05-22-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 8, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 8 of 12 In other information, Van Eyll said the ladder truck is back with new tires and is in the process of getting rewrapped. They are also working on a new Fire Department logo. CITY ATTORNEY REPORT Attorney Mattick had nothing to report. CITY ADMINISTRATOR/ENGINEER REPORT 24. APPROVAL OF WORK SESSION AGENDA DRAFT Edwards said he had only the work session draft agenda. The only change to that is for the May 22 work session to look at doing retaining wall discussion part two, which is a continuation from the previous retaining wall discussion. He recommended planning for the whole hour. Seals moved, Benson seconded, to approve the Work Session Draft Agenda as presented. VOTE: Ayes 4, Nays 0. PUBLIC COMMENTS Jim Elder, 195 South Brown Road, said the Orono Fire Needs Assessment is a well-constructed, well- researched document, however it raises more questions than it answers. Is a word, he said, he has not heard in this discussion about the open forum. We're allowed to ask questions, but nobody has promised that they'll give us answers now. That's an unfortunate structure. The most significant core statement made by Chief Van Eyll is his hope that the negotiations between Long Lake and Orono can be resolved in such a way that Orono becomes the owner of the fire station, or a new shared agreement is reached. This is what you've all been working on and haven't made much progress. He added there are no cost estimates for this endeavor. There are large operating and capital costs here that you're not talking about. He said his rough estimate is between $10 and $15 million and the City needs to give that information before making the decision in June. He said he wants to know what’s broken that the City has to do this and why it is necessary to spend all that money. There was a troubling statement in in the Needs Assessment, he said, that Orono intends to, in the next few months, transfer the control of the Navarre fire area from Long Lake to Orono. He said they are already tearing apart the Long Lake Fire Department. You're destroying that fire department so that you can get this thing done. Elder said he had asked the Mayor at a coffee if there would be an open forum and the mayor said yes, one session. He doesn’t believe the City will get enough discussed in one session in this limited space with the number of people that want to hear about this. Nancy Brantingham, 3185 County Rd. 6, said she has attended every meeting and work session of the Orono Council since December of 2022 and has learned a lot. One of the first things was that in 2022, Orono decided to end the contract for fire services with Long Lake. In November, 2022, Long Lake held a public hearing to inform citizens about fire service issues. Mayor Walsh and Councilman Johnson were both in attendance as numerous Orono citizens stood up and expressed their hopes that Orono would do the same. On January 9, 2023 she stood before the Council and made the first of three requests for a public hearing in Orono. Many others have also done that. She said Councilman Johnson responded to her request in January by saying he didn't think it was his job to inform citizens about what was going on. Rather, citizens should come to meetings and find out for themselves. He was right about one thing. Citizens of Orono should come and see what's been happening at Orono Council meetings. She listed