06-12-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 22, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 8 of 12 thinks Long Lake is asking for a huge amount of money for something Orono residents have been paying for all along and that is ridiculous. He said he represents the silent supermajority who just wants the Fire and Police to be there if they need them. Going it alone is not ideal, he added, but it seems like the neighboring community is trying to hold Orono hostage for $4 million so the City can donate part of a building and pay them back for it. He predicted Long Lake will come back to Orono to ask for a service agreement and the City should support that because it would be the right thing to do. He said he is interested in what will work over the next 20 or 30 years. Jeff Strandberg, 3895 Bayside Road, said he just wanted to ask why. Why does Orono have to do this, why couldn’t Orono just have stayed with Long Lake and re-negotiated? He noted city attorneys do everything from misdemeanors to contracts and should not litigate, especially in a dispute of this magnitude. Steve Persian, 1005 Hunt Farm Road, former Fire Chief in Long Lake, said in 2000 the response time was under five minutes with the station on Brown Road. While it’s important to improve response time, he said, he didn’t think it’s necessary to build a brand new Fire Department to implement duty crews. He said he believes Long Lake has made more offers and shared more options than the one that was presented this evening. He asked the Council to continue to have discussions, saying there is a lot of spirit for joining forces for improved services around the country. He told the Council they are in a position to take Orono to that level. He noted when some of the Council Members ran for office they talked about servant leadership, but there are times it doesn’t seem like that is taking place. Cody Farley, 320 Dupont Street, Long Lake, said he is a 16-year member of the Long Lake Fire Department and a member of the Relief Association but was speaking at the meeting as a citizen of Long Lake. He said the Department has known for a long time that daytime Station Two response time is its weakness. However, he said, the Council needs to take into consideration that average response time includes the majority of calls that are non-life threatening emergencies where the response is not lights, sirens and speed. While the Orono Police Department has a great response time because they are already on the road, he said, the previous week the Fire Department responded to a heart attack call curing the day from Station One and actually arrived on the scene before the police because it was a true emergency. You have to look at all the facts, he said, before comparing apples and oranges. He also said Orono residents don’t only have emergencies in Orono. Residents are in and out of each other’s communities all the time. He said everyone should collectively want the service in all communities to be the best it can be. Kelly Grady, 271 Greenhill Lane, Long Lake, said she is a fire wife and has been for better part of a decade. She said she has spoken to Council members, fire fighters and citizens for many hours and feels many lack an understanding of why the situation is at this point. She hasn’t heard any issues, she said, that would lead to the drastic changes that are being proposed. She feels the concern is more about control and not about improving public safety. Responsibility for the stalled communications and the state of the equipment and the facilities is shared by both communities and the Fire Chief who was the Long Lake Fire Chief prior to serving in Orono. She said she wants to protect an asset that has served this community for 100 years instead of burning things down. Someone that evening talked about Orono giving it away to the City of Long Lake, she said, adding she takes umbrage with that because when a person calls 911 and fire service shows up, she didn’t think that person felt that they were giving their tax dollars away to the City of Long Lake. She said the Fire Department is part of her family and Van Eyll has been part of her family, but she doesn’t think he is an unbiased person. An independent audit or mediation is very