08-24-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Thursday, August 13, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 7 of 8 Johnson said he has two nephews in the Firearms Safety Class and noted that it is one of the very few in- person classes in the State of Minnesota, as many have gone completely virtual, including the field day which is the actual handling of firearms, pistols and shotguns. He said the hands-on piece is really big and he commends them for meeting in-person. He said on a Field Day they get to shoot under instructions, rather than just watching on screen and noted many of the students are younger people with varying degrees of previous experience and it’s really important to do it in-person. Printup noted the class needs to go to Corcoran for Field Day and wouldn’t it be nice if they could do that right in the City of Orono. Johnson answered yes and perhaps that is where the City’s Public Works Building may come in. Crosby asked what the age range in the DNR Firearms Safety class is. Printup answered he believes the ages range from 11 to 17 years old. Johnson noted the Council had approved a permit for a big Fireworks show, and it was pretty impressive. Walsh stated Seals sent him the video and said he let Bob Erickson know. Seals said it was loud and impressive and she loved it. She said it was comparable to some of the City Fireworks displays. Seals thanked the residents for giving Walsh, Crosby and herself another four-year run on the Council and congratulated her colleagues. She noted it was a bit odd not to have competition or to go knock on doors. Crosby stated he still got some signs out and knocked on a few doors and said it’s fun to go out and see neighbors and residents. One woman said she’d been waiting for him because she wanted him to put his sign in her yard, noting he loves this woman, she’s terrific and thinks maybe she will adopt him and he will adopt her. He also noted he missed not seeing the residents as much but not having competition was wonderful. Seals said it would be fun to watch Orono’s neighboring cities as they have a lot of competition running for City Council, noting she doesn’t know what is going on in some of those cities. Crosby said he hopes they pick really good candidates because if history shows anything, with everything that Minneapolis went through recently, having a good Council and a good Mayor and so forth is so incredibly important. He said when he took the position on the Council, he underestimated the importance of the role, noting the situation in Minneapolis shows that if a City doesn’t have a good Council and Mayor, people don’t have safety, they don’t have business and possibly even their life and that is very sad. He asked people to make good choices. Walsh congratulated his colleagues on the Council and said they have two election cycles of unopposed members, which he thinks is a large statement from Orono residents, that they are trusting that they Council is doing the right thing and it’s going great. He said he had a conversation once with a person running for Council in Tonka Bay and that person asked him what Walsh’s advice would be. He answered “just say what you’re going to do, and then do it.” It’s as simple as that. He noted there are always platforms when people are running and they may not always be popular at the time but they make