Where is all the Orono Park Funding? Why isn't Orono saving?
If Mayor Walsh is borrowing from bond debt payments and leasing equipment, something has to be up with Orono's cash flow. It appears that Orono is struggling to pay for Park maintenance and Park projects as well. See the full video here: https://youtu.be/JQPmrRxlhts?si=MeF0uXLjVqLt3MGg
There was over $700k in the Park Capital fund when Walsh took office, funding that came from a fee on housing development. So where did all that funding go? Mayor Walsh decided to spend all that money during his time in office not leaving any funds for the future. Why isn't Orono saving funds for Parks and future park projects?
Now it appears Orono is going to allocate $250k for parks in the 2024 tax levy. Since all the parks’ capital funding has been exhausted during Mayor Walsh’s term, he is now asking the citizens to start paying annually for a deficit he created. And that does not include the annual maintenance that has been neglected in favor of developing our parks for heavier use by special interests.
One clue about the special interests may be the Orono website, where they note they are pulling some funds from "private enterprise." Is that the private #oronoparkslegacy fund that Orono Parks Commissioner #KjerstiDuvall is managing? Or is that other donations and/or funds, equipment, etc that are given to the city? Will Citizens, or the private donors, have any say on these developments?
It appears that the City of Orono is going ahead with a grant application that the Citizens do not want for Hackberry Park - they are still planning on taking away one of the only two T-ball fields in Orono. Please do write to the baseball association here to offer your support for T-ball:
board@oronobaseball.org
Please attend City Council meetings and please do write to Parks Superintendent Josh Lemons and copy City Administrator Adam Edwards to ask them to keep Hackberry Park for T-ball. The Baseball Association needs these two fields to keep T-ball in Orono.
aedwards@oronomn.gov
jlemons@oronomn.gov
