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MINUTES OF THE <br />ORONO PARK COMMISSION <br /> February 6, 2023 <br />6:00 o’clock p.m. <br />_____________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />Page 11 of 14 <br /> <br />Richard Raiche. I lived in Orono for 25 years and I live in Wayzata now. I've been on the golf league, the <br />Twilight League, the oldest one in Minnesota, for 40 years. I think I'm the oldest member or one of them. <br />But I just had a couple of suggestions for the city to think about: number one, you do have two-acre <br />zoning and if somebody really wanted pickleball they could put one in their own yard; that is an option. <br />The other one is when you do a subdivision, you could include pickleball areas in that subdivision. <br />Another thing is that pickleball courts can be on a highway, they can be on a playground, they can be <br />places other than pristine an Orono majestic public golf course. It's just the wrong location. And I would <br />suggest that you just pick number three, get it off the list, and not have it as an option at all. It's just the <br />wrong thing to do. <br /> <br />Katie Gronberg, 110 Leaf Street. I want to thank you all for all the work you've done trying to come up <br />with some idea where to put some pickleball courts. I'm a golfer and a pickleball player. I was very active <br />with my kids sports as they were growing up. Now they've all grown up. I didn't have a network of <br />friends to hang around with like I did when my kids were in their sports. But now that I'm playing <br />pickleball in Orono, I just loved meeting a lot of friends, people my age, a lot of pickleball players. And <br />it's not just old farts who play there. It's other people too -- little kids, teenagers, single people, married <br />people, couples -- it really covers a huge range of people who are getting together having a network of <br />friends. I think Sandy made a really valid comment about how it can potentially increase our quality of <br />life here in Orono when we have these spots we can gather and play a sport together. As far as I'm <br />concerned, it doesn't have to be at the golf course. I just think it's something our community needs. <br />Pickleball is not going to go away. It's really popular. Somebody else said it's booming. And that's a fact. <br />So I think we need courts in the community. <br /> <br />Maryann Merideth, 405 Oxford Road, Orono. She just said a lot of things I want to say. Pickleball is <br />growing. It's very important. I have three boys, they golf, and they play pickleball and golf and Pickleball <br />are existing next to each other in in a lot of communities. The Wayzata golf club, all the golf courses, add <br />pickleball and they coexist very well. So I would encourage option two. I think Orono really needs <br />pickleball courts. <br /> <br />Scott Prock?, 540 Old Crystal Bay Road. Do any of you remember the outdoor rink at the Orono School? <br />Where is it? Do any of you remember the rink that was attempted at the Crystal Bay post office a couple <br />of years ago? Where is it? How did that work out? Be careful with this new rink idea. <br /> <br />Chair Roach closed public comment an opened it up to commission members. <br /> <br />Carter said he would be ready to make a motion, not because I think it's a good idea to do pickleball at the <br />golf course. My motion is that we go ahead with option two. We're pushing this far down the road, we get <br />a chance to talk about it in a month. It's a heck of a lot easier to change the location of funded money in a <br />CIP than to magically make it reappear later in the year. <br />