City Council

CITY OF LACONIA ­ CITY COUNCIL MEETING November 26, 2018 7:00 P.M. 11/26/2018 ­ Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Engler called the meeting to order at the above date and time. 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Councilor Lipman lead the salute to the Flag. 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Cheryl Hebert, City Clerk 4. ROLL CALL City Clerk Hebert took the roll with the following Councilors in attendance: Bruce Cheney, Henry Lipman, Mark Haynes, Bob Hamel, and Andrew Hosmer Not present: David Bownes Mayor Engler noted five (5) Councilors are in attendance and a quorum has been established. 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE Scott Myers, City Manager 6. COUNCIL PROCLAMATION 7. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS 7.A. Regular meeting minutes of November 13, 2018 Minutes of the meeting were distributed to the City Council on Wednesday, November 14, 2018. With no corrections or changes submitted to the Clerk, the minutes will be accepted as distributed. 8. CONSENT & ACTION ITEMS 8.A. Request for approval of a hill climb on Tower Street to be held Tuesday, June 11, 2019 from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm in connection with Laconia Motorcycle Week 2019 Councilor Hosmer moved to approve the request for the hill climb on Tower Street to be held Tuesday, June 11, 2019 from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm in connection with the Laconia Motorcycle Week 2019 event, pending approval by the Special Events Committee, seconded by Councilor Cheney; the motion passed with all in favor. 8.B. Request from Laconia Motorcycle Week Association to waive fees for a Bike Show and Swap Meet to be held Friday, June 14, 2019 at Opechee Park Councilor Lipman moved to approve the request from the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association to waive fees for a Bike Show and Swap Meet to be held on Friday, June 14, 2019 at Opechee Park from 7 am to 3 pm, pending approval by the Parks and Recreation Commission, with all proceeds from the event going to the City of Laconia Motorcycle Week Budget, seconded by Councilor Hamel; the motion passed with all in favor. 9. CITIZEN COMMENTS FOR MATTERS NOT ON THE AGENDA No comments from the public were made. 10. INTERVIEWS 11. NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS & ELECTIONS 12. COMMUNICATIONS 1 13. PUBLIC HEARINGS 14. PRESENTATIONS 15. MAYOR'S REPORT Mayor Engler updated the Council in regards to the Colonial Theater and the Tax Credits. He stated the amount of tax credits are based off the assessed value, therefore an updated assessment has been requested. So until that has been completed he will not have an update for the Council on the amount of the tax credit the City could receive for the Colonial Theater. 16. COMMITTEE REPORTS 16.A. FINANCE (Lipman, Hamel, Cheney) 16.A.i. WOW Trail Funding 16.A.ii. Downtown TIF Financing 16.B. PUBLIC SAFETY (Bownes, Hosmer, Lipman) 16.B.i. Fair St/Court St traffic problems and accidents 16.C. GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS & ORDINANCES (Bownes, Hosmer, Cheney) 16.C.i. Review of Chapter 167, Noise and Chapter 161 Licensing as it pertains to outdoor sound equipment and loudspeakers 16.C.ii. Ordinance Amending Chapter 221, Vehicles and Traffic/Parking on Sublawns 16.C.iii. Procedural review of grant applications 16.D. LANDS & BUILDINGS (Hamel, Lipman, Haynes) 16.D.i. Downtown parking garage A meeting was held earlier this evening in regards to the parking garage. It was suggested that DuBois and King give the Council an up­to­date price to redo the first floor decking and replace some of the beams. Another suggestion made during the meeting was changing the layout of the on­street parking on Beacon Streets East and West. The change suggested was to change from parallel parking to angle parking and limiting the two­lane road down to one lane. Councilor Cheney expressed the concern with the traffic back up on the Beacon Street West side in regards to changing the layout of on­street parking and limiting to one lane on a portion of it. Councilor Cheney would like to see some time spent on the impact of traffic. Mayor Engler's observation of Beacon Street West is the lack of clearly marked lanes and it is used as a racetrack. Mayor Engler also questioned the lack of available parking downtown as he has always seen available parking down Pleasant Street. He does agree that the adding of numerous employees from Genesis has added to the lack of parking available in the municipal parking at City Hall. He expressed downtown is the only place in the City where one can start a business and does not have to account for parking spaces. Councilor Hamel noted that City Manager Myers has a meeting with Father Mark next week to have a discussion with him in regards to the St. Joseph property. It was due to the suggestion made by Patrick Wood to move City Hall there in order to free up some parking spaces in the municipal parking lot. 16.D.ii. Repair & maintenance of City buildings 16.E. PUBLIC WORKS (Bownes, Hosmer, Haynes) 2  16.E.i. Retaining Wall Policy 16.E.ii. Proposal to implement City Policies for designating emergency lanes 17. LIAISON REPORTS 18. CITIZENS REQUESTS TO COMMENT ON CURRENT AGENDA ITEMS Representative Charlie St. Clair ­ spoke in regards to the potential changes on Beacon Street East and Beacon Street West. He sees changing the parking spaces from parallel to angle parking could pose a challenge to some people trying to back out into moving traffic. He also spoke in regards to people driving too fast on Beacon Streets East and West. The speed limit is 30 MPH on both those roads, so to someone standing still, it probably looks like they are speeding when in reality they are not. 19. CITY MANAGER'S REPORT 19.A. Monthly Economic Development Report City Manager Myers stated for the record in regards to the parking that the City of Concord just did a major revitalization of parking in their downtown area with angled parking and they have not had any issues with people backing out of those spaces into a one­lane road. He also stated parking would not be going any further than what it is already. City Manager Myers has also administratively approved the time limit from 9:30 pm to 10:30 pm on July 4, 2019, at the Margate for a wedding. There was also a swearing in ceremony for Chief Beattie earlier today and City Manager Myers thanked the Council members that were in attendance. City Manager Myers also made the Council aware that the Parks Commission has approved for fireworks to be shot off from barges on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend of 2019 and to use a portion of the Endicott Parking lot to erect a small canopy tent. City Manager Scott Myers reviewed the report. 19.B. Project Updates Report City Manager Scott Myers reviewed the report. Councilor Lipman noticed the progress with the bump out and cross walk in front of Vista Foods. Would like an update in regards to the updating of the crosswalk signals. City Manager Myers said that would probably be happening sometime in the Spring of 2019. Councilor Hamel requested an update in regards to costs on the Court Street project and if Consolidated Communications has been asked to compensate any added costs to the City due to their part of the some of the delays. City Manager Myers assured the Council that has been brought up. Councilor Hamel would also like to see the pot holes fixed at the intersection of Main Street and Court Street. City Manager Myers stated that area is being completed. Councilor Hamel noted the intersection of Church Street and Union Avenue lights are still not working properly. The lights seem to be skipping cycles on Church Street. City Manager Myers stated this will be looked in to. Councilor Cheney asked about a future agenda item in regards to historical signs being added in the Weirs area. City Manager Myers stated that item will be put on the December 10, 2018 agenda. The City Manager updated the Council regarding the pending tax rate and the hope to have it within the next few days. 20. NEW BUSINESS 3 20.A. "Wake the Lake" 2019 ­ Block party on Lakeside Avenue ­ Temporary Traffic Order 2018­17  Representative St. Clair was present to answer any questions. Councilor Cheney moved to approve Temporary Traffic Order 2018­17, "Wake the Lake" 2019, pending the approval of the above stated conditions, a waiver of all licensing and special event fees, to allow alcohol consumption on City property in the designated areas only, and to extend the hours of operation of sound equipment and/or loudspeakers from 10:00 pm to 11:00 pm for the duration of this event, seconded by Councilor Hosmer; the motion passed with all in favor. 21. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 22. COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilor Hamel noted this Thursday, November 29, 2019 will be the 43rd Annual opening of Christmas Village and extends an invite to the Council, City Manager, and anyone else that would like to be a part of the opening ceremonies beginning at 6 pm. Councilor Lipman noted the Light Up Laconia Parade was wonderful and the tree being used downtown was donated by Councilor Hamel directly from his yard. 23. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 23.A. Improvement of Union Ave/Elm Street intersection Councilor Hosmer moved to remove this item from future agenda items, seconded by Councilor Hamel; the motion passed with all in favor. 23.B. Ordinance amendment relative to Chapter 167, Noise and Chapter 161, Licensing as it pertains to outdoor sound equipment and loudspeakers Councilor Hosmer moved to removed Item 23B from the agenda, seconded by Councilor Hamel; the motion passed with all in favor. 23.C. Second reading of a resolution relative to the adoption of RSA 31:95­b, Appropriation of funds made available during the year Councilor Hosmer moved to remove Item 23C from Future agenda items and move to Government Operations & Ordinances, Item 16.C.iv, seconded by Councilor Lipman; the motion passed with all in favor. 23.D. Master Plan 23.E. Milfoil Treatment funding requests 23.F. Sewer & Water Master Plan 23.G. Single Stream Recycling/Concord Co­op/Solid Waste disposal cost reductions 23.H. Strategic Planning/Goal Setting 23.I. WOW Trail 23.J. Proposal to implement City Policies for designating emergency lanes 23.K. Resolution 2017­30 relative to authorizing the City Manager to apply to the State of NH DOT for a temporary use agreement in the City's name that will allow for the completion of a study concerning the different options and benefits of how to build Phase 3 of the WOW Trail and to sign all necessary documents Councilor Hosmer moved to remove Item 23K from the agenda, seconded by Councilor Hamel; the motion passed with all in favor. 24. Any other business that may come before the Council 25. NON­PUBLIC SESSION (According to RSA 91­A:3, II) 4 26. ADJOURNMENT With no further business to come before the Council and hearing no objection, Mayor Engler adjourned the meeting at 8:08 pm. Respectfully submitted by Cheryl Hebert, City Clerk MINUTES OF THIS MEETING WERE APPROVED BY COUNCIL ON DECEMBER 10, 2018 5