Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 at 7:00pm at the Community Center. 2. COMMISSION MEMBERS ATTENDANCE: Jeff Pattison (Chair), Mitch Hamel (Clerk), George Hawkins, Dave Plourde, Rodney Roy, Kevin Dunleavy and Liza Kelleher. 3. INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: City Councilor Bob Hamel, Deb Davis, Tylaine Guarriello, Candice Murray, Brian Taylor and Kristen Damaso. 4. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES: George Hawkins motioned to accept the last month’s minutes as read. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor. 5. OLD BUSINESS: I. Facility Use Requests: • Linda Phelps Wedding- Rotary Park Gazebo- Sunday, May 24, 2015 from 1pm~5pm for a wedding. George Hawkins motioned to take it off the table. Mitch Hamel seconded. All were in favor. Mitch asked if the people getting married were residents. The parties stated that they were no longer residents of Laconia. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the request subject to payment of $100.00 event fee and submission of a certificate of insurance. George Hawkins seconded. All were in favor. • Greater Lakes Child Advocacy Center- Opechee Park- August 1, 2015 from 5am to 1pm for an annual triathlon fundraiser. Rodney Roy motioned to take it off the table. Mitch Hamel seconded. All were in favor. George Hawkins motioned to accept the request and waive the event fee, submission of a certificate of insurance and conditioned on final approval from the City Council for the fundraising event. Rod Roy seconded. All were in favor. • King/Bowler Wedding-Rotary Riverside Park- Saturday, August 15, 2015 from 3pm to 5pm for a wedding. The item was left on the table due to no representation. • Stinson/Dowling Scholarship Fund- Opechee Park (Smith Track, fields and beaches) - Sunday, June 28, 2015 from 9am to 12am for a fundraising race event. Rodney Roy motioned to take it off the table. Dave seconded. All were in favor. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the request subject to submission of a certificate of insurance and conditioned upon final approval from the City Council for the fundraising event and special events approval if needed. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor. • Lakes Region Community Services – WOW Trail- Sunday, May 17th, 2015 from 8am to 3pm for a charity walk. Rodney Roy motioned to take it off the table. Dave Plourde seconded. All were in favor. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the request conditioned upon special events approval if needed. Dave Plourde seconded. All were in favor.  II. Rotary Park Facility Use Request Policy: Laconia Parks and Recreation Rotary Park Facility Use Request Policy 1. Facility use requests must be submitted to the Laconia Parks and Recreation Department at least two months in advance of the event. 2. All requests to use Rotary Park will be reviewed and approved/denied administratively by the Parks and Recreation Director. An approval/denial letter will be sent the applicant. 3. The Parks and Recreation Commission will be provided a list of all event requests for Rotary Park. No action will be required from the Parks and Recreation Commission unless warranted. 4. All other pertinent facility use rules, regulations and policies will apply. 5. The intent of this policy is to facilitate the approval process for use of Rotary Park for wedding ceremonies and other events in cooperation with the Belknap Mill Society who often provides indoor space in conjunction with Rotary Park. Applicants who do not reside locally, and often times from out of state, would otherwise need to travel great distances to attend Parks and Recreation Commission meetings. Mitch Hamel motioned to accept the proposed Rotary Park Facility Use Policy relative to all events at Rotary Park. Rodney Roy seconded. All were in favor. 6. FACILITY USE REQUESTS: ● Straw & Simoneau Wedding- Gazebo Rotary Park- Saturday October 10, 2015, 2015 from 3pm to 4pm for the wedding ceremony. Chairman Pattison referred the wedding approval for this request to Kevin Dunleavy under the new Rotary Park Facility Use Request Policy. ● Lakes Region Girls Softball - Woodland Heights Field, Saturday March 14, 2015 from 8am to 4pm for a charity Snowball Softball Game fundraiser. Rodney Roy motioned to accept the request conditioned upon final approval from the City Council for the fundraising event and suitable field conditions. Dave Plourde seconded. All were in favor. 7. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: Kevin mentioned that he had recently heard from the Laconia Muskrats who are requesting to extend the deadline for the completion of the observation deck as indicated in the agreement renewal. The Muskrats are looking to partner with the Huot Tech Center and their availability is limited this spring. George Hawkins mentioned that as long as they are committed towards finishing the project, he would be open to an extension. Jeff Pattisson suggested the Commission look at the current language in the agreement and make a recommendation next meeting. Kevin said he would send the current language to the Commissioners for their review. 8. NEW BUSINESS: 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS: 10. PUBLIC COMMENT: 11. COMMUNICATIONS: 12. PARK ASSOCIATION REPORTS: Leavitt Park Association –No report Opechee Park Association- Income and Expense report Weirs Community Park Association- No report Wyatt Park Association- No report 13. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: Asst. Directors Report Submitted by Amy Lovisek This month I have been heavily working on the Maintenance Manual. Tim Ford and I have been collaborating on this project and it will be huge! The manual will have pictures, maintenance procedures of things like mowing, lining, gardens, garbage etc. It will also have irrigation information and building maintenance. The manual will be comprehensive and is quite the undertaking. It will never be complete because our parks are always changing in many ways and we will keep updating it. This will be a wonderful tool to any new employees. From my last report to this one we have received a significant amount of snow! This has enabled us to re-open the sledding hill. I was forced to cancel the Sledding Party due to lack of snow at the end of January!! We have had to place a couple barricades at the entrance to the hills parking area due to the fact that the gate is broken. The gate is unable to be repaired at this time of year. We don’t want any cars in the snow dump area for safety reasons. The police have been notified of this and they are keeping an eye on the area. We did have our ice skating party last weekend and did not have a large turnout. The weather has been rather cold and not many were brave enough for that! During February Vacation we have many things for the kids to do. Things like a sledding party, ice skating party, longer open gyms, a cardboard sled race and snow building!! We’ll see how these turn out. I have spoken with Primex regarding the possibility of having archery in the basements shooting range. I am expecting a letter from them, but they did mention this is doable. We have updating to do to the room for safety reasons. We will have to come up with safety standards and make sure they are followed. I am looking at this room to be open like the racquetball court. We would charge an hourly fee and let people just use the room. Children would need adult supervision! This is just another thing to add for our citizens and archery is big now. I have made a vendor letter and application for the NH Coffee Festival. I will be in charge of the vendors for this event. I will also be helping them with the city application/permits. I have recently received word that the school department plans to let the kids out of school sometime during the week of June 15th. Therefore, I can plan to have the Opechee Day Camp start the week of June 22nd. Plans have begun! Directors Report submitted by Kevin Dunleavy Department Updates: • Recent maintenance projects and activities include: Winter snow removal, sanding and salting Ice rink maintenance at Memorial, Leavitt and Opechee Various work orders at City Hall, Library, park houses, LFD and LPD Maintenance manual formulation Maintenance shop painting Trash removal Pet waste bag restocking Oil checks at various facilities Roof clearing •Maintenance staff has been consumed by snow removal, keeping walkways clear and salted/sanded and ice rink maintenance. •Skating Rinks - We now have the Memorial Park and Leavitt Park rinks available for use. Lights are available at Memorial till 10pm nightly. The Leavitt Park rink lighting was adjusted to go off at 8pm due to minimal use. We have been clearing the Opechee Cove rink when the maintenance staff has found the time. • Weirs Beach Watershed Grant – The City received a grant to investigate illicit discharges and install water quality measures in the area of Lakeside Avenue and Weirs Beach. I will be working with the Planning Department and the Public Works Department over the next few years on this project. We are anticipating improved water quality in the Weirs Beach area as a result of the work associated with this grant project. • Laconia Riverwalk and Main Street Bridge Gateway – I have busy with the coordination of engineering work, easement creation and design of several Riverwalk related projects in the Downtown TIF area. These linear parkways will be an important economic and recreational amenity for the City. We expect several new segments of the Riverwalk to be in place by the end of the next construction season. •Lighting Improvements- Lighting upgrades continue at various City buildings. Upgrades have been completed at the Weirs Community Center/Fire Station, City Hall and DPW. The contractor is now working on the Police Station, with the Leavitt Park House and the Parks Maintenance Shop to follow. •Meetings that I have attended the last month include City Staff meetings, Main Street Bridge construction, Downtown TIF Advisory Board, Safety Board, Weirs Water Quality Grant team, WOW Board and Master Plan Committee. 13. DATE OF NEXT MEETING AND ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 7:40pm and next meeting is scheduled for Monday March 16, 2015 at 7:00pm at the Community Center.