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Pond Expansion <br />Any expansion of the Pond Arena involves school <br />district land, and becomes a part of the Mound school <br />district's overall facilities planning. <br />The Mound school district has formed a task force <br />to study uses of the school building across the school-ovmed <br />parking lot from the existing Pond Arena. That task force <br />is evaluating, among other things, a community center <br />concept for the site. The Mound youth hockey association <br />has a representative on that task force. <br />While it appears that something will happen to the <br />existing school building at some point, whether a new sheet <br />of ice is involved, and what the timing will be, are <br />unclear. We are continuing to follow progress on the <br />potential Pond expansion, but our judgment is that the <br />expansion cannot at this point be reliably counted on to <br />provide an indoor ice solution within the time required to <br />meet the need. <br />Joint Wavzata Arena <br />After a set of discussions with a Wayzata <br />association representative about the feasibility of <br />developing an arena on the new Wayzata property, our <br />judgment is that the site is not a good candidate for arena <br />development. A copy of our letter to the Wayzata <br />representative, outlining that conclusion, is attached. <br />Orono Site <br />The attached booklet describes our preliminary <br />planning for an arena on the school district site. <br />In the last month, we have been very encouraged by <br />the strong positive reaction to this potential development <br />from the school district. In addition, as we have been <br />laying the groundwork for a potential fundraising effort, we <br />have been encouraged by the positive reaction from others in <br />the Orono community. <br />As a result, we are proposing to commence a formal <br />fundraising effort for this project in the first part of <br />January, 1995. In that fundraising effort, we will make <br />clear that the development is subject to all required city <br />approvals. But if that fundraising effort goes well, we <br />propose to confirm commitments for ice time purchases and <br />start the city approval process in late winter or early <br />spring. <br />We hope that this update is helpful, and look <br />forward to answering any questions that you have at the <br />council meeting on Monday night.