02-13-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING JANUARY 23, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 10 of 12 going through a pandemic is the golf course had a new energy to it. I want to make sure we still have those conversations about how do we make our parks and places like the golf course more viable? It's not to say we do a pickleball court; it's to say, let's have a conversation about how do we get more people involved in using it? Because not too long ago, there was a golf course called Lakeview and it wasn't a city-owned golf course. But it was in the red and it got sold. And there's a bunch of really big houses over there. I don't think any of us want that. So I think the parks, not only staff, but the commission, is really trying to have good conversations about how do we make this a viable park? Because that's what it falls onto in the future. How do we get more people there? It doesn't mean that's where we land with pickleball. But how do we make it a place that we can never live without? Because looking back at that Lakeview conversation, hearing how many unhappy people were around, seeing it in the paper, I would have never thought it would have changed, but it did. So I think it's good that we have those conversations. And I think it's good that you hear the positive and the negative and the people that want it and the people that don't want it. There's people across all sides on this one. So glad to hear people are coming and sharing their thoughts. It's good to hear that also, even with Fox Street. I'm glad to hear that the plan makes sense. I've had a few of our neighboring cities reach out to us and trying to understand what we're doing with THC. Ironically, that was news to me that would be a hot topic. Most of them are in similar boats that we are to be quite honest, though, sitting with moratoriums, not sure what to do, waiting to see what legislature does. So I did share with Long Lake when I talked to them, I said you know what's ironic is I've had the most complaints about the Navarre smoke shop and the soon to come Long Lake smoke shop. So I think that's probably something coming our way, whatever we ended up deciding so it's a good conversation that I don't think we have the answers to. Walsh said he was also at the open house for the pickleball, hockey and golf. It was fun to meet a whole bunch of the golfing league people. I think it was maybe 30 or 40 people that probably came, and a bunch of them were league members, and there was a bunch of other people. I think we probably had half and half people who like pickleball and who don't want pickleball. So it's about 50/50, but it was a small segment of the population, for sure. The diehards that were there, and they're people from the leagues, and we obviously have to balance what's best for the citizens of Orono, which is first and foremost who we represent. But it was good to be there. I’ll be there tomorrow again, so it'll be good to see, I'm sure, some of the same people again, so maybe there's some of you out there that will be there as well. I’ve got my Orono Spartan shirt on tonight, ODT, my daughter's on the Orono dance team. They had a great competition this last weekend at Totino Grace with 12 other schools. And we have one this weekend and one the next weekend. So it's constant, but I just have to do a big shout out to them because I think the JV jazz took second place, JV blue jazz took first place, varsity jazz took first place, JV kick took first place and varsity kick took second, so they almost did a full sweep of everything. The girls were beyond excited. It was fun to watch all the hard work coming together over the season now we’re a good month into it as they've gotten better and better and sectionals are coming up soon. So hopefully they'll continue putting that together and we'll see more Orono teams moving forward going to state and that kind of stuff. And I just came also from an Orono hockey or the Orono Ice Arena, I'm on the board for the Orono Ice Arena and we're having a whole bunch of extra tournament games over there because it looks like the varsity girls and the varsity boys are most likely going to be ranked first, so they'll be hosting tournament games. There will be all these extra games and revenue coming into the ice arena, which is all positive. So lots of good things going on in Orono these days. Something our city attorney brought up to me because he does represent a number of other cities, that in the legislature right now, I don't know if everybody