09-11-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING August 28, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 13 of 15 bond rating would have to drop because this money has to come from somewhere. They said Long Lake fell deficient but there were two City Councils needing to talk as a checks and balance, not a four-person yes-man Council, he said. He predicted again that the City’s bond rating will go down and that taxes will have to go up for this. Penny Saiki, 2874 Casco Point Road, said these costs will be born primarily by citizens so assessed per house. Not only were the interest rates not considered but also the resident’s insurance costs because there will be an unproven fire department, she said. On one hand, she said, the City wants to be independent but on the other hand is actually depending on everybody else for manpower and equipment. James Elder, 195 South Brown Road, said the Council displayed tonight that the Orono Fire Department has costs and problems that are fluid and are getting more and more expensive. He said the Council doesn’t have a good plan and is making it up as they go along. The costs they heard tonight involve some clever, off-balance-sheet leases and they are not cheap, he said. The Council has already exceeded the 2024 budget and has been very opaque about how they will fund this. Rehabbing the Public Works building will be a lot more expensive than the Council thinks. The City may need more trucks but this Council made it impossible for Long Lake under James Van Eyll to get more than $103,000 per year for equipment; however, tonight spent $2.6 million. He said they are generous with Orono but were pernicious with Long Lake. He does not feel public safety will benefit. He said he wishes they would grow up and go back to mediation and fix this but the only way to fix it may be an election. He added Walsh had burned many bridges and was an embarrassment and expensive. Ann Cosgrove, 2670 Kelley Parkway, asked if the Council has met with the neighbors facing the old Public Works building and who will deal with the construction. She said she feels the Orono Fire Department is a fiasco and it appears most of the Long Lake Fire Department wants to stay with Long Lake. She said she has lived here since 1968. Long Lake had the Fire Department and Orono had the Police Department and it worked. The City Council listened, the Mayor listened and we were treated respectfully. Todd Newcomer, Long Lake resident, asked about the age of the ladder truck and when it would need to be replaced. He also discussed response times for paid-on-call and duty crews, saying duty crew fire fighters could live in Minneapolis. The City is supposed to begin servicing Navarre on July 1 but with one of each truck, he asked what would happen if one breaks down. He also asked if the fire fighters would be adequately trained at that point because there is typically a one-year probation period. Every fire fighter should have a second set of turn-outs, he said. That could be hundreds of thousands more dollars that are unaccounted for yet. That is the reason for a lot of concern in the community, he added. Brad Erickson, Corcoran, said he recently moved and still has a shop in town but hopes to be out of there before the Orono fire station comes into existence because things sound pretty sketchy. He said the Mayor may have gotten the cart before the horse on this one. The City is now talking about a temporary fire station for one to three years for maybe $3 million. Get your numbers straight before heading into something like this, he said. He did not know if those shiny new fire trucks will return the investment, noting there are about 22 actual fire calls per year that need actual fire trucks in Orono. He said the City had a good thing going with Long Lake Fire and just didn’t know it. They wanted to get their own fire department like a bunch of drunken sailors, he said. The ex-president of the United States has been