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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 4 of 14 <br /> <br />understand what their goals are here. I have a ton of respect for the work that the commission has done <br />here and all the work Sandy and Cameron have put into this and I think pickleball is a great sport. I would <br />love to see pickleball in Orono. I'd love to see more hockey in Orono. But as designed here, I have major <br />reservations for this plan for a number of reasons, the first one being cost. It's just a staggering cost <br />number. If anyone's stood out there, the topography of that site is significant. You probably couldn't find a <br />less flat place to do something like this. We also have options right now in the city at Casco and other <br />places that are not being utilized. Mother nature tends to win in the in the fight with outdoor ice. Also <br />there are questions about ongoing maintenance for the hockey and the pickleball. How's that going to be <br />funded? But as many of you know, my main interest in joining this commission was for the golf. I love <br />this golf course; I think it's extremely unique and just a magical place. And it has a lot of history that we <br />need to be celebrating and preserving, not taking away from, I would prefer to be spending all the time <br />and energy I've been spending towards this proposal towards improving the golf course, the plant <br />conditions, irrigation, drainage, trying to make that course as fun as possible for as many people as <br />possible. Let's add forward tees, let's make the greens better, find ways to just make it an all-around more <br />enjoyable place. With parking concerns, everything I've seen here, I don't really see how that adds to the <br />course after three years of financial success. I just have a lot of concerns that this might jeopardize that <br />and take away from the course. Ultimately, we're here to listen to the community and try to reflect those <br />wishes with our park system. So I am willing to go forward to March but I just want to be here on the <br />record saying I have major reservations with this proposal. <br /> <br />Rasmussen said she is glad that the commission is going to take that time because those preliminary <br />drawings were the “wouldn't it be nice if” kind of drawings that consider possibilities. There are a lot of <br />ways that you can scale back. I think the thing that we miss in the debate over the site is that as a <br />community, there's so little that brings us together on a regular basis to build community. And Orono, in <br />particular, struggles with that by design, by its history. I think that as a community being able to bring <br />together people in this way trumps a lot because we are struggling so much as a nation, as a state, as a <br />city. People are feeling isolated. We've got a growing older adult population, and we need to figure out <br />how to serve those populations better. And I think this is one of those opportunities and why you see it <br />happening in so many other places. We know there's a lot of places that have figured out how to make <br />activities compatible. We know that there are peak times at the golf course and I think there are absolutely <br />ways to accommodate the people who play the leagues. The two don't have to compete with each other <br />during those kind of peak times. I think what we haven't had the opportunity to do is to take that input, <br />and as Josh describes, come up with different designs. What's the low-cost design? The phased design? <br />What we've seen is the Cadillac sort of design, the wouldn't it be nice design. The most important to me is <br />that we don't use the month of March to just not make any decisions, to just say we don't like the conflict, <br />it's too intimidating. I think it is important that we make the decision based upon objective information, <br />and not be driven by emotion or social media. We do need to vet it and give it serious consideration. But I <br />also think that we've spent well over a year talking about this, and we have the information to figure out <br />how to make it work if it's going to work. So let's be disciplined, let's participate in the process. Let's <br />work together and move this conversation from where it is right now to something that I think would be a <br />really a productive way to make this a great opportunity for this community.