04-03-2023 Park Commission Meeting Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PARK COMMISSION April 3, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 9 of 11 is the first time I've heard that you've recognized it because we've been saying it to Jason, and then Joey and Josh, for as long as I had worked there. Harvey Lesser, Maple Grove. You’ve got to come up with some marketing programs to get people out there. I would personally bring people out there daily, but for what the fee is and what you get out of it for the short time, it's not an ideal thing for me to bring friends out to. I pay the membership. I'm able to get my value out of the membership. I just feel that the pickleball court is a bad thing. You need 400 feet outside of the pickleball court to have freedom on the golf course. On the pickleball court, there should be good protective netting to protect from golf. There is high maintenance on those nettings. I personally know the people from Hollydale that ran that and there's upkeep on any fencing you're gonna have to put up to protect the public. An unidentified man said Orono Citizens are blessed to be able to play at the private golf courses or the upscale public courses. You really need to concentrate on bringing people in from outside of the community to keep that golf course going. You're gonna get some of the Orono residents, especially with younger children that will come out there once in a while. Roath closed public comments. Stofer moved, Carter seconded, to recommend removing the Golf Course Improvement Plan from the current CIP. VOTE: Ayes 7, Nays 0. Stofer suggested he could make additional motions. Park commissioners restated the merits of some of the alternative sites but said they were not ready to select one. Lemons said unless you have an idea of which location you're looking at, I wouldn't make a motion. He suggested at the next regular work session having a few sites to discuss as a committee and then prepare something for the next regular meeting to make a motion to move forward with that. We really would be starting over. Roath pointed out the next meeting on May 5 would be a regular meeting and suggested the commission try to have a recommendation to consider at that point. Berg said she felt it was owed it to the people that came out to meetings with regards to pickleball and filled the chamber to look at doing this. Stofer said he thought the survey was a good idea. Maybe that's something we could look at doing too, just to try to gather more information. 3. PARKS DEPARTMENT UPDATES