is not <br /> necessarily a bad thing. The difficult part with revenues and expenditures and the gap that goes <br /> along with that is that part of it is the wages are locked in with union, so the only thing that could <br /> be up for discussion would be related to the non-union wages. <br /> Walsh noted that rewriting the zoning code is something that will eventually be needed. Walsh <br /> mentioned that we would rather not build one-time expenditures in the budget. Walsh would like <br /> to know how much the City would have left out for roads budget. Walsh also mentioned that he <br />