09-14-1992 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

August 24, 1992 CITY O® oronc ggso'^s Mayor and City Council City of Orono P.O. Box 66 Crystal Bay, MN 55323 MQ ZT Re: Resignation from Park Commission Effective immediately, I hereby resign my position on the Orono Park Commission. My reasons for resigning are varied, but the most important one is trying to find additional time for my family. After commitments to my business, there is very little time to spend with my family and even one evening per month for another meeting is more than I am willing to spaie. I also wish to comment on a number of things that I was disappointed in during my time on the Park Commission. First of all, I am a person who likes to accomplish things. I felt too much time was spent talking about and rehashing the same issues and not enough time was spent actually accomplishing tasks for the betterment of the City ’s park system. One reason for this is a lack of financial resources. As you know, the general fund only provides enough money to maintain the existing facilities, .^ny capital expenditures need to come from the park dedication fund which because of the land use patterns in Orono, grows at a "snails" pace. As I’ve pointed out before, the Commission could recommend building two miles of trail, one quality ballfield complex or perhaps purchase 10 acres for an interpretive park and the entire park dedication balance would be wiped out with little opportunity to replenish it. Unless the City is willing to allocate additional funds for park development, the fine people who donate their time to the Park Commission, are wasting that time. The Park Commission has been talking about a Comprehensive Park Plan from the first day that I joined the Commission. A Comprehensive Park Plan could identify citizen priorities and needs of the park system as well as identifying potential funding sources for those improvements. The Commission icif’’.ested Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money for the purpose of prepr^ir,.' ihu plan. Rather than allocating sufficient funds for the study, the Council practically begged for other groups to come forward to take the money. Fortunately for the residents of the cities of Independence and Medina, their elected officials choose to use the CDBG funds for the good of the entire community, by using them for park plans. When I mentioned my dissatisfaction regarding the CDBG allocation to Mary Butler, she stated that the need for a Comprehensive Park plan was not adequately conveyed to the Council. Maybe the Council members should attend Park Commission meetings to understand the Commission’s goals, objectives and priorities. The only time during my tenure that a council member attended one of our meetings was during discussion of the Old Crystal Bay Road Trail. Apparently this subject was political enough to be of interest.