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MINUTES OF THE <br />ORONO PARK COMMISSION <br />April 3, 2023 <br />6:00 o’clock p.m. <br />_____________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />Page 7 of 11 <br /> <br />Park Improvement Plan from the current CIP goals, to quickly move forward with the next best site, to <br />spend the rest of the year formulating a strategy to bolster the financial stability of the golf course via an <br />endowment fund and to update the master plan. <br /> <br />Roath indicated separate motions would be more appropriate. <br /> <br />Stofer changed his motion to remove the Golf Course Park improvement Plan from the current CIP goals. <br /> <br />After the second Roath called for a vote. Other members of the commission and the public asked for <br />public comment before the vote. Roath opened the floor to public comments. <br /> <br />TJ Bonnett, 40 Smith and 45 Smith, said he’d love to see historical increases in the value of the land and <br />multi-year statistics instead of a one-year projection. Cameron, you're comparing a tropical environment <br />pickleball courts to what's at Orono, which is essentially no trees where sound carries, especially in the <br />winter with hockey. He cited the number of pickleball courts in the area and said some even come with <br />professional trainers. Brian, you said that there have been years of deferred maintenance on the golf <br />course where you're the chair of the park board. What you're saying is like oh, hey, we forgot about this, <br />but let's do a pickleball court and then we can address our deficiencies that we've had for years. I don't <br />think we're in favor of a pickleball court in the middle of a wonderful resource like that. <br /> <br />A man who did not identify himself said he was surprised to hear the golf course called a park. It's a golf <br />course. And it's a shrine in this community. The best part about this meeting was, we talked about the golf <br />course and how we can enhance the quality of the golf course, which does not have a good reputation <br />relative to Three Rivers. But people who play it love the golf course. This golf course is an integral part of <br />the character of this community. You may call it a park; we sure as heck don't want to call it a <br />playground. We don't have room for pickleball if we want to maintain the character of this place. And the <br />other thing, I want to commend the commission for the information we got tonight. It was great. You <br />guys have done a very good job. For the first time, I think we’re understanding what the mission has <br />been, but we need to share that mission with the community. I know that pickleball is catching on. And <br />my kids play it and I've played. But it's not part of the heritage of this shrine, which is called the Orono <br />Public Golf Course. <br /> <br />Kim Carswell, 261 Cygnet, said she would like to propose that we take a step back and up and do a <br />community survey to understand do we need pickleball? There's so much angst that I see in here. This is a <br />huge decision. She said the phone calls, petitions, open house and other meetings, haven’t produced a <br />databased sentiment. If we could do a community survey by a third party, so it's all designed to be <br />unbiased, we could all be grounded in that. And if you look back from five years, it would feel like you <br />did the right thing. <br /> <br /> <br />