07-27-2020 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday,July 27,2020 6:00 o'clock p.m. things that came up was the Governor's Order of the statewide mandate of the masks. One of the components of that is they did not want the enforcement of masks to take away from their effectiveness in the field. Johnson moved, Crosby seconded,that Orono is having their Police Officers largely playing a role of education where they see appropriate and that is what the City Council is asking them to do. VOTE: Ayes 5,Nays 0. Johnson said it was interesting that the very tight borders both north and south have impacted the amount of narcotics that are making their way into the United States. It demonstrates that if you patrol the border, there are positive effects. He said it affects the amount of drugs available in Orono,too. He stated that amongst the COVID issues,there are positive things happening. He noted there was another drowning on Lake Minnetonka off of a rental pontoon when a man was helping another individual in distress. Crosby stated he is probably overly cautious,but when he goes out on the lake with his wife and daughter, he puts on a life jacket. He looks at it as,there has to be somebody there that can help the other two. He wished the guy that jumped in to help the individual would have had a life jacket on. Johnson commented that alcohol is often involved in these kinds of incidents,although he did not know if that was the case in this situation. He also said the Police Department is doing a good job on a lot of fronts. Walsh said, as a master SCUBA diver, he is trained in water rescue, and it is very dangerous to try to help people who are flailing. He does not know if that was the situation. He stated it is nice to see kids playing and having fun in the water. He announced that he would be running for Mayor for the next four-year term and would be running with his favorite team: Crosby, Seals, and Walsh. He will be signing up in the morning. Early voting for the primary is August 4-10, and the primary is on Tuesday,August 1 1. CITY ADMINISTRATOR REPORT Rief said there is now a mask order related to COVID and there are signs on the doors. The meeting is exempt but everything else the City does is not, so there are masks for Staff when they are in the common space. In their offices they are not required to wear one, especially on the phone. When people walk in to the office,they will notice the secretary is not wearing a mask, and that is because she is in a protected cubicle and she's by herself, so she is not required to wear a mask. He stated he wanted to make that clear because there has been some pushback about not wearing masks. Orono is following the guidelines and doing what they should do. The City has not received its CARES Act money yet that they applied for in the amount of$610,000. That money should be deposited shortly and the City will be bringing forward expenditures, and so forth,that are outside of what Staff can purchase as things come up.Right now,they have about$7,500 that they have applied to the initial FEMA grant. He expects to see that funding come back somewhere around October or November. Right now,they are between the$230-240,000 range in total expenditures related to COVID expenses. A lot of the expenses are around the elections and sanitizers, etc. They are looking for more election judges. Everyone is struggling across the state because it's a weird time and people may not feel comfortable dealing with the public. A majority of the judges are older. The City is looking forward to more people coming in, but they are looking at full-time Staff taking up some of the responsibilities. Page 20 of 21