Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER: Monday, November 17, 2014 at 7:00pm at the Community Center 2. COMMISSION MEMBERS ATTENDANCE: Jeff Pattison (Chair), Dave Plourde, Mitch Hamel, Rodney Roy, Kevin Dunleavy and Liza Kelleher. Absent- George Hawkins. 3. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Councilors Armand Bolduc and Bob Hamel, Fred Marchione, Tony Felch, Shane Baron, Candice Murray and Don Richards. 4. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES: Dave Plourde motioned to accept the last month minutes. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor. 5. PRESENTATION: • Lakefest Presentation- Kevin Dunleavy read a letter that was sent to the Commissioners expressing appreciation to the Laconia Parks and Recreation for their contribution and support toward the setting of the Guinness World record for the “Largest Simultaneous Launch of Canoes/Kayaks”. There were 396 canoes and kayaks launched within a 15 second window at Endicott Rock Park (Weirs Beach). 6. OLD BUSINESS: • Laconia Kiwanis- Rotary Park- Saturday August 30, 2015 from 8-3pm for Rogers Motorcycle Ride. Tabled due to no representation. 7. FACILITY USE REQUESTS: • Nor’Easter Softball Club- Opechee Park, Woodland Heights, Memorial Softball Fields- July 24, 25 & 26, 2015 Friday from 4:00~8:00pm, Saturday & Sunday from 7:00am to 7:00pm for their Softball Tournament. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the request conditioned upon submission of a certificate of insurance, tournament fee payment of $300.00 and a $60.00 light fee per night for Memorial Park softball field. Dave Plourde seconded. All were in favor. • National Multiple Sclerosis Society- Opechee Park & Parking lot- May 9, 2015 Saturday from 7:30am to 2:00pm for the MS Walk Laconia fundraising walk. Mitch Hamel tabled the request due to no representation. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor. • LAYBL- Community Center Gym and concession area- December 20 through March 15, 2015, Saturday & Sunday from 8:00am to 6:00pm for youth basketball league regular season and all-star season. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the request conditioned upon submission of a certificate of insurance, concession fee of $240.00 and $25.00 per key deposit if needed. Dave Plourde seconded. • LAYBL- Community Center Gym- February 12~15, 2015 Thursday & Friday from 5pm to 9pm, Saturday & Sunday from 8am to 9pm for their annual basketball tournament. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the request conditioned upon payment of the $240.00 tournament fee. Dave Plourde seconded. All were in favor. • Weirs Community Park Assoc. - Weirs Community Park parking lot and Weirs Community Center parking lot- June 13 through June 21, 2015 from 8:00am to 11:00pm  for Motorcycle Week. Dave Plourde motioned to accept the request. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor. • Abigail Slavin & Gregory Packard- Rotary Park Gazebo- Saturday, September 26, 2015 from 3~6pm for a wedding ceremony. Mitch motioned to table the request due to no representation. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor. • Lakes Region Girls Softball- Opechee Field D and Woodland Heights Field- April 1 through July 19, 2015 Monday to Friday from 5~8pm, Saturday & Sunday from 8am to 8pm for softball practices and games. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the request conditioned upon the submission of a certificate of insurance, submission of rosters, payment for non-resident users fees, storage fee and key deposit of $25.00 per key if needed. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor 8. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: 9. NEW BUSINESS: ● Preliminary Discussion- Parks and Recreation Budget for FY 2015-2016 Kevin explained some changes to the upcoming budget that he would like to recommend to the Commission. He said most items could either see slight adjustments up or down or could be level funded. Kevin said the main item he would like to recommend is an increase in the Temporary Salaries by $15,000, which would allow two additional seasonal maintenance staff members for four months. He said that several new facilities have been added to the Parks Department’s responsibilities including the new Weirs Community Park and the Riverwalk and Gateway improvements are expected to be in place next year. Kevin also said that we now have a full slate of athletic fields now that Bobotas Field is complete. Kevin also recommended increases in the following items: Fuel: Increase by $1000 Training: Increase by $850 Copier: Increase by $300 Supplies Maintenance: Increase by $500 Kevin said he will provide the Commission his recommended budget to them in the next few weeks with the intent to have the Commission approve the budget at the December meeting. Kevin asked the Commission to contact him with any changes or feedback they have regarding the budget. 10. PUBLIC COMMENT: 11. COMMUNICATIONS: 12. PARK ASSOCIATION REPORTS: Leavitt Park Association –Minutes of the Meeting Opechee Park Association- Income and Expense report Weirs Community Park Association- No report Wyatt Park Association- No report 13. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: Directors Report submitted by Kevin Dunleavy Department Updates: • Recent maintenance projects and activities include: Fall Cleanups Aerating and seeding Various work orders at City Hall, Library, park houses, LFD and LPD Skating Rink installation started at Leavitt Park Event support (Pumpkin Walk) Trash removal Pet waste bag restocking Fertilizing, aeration Picnic Table Repairs Planting bed cleanup and shrub/tree pruning Veterans Square Christmas Tree preparation Election Setup and Breakdown Building winterizing Irrigation shutdowns •Winter Shutdown- Parks staff has been winterizing all irrigation systems and seasonal facilities. The Huot Center Plumbing and Heating program has been assisting with these shutdowns and we appreciate their efforts. •Athletic fields – The athletic field maintenance activities are essentially complete for the season. We recently completed aeration on most fields and also performed seeding. Soil samples have been collected on all fields and will be sent out for evaluation. •Maintenance Staff- All seasonal maintenance staff has left for the season. We are now operating with our four full time year round crew until Spring arrives. We have been performing Fall cleanups where we can fit them in and will continue this until snow flies. •Wyatt Park- After long delays from the supplier, we finally received the replacement slide for the Wyatt playground and staff installed it recently. •Leavitt Park Furnace- During the annual servicing of the furnace at the Leavitt Park House, it was discovered that the heat exchanger had a large hole in it. Because of several functions and the upcoming elections at the hall, we had to get a quick replacement furnace. The new furnace has been installed and is operating well. •Meetings that I have attended the last month include City Staff meetings, Huot Center Plumbing and Heating Advisory Board, Special Events Committee, Downtown TIF Advisory Board, Safety Board, WOW Trail Board, NHDOT Bureau of Rails and Transit and Master Plan Committee.  Asst. Director of Recreation & Facilities Report submitted by Amy Lovisek It’s that time of year again; the Laconia Community Center is closed to almost all programs for the Annual Christmas Village. They start on Friday, November 14th and go to December 14th. On December 15th O’Sullivan Flooring is coming back to do a sand and seal coat on the floor. This is something that will be free as they didn’t meet my standards at the end of the job. This will be done every year after Christmas Village because the gym is already out of commission. We had our first annual Pumpkin Glow Walk on October 24 and it was a huge success. There were only 25 pumpkins, but we had around 200 people walk through the walk! This will grow significantly next year. Great program! I have been helping the Planning Department work on a TAP grant for new sidewalks and lights for kids getting to school easier. This is part of my HEAL work and will benefit the city because these sidewalks will connect to either the WOW trail or the Riverwalk. The grant will be for over $500,000. I attended a meeting with the Lakes Region Tennis Association. It looks as though they will be offering the free tennis lessons again this summer to Laconia residents. They felt that the program was worth their while and will solicit money for it. In return, I will be helping them try to get tennis into the school system in Laconia. It was also suggested to me to contact PSNH, who has an incentive program to install new led lighting. I would like to see if we can use this program to put up exterior lights for the tennis courts at Memorial Park. I will let you know that outcome of this. We have been looking into shutting off some of our PSNH accounts for the winter season. This will include a handful of accounts that aren’t used during the winter and have no reason to be on. This will save the city the base fee for each facility. We should see a major savings. I have sent in our application for the 2014 Tree City USA and we should here at the beginning of next year if we will receive the award. There was no change in our application and should therefore get the award. This will be our 25th year. Our Christmas programs are coming up soon and we are looking forward to many participants. 13. DATE OF NEXT MEETING AND ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 7:55pm and the next meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 15, 2014 at 7:00pm at the Community Center.