07-25-2016 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO CITY COUNCIL MEETING Monday, July 25, 2016 7:00 o'clock p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES *2. CITY COUNCIL MEETING OF JULY 119 2016 Levang moved, Printup seconded, to approve the minutes of the Orono City Council meeting of July 11, 2016, as submitted. VOTE: Ayes 5, Nays 0. PUBLIC COMMENTS Jay Nygard, 1386 Rest Point Road, stated he was going to give a presentation on an investigation that was undertaken by the Anoka County Sheriff's Office for possible perjury by Council Member Walsh but that he will defer the presentation until the City's technical problems have been resolved. Nygard indicated he will give the presentation at a future Council meeting. Pam Meyers, Westonka Historical Society, updated the City Council on the activities of the Westonka Historical Museum. Meyers stated the museum recently had a grand reopening that was held the fust week of June to help celebrate the improvements to their building and that approximately 100 people were in attendance. Meyers stated in addition to the grand reopening, the Westonka Historical Museum has had the National Street Rodders Association tour their facility and that the Red Hats Society will be touring the museum later this summer and then visiting the Narrows Caf6. Meyers indicated the Westonka Historical Society also worked with the Orono Park Commission regarding the history of Saga Hills. Meyers stated they learned that back in 1915, Orono Township worked with other nearby townships to form the first area high school. Meyers distributed some newsletters to the City Council on the museum. Walsh thanked Ms. Meyers for coming to tonight's Council meeting and providing an update. Walsh stated the Westonka Historical Museum is a great facility and a great asset to the community. Walsh commented he is glad he is able to lend his support to the museum. Meyers noted the Historical Society will be hosting a House of Moy dinner at the end of September. Katherine Kalweit, 4265 Forest Lake Drive, stated she currently has Frontier Communications for her phone service, which is different from the majority of Orono, and that she and several of her acquaintances have experienced difficulties and outages with their phone service over the years. Kalweit stated two weeks ago she was totally without service for four days and that she is wondering why they pay Orono taxes when a small area is not allowed to have another choice in phone providers. City Administrator Loftus stated from a background perspective, Frontier has a nonexclusive franchise, which means there is nothing to prevent another phone company from entering that area and that it would be a free market decision by the phone provider. Loftus stated if Century Link or another company expressed interest in providing service in Orono, the City would allow them, and that the various phone companies base their decisions to expand on the density of the area. Page 2 of 8