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?
It is sad to see the Orono Golf Course landscape marred further. Healthy trees were cut down. Giant hardcover cement pad planned. A “Bus stop” looking picnic shelter to be built, rivaling the historic clubhouse. And the Park Commission is proposing a public mountain bike course running through the Golf Course as well.
These aren't Golf Course enhancements, they are more over-scaled developments not properly designed for all of Orono long term. Do we want to make the Golf Course an amusement park? What about the increased maintenance? Private/Public partnerships are only positive when they benefit the community as a whole - not niche, specially selected-by-the-Mayor groups.
And what about the Orono Citizens? Do they want to lose the nestled-in, quiet nature of Orono? Or do they want a Carnival atmosphere at their small historic 9-hole Golf Course? Survey the whole of Orono Mayor Walsh and please stop apparently currying favor of the few.
Once again, the Citizens of Orono are left out of the process and possibly even the outcome. Attend Tuesday night’s Orono Park Commission meeting at 6:00 p.m. and please make your voices heard. Write letters to the Laker Pioneer editor and jump on our social media pages to be heard!
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