Orono City Council votes on 5/9 to proceed with Master Plan of Summit Beach Park
Good afternoon - The Orono Parks Commission met on Monday, May 2, 2022 to discuss a number of topics, including a proposal to hire a consultant to complete a Master Plan to dictate the future of Summit Beach Park.
Prior to the discussion, Park Commission Lead Brian Roath did clarify that the inclusion of LLRC boat plans as a part of the agenda item was a clerical error, and that the LLRC Boathouse Proposal "is off the table" at this time.
The rest of the meeting was tumultuous. Please watch the following clips at this link, timestamps below:
- Public Comments Related to Summit Beach Park 3:40 - 21:21
- Item #8: Summit Beach Park Master Plan: 1:04:51 -1:21:05
- (Public Recess 1:21:05-1:33:39)
- Item #8: Summit Beach Park Master Plan: 1:33:40-1:38:20
One Park Board member, as well as several community members in the audience, requested multiple times to seek community input on future plans for the Park before paying $19,500 for a consultancy to create a Master Plan. Concerned citizens cited their desire to provide feedback on the Park upfront via a city survey rather than be given three pre-determined master plans to choose from.
Despite significant public outcry, Park Commission Lead Brian Roath pushed the recommendation through the Board with a vote of 4-1. Loud boos emitted from the crowd after the vote concluded.
Now that the Park Commission has recommended this to City Council, the proposal to employ Bolton & Menk (cost: $19,500) to create Summit Beach Park’s Master Plan is up for approval on this Monday’s City Council agenda, 5/9.
NOTE: The Summit Beach Master Planning Proposal is on Orono’s City Council’s Consent Agenda. That means that the council will not host an open discussion on this item; instead, it will gain approval alongside approval of nominal paperwork (e.g. previous meeting minutes, claims/bills, requests to hire, etc).
CALL TO ACTION: Community members should attend the Orono City Council meeting and make their voices heard during the “PUBLIC COMMENT” section. Important to note that the Orono City Council recently reduced public comment time from 5 minutes down to 3 Minutes. Please come well prepared with your remarks; unfortunately, this council has a history of cutting citizens off if they exceed the time limit.
Meeting details below:
5:55PM CT Start time (Arrive 5:45PM CT)
City of Orono Park Commission Meeting
Orono Council Chambers
2780 Kelley Parkway
Orono, MN 55356
Community members should also send emails to the members of Orono City Council requesting that Item #8, “Summit Beach Master Planning (Project 22-055)” should be pulled off of the consent agenda for discussion:
City Council Members
rcrosby@ci.orono.mn.us
aprintup@ci.orono.mn.us
vseals@ci.orono.mn.us
dwalsh2@ci.orono.mn.us
mjohnson@ci.orono.mn.us
Let’s ensure that the public gets the opportunity to provide direction on how we want our parks to look, rather than leaving it up to a consulting group to provide three pre-determined options. We will see you on Monday night at City Hall!
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IMPORTANT BACKGROUND: The “Summit Beach Committee” held a meeting without public notice on March 4th, 2022. At that undisclosed meeting, the Committee determined that a consultant should be hired to complete a Master Plan of Summit Beach Park. Since that time, City Staff solicited and received a proposal for Orono’s consulting engineering firm, Bolton and Menk. No minutes or attendee list for this committee meeting have been published to date. This is a direct violation of MN Statutes Sec. 13D.01 and 13D.04 regarding public meeting law.