Breaking News: Majority of Citizens do not want a Separate Orono Fire Department
Breaking News: Majority of Citizens do not want an Orono Fire Department
During the 3/11/24 Orono City Council meeting, Orono Council member Alisa Benson presented a tabulation of the citizen comment cards. Calculations show that 26% were for the fire department, 60% were against the fire department and 11% had more questions regarding fire service.
Citizens speak out against Orono Fire - top concerns are safety, response times, training, temp fire garage as fire house?
On March 11, 2024, Orono Citizen, Kelly P. addressed the Orono City Council about her concerns related to the future of fire service for the City of Orono. She specifically spoke about concerns regarding the July 1, 2024 change in service for the Navarre area requested by the City of Orono.
For over 20 years the Long Lake Fire Department has effectively served Navarre, but In just 16 weeks the untested and unestablished, Orono Fire Department will respond to emergency calls the area.
Why isn't Mayor Walsh following his own guidelines for Citizen input?
When Denny Walsh first ran for mayor, he campaigned on allowing citizens the ability to publicly comment on any agenda item at a meeting. He went as far as publishing this on the top of the council agenda, "The public is invited to address the council regarding any item on the regular agenda. If your topic is not on the agenda, you may speak during the Public Comments section.”
Why doesn't Council member Veach follow our laws?
Why is Maria Veach taking it upon herself to singly negotiate with the City of Long Lake?
According to Orono Municipal Code, Ms. Veach cannot be exercising control over the administration of the city in trying to seek concessions from the city of Long Lake. At the very least she should have had City Administrator Edwards with her and a majority vote of the council allowing her to approach Long Lake officials on city business.
Is a lean-to garage really safe as a Fire Station in Navarre?
Orono is setting up its new fire department on a hope and a prayer
At Monday night’s meeting, Orono City Council will be discussing whether they are able to start their own controversial fire department slated for the Navarre service area this July 1st.
The hope is that they can park their equipment in a yet-to-be-built garage next to the Navarre water tower.
Breaking News: Spend, Spend, Spend
Breaking News: Spend, Spend, Spend
Yet another Orono City project is squandering more taxpayers dollars, and running over the initial estimate by over 46%. During the Monday February 26th, Mayor Walsh and his council majority will ask city council to vote for a temporary fire shelter next to the Navarre Station #2.
What has Orono become at the hands of Mayor Walsh's imagination?
During the 2/12/24 City Council meeting, Mayor Walsh spoke of “imagining” all sorts of spending opportunities for Orono. Before he was mayor, he had a different tune. In 2011, he is on record saying “his goals are that the City lives within what they have and that they need to start saying no to different expenditures unless the residents are convinced we absolutely need it”.
Is Mayor Walsh's Orono now the metro's Wild West?
What has happened since Mayor Walsh has taken office? Has Orono become the Wild West?
Public Land Sold and/or Given away without Citizen Input
Public Access Property on Lake Minnetonka has been sold and given away to city officials and/or friends of the Mayor or special residents chosen by the Mayor.
Large Expenditures without Citizen Input….
Are Big Donors getting Tax Write-offs for developing Citizen owned Land?
Are Orono Parks FOR SALE to big donors?
After the City of Orono held a public meeting without recording it nor broadcasting it, now we look at the agenda packet for the next City Council meeting and what do we see? Entire projects getting shoved through without public hearings including a large open air Pickleball complex in the Long Lake Holbrook neighborhood.
Is Orono hiding niche development because the Citizens don't want it?
City of Orono - where is our Public Information?
Lack of transparency, and suppression of information helpful to the citizens continues to plague this city council. One example is how the city council minutes have now been restructured to leave out public statements and other pertinent details that occurred during the meeting. Orono citizens are being actively suppressed from making their own determination on how their city is being run.
Another recent example is the 2/6/24 Park Commission meeting that was supposed to be broadcast and recorded. It has now disappeared entirely from the public record as of this posting.
Is Mayor Walsh creating a Circus at the Orono Golf Course?
What a difference a year makes. Last year a golf league was fighting to keep Pickleball courts and a Hockey Rink out of the Orono Golf Course. Now, they are planning on building their own extra large private picnic shelter apparently for themselves. Is this a clever move by Mayor Walsh in order to push forward development in Orono on public land again?
A Grand Opening without a Public Hearing Ever Held?
The Orono Duplicate Fire Department has been a huge debacle. First Walsh blames Long Lake whose Fire Chief was Van Eyll and then hires the same Fire Chief for the Orono Fire Department. Has anyone mentioned it’s the same guy? Or that maybe the same issues will travel with him? Or that this move along split the department?
Then Walsh says he’s running “the budget on his intuition” presumably because he doesn’t want the Citizens to know it’s going to cost tens of millions for what will be unproven and possibly unsafe service.
Is Year after Year Deficit Spending the new way in Orono?
2024: What happened to the Park Fund?
In the past six years, the Orono City Council has spent over $1.2 million on park capital projects creating a $500,000 deficit by the end of 2022. This deficit spending will have to be made up by levying additional money each year in order to get the fund back to zero in 2025.
What kind of fiscal management is this? Why can’t this Mayor and his majority on the council spend within the fund limits? Why do special interest groups get their park projects considered while the Orono taxpayers have to pony up each year to fund their ideas?
Court testimony reveals Firefighters not responding to a Heart call
The headline from today's Evidentiary hearing…
ORONO FIREFIGHTERS MADE A DELIBERATE CHOICE NOT TO RESPOND TO A HEART CALL DURING AN ORONO FIRE BUSINESS MEETING ONE BLOCK AWAY FROM THE INCIDENT.
Today in court it was revealed that on January 2, 2024, Orono Firefighters were attending a business meeting at Orono City Hall. 1.5 miles away a handful of Long Lake Firefighters and Chief Heiland were attending the Long Lake City Council meeting.
Hennepin County Court Hearing for Orono's Historic Contempt of Court Case
Please join Orono Citizens in Supporting the Long Lake Fire Department and the City of Long Lake at the Hearing on February 1st at 10:00.
Hope to see you there!
#togetherwearebetter #supportllfd #supportfiscalconservation
Orono Citizens are Being Billed Multi Millions for Water and Sewer
Lately the Mayor has been under pressure to answer the following questions:
Why are you billing the Citizens so much more than needed for their water and sewer?
Are you hoping to fund the Duplicate Fire Department with the extra millions these funds are now accumulating?
Is it fair for the city’s utility customers to be funding a startup fire department?
Have you been intentionally avoiding going public with your funding ideas for Orono Fire? Have you held public hearings for all these issues and their actual budgets? No, it appears that you have not, and you continue to suppress Citizens' voices about this enormous spending.
Why is the City of Orono Flying the Blue Line Flag?
Our own city is divided by hate speech and symbology. By not considering that certain extremist groups took over the Blue Line Flag for their own rallies and communication, we are ignoring all those groups that are marginalized.
Please consider taking down a symbol that has now been confused with violence and anger overriding the positive symbols of Law Enforcement.
Why did Orono create a Legal Subcommittee?
At the last Orono City Council work session, Mayor Walsh defended his desire to continue having a “legal” subcommittee. This subcommittee, composed of Walsh and another council member, is designed to discuss legal issues without the full council present. The staff did not recommend this idea and no other cities have such a subcommittee.
Breaking News: City of Orono Appears to Break Open Meeting Law
BREAKING NEWS: The CITY OF ORONO appears to have BROKEN OPEN MEETING LAW again.
On Monday January 8th, 2024 three Orono City Council members gathered at the Long Lake Fire Department’s “Pinning Ceremony.” Orono Council members #MariaVeach, #MattJohnson and #RichardCrosby attended without a public announcement of a quorum (half or more members of City Council) to the Citizens of Orono.
Orono Struggles with Communication to Citizens Again
On Thursday 1/18/24, the City of Orono sent out a notice for this Monday’s City Council meeting. There was an attached two-page agenda. What wasn’t included was a link to the 200+ page packet on information that appeared separately on the City website.
Why isn’t Orono trying to help its citizens learn about city matters?
Is this another example of citizen suppression of information?