07-13-2020 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, June 22, 2020 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 2 of 13 PUBLIC COMMENTS Mr. Richie Anderson, 3205 Crystal Bay Road, Lake Minnetonka Conservation District (LMCD) representative for Orono. He stated he sent the preliminary 2020 budget to the City and got a response from Walsh about the $50,000 item and Rief commented that a couple items did not seem to line up. He said there is a rounding error for the City of Orono. Last year the LMCD wanted to raise the levy 2.4 %, and he went to the City of Minnetonka Beach because he has property there. He does not know much about the information on the top part of the budget; if the Council has issues, they will have to look into it. He said there was no Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) prevention in 2019, but they hired a study for $100,000 which is included in the $118,238 number. This year another study has been approved for $50,000. In 2021 there is $75,000 designated for that. The LMCD is not doing anything with harvesting or AIS. Lake Minnetonka Association (LMA) got $35,000 worth of grants; the LMCD did not get anything because they do not know how to do so. He said the process might be that the preliminary budget gets sent to the cities first for input, but the Board has never officially voted on it. As far as AIS management, this year they are going to hire a guy to study it again for $50,000; they are not doing treatment. He noted a few years ago he and Gabe Jabbour shut the harvesting down. Seals noted those two gentlemen did all the work. Mr. Anderson said if you think about shutting down the harvesting, you would assume there would be money for chemicals. He does not know if the Board is anti-chemical, but chemical treatments work. He has proof in his corner of the bay, which Johnson can attest to. He noted the equipment is sitting there and should be sold. There is $125,000 for equipment replacement in the budget and $157,000 in the Save the Lake fund. Crosby asked what the study money is specifically for. Mr. Anderson said he wished he could tell him; he has no idea. Walsh indicated he thought it was padding the budget so the budget can be kept up even though they lost the harvesting. Once the budget is brought down, it would look really bad to have to jack it back up. Crosby stated if the chemical treatment is doing a nice job, the money should be moved there. Seals asked if anyone knows what they found regarding the $150,000 study. Mr. Anderson said if anyone wanted to read about 100 pages of bull, they should read the report. He stated the chemicals work, so spend $100,000 on chemicals and put them in the lake. The LMCD did not spend a dime. Walsh stated that is why everyone is trying to get the Lake Improvement Districts (LIDs) going, because it bypasses this kind of stuff. Crosby said these are dollars that are being wasted which could be supplementing the lake. Mr. Anderson agreed with Crosby but indicated it would not happen because it is a rounding error for the City of Orono.