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-U ...'i <br />sJ rjs <br />ADDENDUM <br />To: <br />From: <br />Subject: <br />City of Orono <br />Freshwater Foundation <br />APPLICATION FOR A "CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT* FOR THE GRAY <br />FRESHWATER BIOLOGICAL INSTITUTE <br />Brief History of the Freshwater Foundation and the Gray Freshwater Biological Institute <br />Alarmed by the deteriorating water quality outside his doorstep, as well as reports of <br />freshwater problems around the world. Lake Minnetonka resident Richard Gray, along with <br />Hib Hill and Carroll Crawford, mobilized the resources of Minnesota corporations, <br />foundations and citizens to establish the Freshwater Foundation in 1968. The Foundation s <br />first major undertaking was to establish a premier $4 million research and teaching facility <br />on the lake devoted to the study of freshwater availability and management. At a ceremony <br />on December 9,1976, two years after its doors were opened, the Gray Freshwater Biological <br />Institute was gifted to the University of Minnesota to operate as a department in the <br />College of Biological Sciences. <br />Since that time, the Freshwater Foundation has supported research at the GFBI an«l has <br />completed many other programs to encourage the public to understand how to protect and <br />rationally manage freshwater. The Freshwater Foundation scope includes a resourceful <br />combination of educational programs, workshops, seminars, publications, research, and <br />public events. <br />After 20 productive research years, the University of Minnesota has concluded budgetary <br />constraints necessitate shutting down the Gray Freshwater Biological Institute. Even though <br />the College views the Institute as one of its premier laboratory facilities, it is also one of the <br />more expensive. As a result, the University has offered to return the Institute to the <br />Foundation at the end of this academic year. <br />How the Freshwater Foundation will manage the Gray Freshwater Biological Institute <br />Return cf the facility to the Foundation offers the opportunity to maintain and expand upon <br />the original objective of the founding of the Institute, to establish and maintain an <br />internationally preeminent center of freshwater research. While budgetary constraints have <br />prevented the University from fully staffing the Institute, the Foundation is free to search <br />elsewhere for scientists in the field who can make use of these excellent research facilities. <br />With the wide range of physical capabilities of the Institute, the Foundation will have the <br />1