07-27-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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From:Betse Johnson To:Anna Carlson Subject:Summit beach park Date:Sunday, July 26, 2020 5:06:41 PM Hi Anna, Our names are David and Betse Johnson we live at 460 E. Long Lake Road in Orono. We are right across the street from Summit Beach Park. We are contacting you because we are concerned about the possible building of Long lake rowing club boathouse, private building,in our park! We purchased our home in 2010. We have two children in Orono middle school, they are both 13 years old. Our kids love the park and the beach ,we are over there much of the summer, as are our kids friends from school, their parents and their teachers , Neighbors, and other people who have become very good friends from meeting them at the beach. We have heard that the city feels that our beach park is underutilized! We can tell you that this park is very well used, if not overused! People park on the street in front of our house, up on old Long Lake Road ,to walk down to get into the park ,especially on the weekends and during the summer with kids off from school. We have even had people come and ask us if they can park in our driveway, so they can go to the beach. I have taken videos and pictures of how busy Summit Beach Park is. Our question is, why would any one in Orono want a private club to take over a third of the public park? How does that increase the public use of the park?The beach will be compromised by boat docks, and private users. Surely the boat club can exist without occupying public property. Some say the park needs more security and that the rowing club would provide that. But do we give away the park for better security? That’s a high price to pay , when all we need is a couple more light polls and remote video monitoring. This rowing club wants to put docs in at the beach. A few years ago Orono removed their dock because of liability. Kids were playing on the dock and getting hurt. The rowing club docs will take over the beach. The rowing club says they want to share the park ,but what they’re really doing is taking the park away from the public. There will not be more public use of the park but less, and much more private use! This is not in the public interest or in the interest of Orono which claims, they want to protect are parks and our green space from development. If this building is allowed to be built In Summit beach park, it will be there FOREVER, there’s no going back. We might as well change the name of the park to the Long Lake Rowing Club Park. Thank you for your consideration, David and Betse Johnson 952-949-4929