02-06-2023 Park Commission Meeting Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PARK COMMISSION February 6, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 2 of 14 Carter moved, Berg seconded, that the Park Commission recommend the City engages with a consultant to create a Park Master Plan at Hackberry. VOTE: Ayes 6, Nays 0. 3. GOLF COURSE PARK ENHANCEMENT Chair Roath reviewed the activity on the project including identifying sites, the community feasibility study and two open houses on January 10, and January 24 and called on Commissioner Porter, who is on the subcommittee, to report. Porter thanked residents who had attended the open house and who were present at the meeting. He said the community is really involved in this project and the number one thing he heard at that public session was that they had just started this out of nowhere. Porter said he wanted to reground everyone in where they had begun. He said at its November 2021 meeting the Park Commission was approached by community residents who advocated for building pickleball courts in Orono. After that meeting commissioners met as a subcommittee and started researching what could be done. Commissioners looked at various sites including the Casco Point rink, the Orono Orchards golf course, the fire department and the community garden behind the fire department and presented all these different sites. He also mentioned that the Orono Public Works facility, which might be being rebuilt in the next couple of years, as a site. They then ranked the sites and brought that back at the August 22 meeting where they recommended doing a feasibility study on whether courts could be built at the golf course. We received public comment a lot like tonight, where we got a lot of input of the pros and cons of the different sites. And it was brought forward that Orono Orchards would be a really interesting place to put it, not only from the feasibility that there's already some existing infrastructure there such as restrooms and parking, but also the synergies that we're seeing in the active sports across all of the different country clubs that are building pickleball courts. At the August meeting there was a unanimous vote to move forward the feasibility study of building a pickleball court at Orono Orchards. It would be built in the vicinity of the maintenance shed below the clubhouse. We listened to a lot of community input. Many of you are aware of petitions that have started. I've read all the comments. At the open houses you came and you engaged and you spoke with us. We really appreciate that because that's how we're going to get that interaction. Porter said he wanted to head off some of the misconceptions that have been seen on social media and that people have brought up. Some people thought that we are proposing a pickleball court at the golf course because the golf course needs a pickleball court. We're proposing a pickleball court because the community is asking for a pickleball court. And the golf course was one of the feasible options that we talked about back in August. It wasn't that we are looking for additional activities at the golf course where we want to take the golf course away, or it's golf course, or pickleball. That is not a reason that we are proposing this. It's not that the golf courses is floundering and we needed more activities there. We are purely trying to fill the need that the community has asked us for pickleball courts. There's a lot of input about the schools, why can't we just build this up the schools? We don't own the schools. That's not something that we have jurisdiction over. If you want to, talk to your school board members about building pickleball courts there. That's another option. Again, this is not pickleball or golf. This would be an addition to golf, if it was to show up at the golf course. There's also a lot of misconception about the history of the golf course. It is a very historic park. It is over almost 100 years old next year. But it's not