03-14-2022 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• Mayor Walsh and I are not buddies, although I have enjoyed getting to know him at LLRC’s Mayor’s Challenge Race during Birch’s Fall Fest in years past. I would row with him any time. • We have one full-time coach, 5 part-time coaches, and a part-time director. These are paid positions. Outside of coaching and the day- to-day administrative duties, volunteers do everything that gets accomplished at LLRC. Everything. • Anyone can row with LLRC, it's not a closed group, there is no application process; we are NOT like a country club; there is no screening to see if you qualify. No tryouts. Just come with a willingness to learn. Over the past several years, more than 400 people in the community have learned to row with LLRC. We charge a user fee, just like when you participate in ski lessons or a ski team at Three Rivers Parks. People can use the park, but if they want a lesson, or want to rent a kayak at Three Rivers Parks, they pay a fee. If you want to ski on the trails at any Three Rivers Parks, you pay a fee. The Orono Community Center is a publicly funded amenity through our tax dollars, and we all pay to access the space, take a class or rent a room for a meeting. • We do not operate at Birch’s for free. We pay rent. • We do not have full, unfettered access to the Birch’s parking lot. We have 15 spots up against the fence we are permitted access to during the day. We are not permitted to park anywhere in the Birch’s lot after 6:00 pm, which means we have had to find other accommodations for our adult rowing program which meets from 6:30-8:00 pm (or before sundown) on Monday and Wednesday nights. Our adult Community Ed learn-to-row participants are also prohibited from parking in the Birch’s lot on Tuesday evenings. • Just like other sports organizations in town, people pay a fee to participate in our programming. Our program fees are comparable to those of other travel sports teams. They cover our staff salaries, our rent, our ongoing equipment replacement costs and upkeep, gas for our safety launches, and insurance for our boat trailer and our fleet. We pay a decent amount for insurance. If baseball bats and hockey sticks were valued at $4-$20K, program fees in those sports would likely reflect that. • Our outdoor-exposed boats and other equipment are subjected to significant wear and tear. And while exposed storage during the rowing season is hard enough on the equipment, outdoor storage