03-09-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, February 24, 20 20 6 :00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 13 of 15 have a minor effect on the overall budget. Ung displayed documents showing the top ten vendors used in the fourth quarter of 2019 and also the top ten vendors used in 2019, indicating these vendors also make up 50 percent of payments during 2019. She noted new investments were added during the fourth quarter of 2019. Rates were rising at the beginning of 2019; in the second half of the year, the Feds cut the rate three times. In the upcoming months it is expected the Feds will cut rates again. Interest received at the end of 2019 totaled $285,000. Walsh asked how the numbers compared to what was expected. Olson said they thought they would do a little better since interest rates were rising, but it came in about $15,000 less than last year on basically the same amount of principal. They have not done the mark to market exercise. As interest rates dropped at the end of the year, the City gets a positive bump. Walsh indicated things are looking good. Crosby said there would be more money for roads. Walsh stated all road work can get done and extra money can be put aside for a bigger project such as the public works facility or the park trails. They are starting to have an actual funding mechanism in place for the Park Commission because they are on board for 5-10,000 a year. Now that the parks are up and running, the City needs to keep them that way, so they will probably need 100-150,000 a year in their budget. It would be a good year to start talking about that in addition to bringing the roads up some more. The goal is to have them self-sustaining. The City is in a good place right now. MAYOR/COUNCIL REPORT Crosby acknowledged Dwayne Gluh’s 33 years of service on the Long Lake Fire Department. He worked with Dwayne for almost 11 years in the department, and he was outstanding. Johnson noted he had an unwanted interaction with the fire department and Orono Police Department when his sister was involved in a car accident. He should have thanked the fire department chief; they did a great job. He said he would like to be more in tune with how often the City is having code enforcement issues being sent off for prosecution for non-compliance. He put in a request but has not gotten a reply from anybody. He suggested getting a breakdown of where code enforcement is going. He said it wasn't too long ago when numbers couldn't be pulled so progress is being made in the right direction, but he thinks the process needs to be fine -tuned. Otherwise, the Council doesn't know what the issues are to have a good judgment. Council members suggested incorporating the code enforcement information in the weekly updates and that if there are any questions, Barnhart could be contacted. Walsh said he met with a few people that are interested in buying developments and there is a lot of activity going on in the City. He stated several years ago when they brought fees down from $750 to whatever it costs currently, about $235, he was told the City would lose about $30,000 in revenue. His comment was that it would be an incentive for people to have more stuff done. He believes it's happened tenfold over that.