Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING September 19, 2016 Laconia Community Center- Parks & Recreation Office 7:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER: Commissioner Chair Mitch Hamel called the meeting to order at the above date and time. RECORDING SECRETARY: Secretary Liza Kelleher will be recording this meeting. ROLL CALL: Commissioner Chair Mitch Hamel called the roll with the following Commissioners in attendance: Deanna Guyer, Tony Pederzani, Rodney Roy and Arthur Kirk. Parks & Recreation staff in attendance: Recreation & Facilities Director Kevin Dunleavy and Parks & Recreation Secretary Liza Kelleher. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS: 1. Regular meeting minutes of August 15, 2016 Commissioner Tony Pederzani moved to adopt the minutes from August 15, 2016. Seconded by Commissioner Arthur Kirk. The motion passed unanimously. I. OLD BUSINESS: A. Weirs Action Committee (WAC) – Weirs Beach and Endicott Rock Park Parking Lot – June 10th, 2017 to June 18th, 2017, from 7am to 8pm for fundraiser for Weirs Beach beautification. Commissioner Roy motioned to take the request off the table. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. Mitch Hamel said that he assumed no agreement between the WAC and Laconia Motorcycle Week Association has occurred on how they might work together on the fundraising effort. Joe Driscoll IV explained that any money that WAC raises goes back to the beautification of the Weirs area and WAC would like to see it continue. Various members of Weirs Action Committee spoke about why they need to continue the fundraising at Weirs beach parking lot. Comments included that this is the only fundraising that they have and the money is spent to beautify the Weirs area, the funding supports the fireworks, WAC would not survive without this fundraising and the City would need to take over beautification efforts if the fundraising cannot happen. Charlie St. Clair of the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association said that the budget for the Association includes marketing, promotion and salaries for staff and support from the businesses is needed to cover the costs. Charlie St. Clair also said that there is now a Weirs TIF to fund the type of activities WAC is looking to do. City Councilor Brenda Baer read a letter explaining how the Laconia Motorcycle Week Association under the leadership of Charlie St. Clair revived the event when it was floundering. Councilor Baer also said the event is seeing increasing competition from other events and a loss of support from sponsors and the income from the parking lot would help defray their deficits. Commissioner Pederzani suggested that WAC and Motorcycle Assoc. continue to find ways they might be able to work together as a team.  Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the fundraising request conditioned upon final approval from the City Council. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. B. Laconia Motorcycle Week Association – Weirs Beach parking lot – June 9th, 2017 to June 17th, 2017, from 8am to 10pm for Laconia Motorcycle Week Association fundraising. Commissioner Roy motioned to take the request off the table. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. Commissioners denied the request due to approval granted to the Weirs Action Committee. C. Review of rule against use of Coast Guard approved life jackets. No discussion taken. D. 2017-2022 CIP Draft- Kevin Dunleavy presented the Capital Improvement Plan to the Commission based on previous feedback from the Commission. Kevin summarized some of the requests for the upcoming year. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the summary report. Seconded by Deanna Guyer. All were in favor. II. FACILITY USE REQUESTS: A. Salvation Army – Opechee Cove, Parking lot and Opechee Park house – October 29, 2016 Saturday from 8am to 2pm for the 12th Annual Turkey Plunge. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request and waive the special event fee conditioned upon the approval from City Council. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. B. Faith Alive Christian Fellowship- Opechee Park, Elm Street- Sunday, October 9, 2016 from 12:30pm to 3:00pm for outreach. Commissioner Pederzani motioned to remove the request from the agenda due to no representation. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. C. VLD Fitness, LLC- parking lot/beach area- Saturday, October 1, 2016 or Sunday October 2, 2016 from 10am to 1pm for pound for a purpose: Conquer Cancer. Commissioner Kirk motioned to remove the request from the agenda due to no representation. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. D. VISTESS(Volunteer in service to elm street school)- Robbie Mills- Sunday, October 2, 2016 (October 16, 2016 rain date) from 11am for a student’s vs staff soccer showdown. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request and waive the concession stand fee conditioned upon approval from the City Council for fundraising event. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION The following wedding requests for Rotary Park have been approved administratively: a) Johannah McAlpine- Weirs Community Park Pavilion- September 3, 2016 from 1:00pm to 5:00pm for a birthday party. b) Samantha Howe & Shawn Hawkins- Rotary Gazebo- September 30, 2017 from 2:30pm to 6:00pm for a wedding ceremony. IV. NEW BUSINESS: School District charges for LAYBL. Commissioner Roy explained and expressed his concerns to the Commission that the School District is charging LAYBL a $35.00 per hour fee a maximum of 2 hours for janitorial services at the Middle School and Woodland  Heights Gym. Commissioner Roy said he presented the Parks and Recreation fee structure to the School District and the School Board to show them how the Department collects fees for non-residents and the School District and Laconia residents are not imposed a fee. Commissioner Roy mentioned that if Parks and Recreation charged the school for the use of the fields under the same fee structure they are imposing, the District would be charged around $31, 000.00 for the fall season alone. Kevin Dunleavy said that there has been past discussion about creating an MOU between the School District and the Parks and Recreation Department to clarify responsibilities relating to field use. Kevin said that the MOU is not necessarily related to the topic Commissioner Roy is describing, but there may some items that the Commission could address in an MOU. Commissioner Hamel suggested Kevin Dunleavy bring some ideas about an MOU to the Commission at an upcoming meeting. V. ANNOUNCEMENTS: VI. NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS & ELECTIONS: VII. PUBLIC COMMENT: VIII. COMMUNICATIONS: a) Letter from Department of Environmental Services: Ambient Air Monitoring in Laconia, NH. The Department of Environmental Services requested a temporary air monitoring system that will be set up inside at Wyatt Park for five months. Kevin Dunleavy explained that the purpose is to monitor the air quality with a focus on the effects of burning wood for fuel during certain weather conditions. Kevin said the results will help issue warnings for air quality, educate the public on proper equipment and help to protect public health. IX. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: X. PARK ASSOCIATION REPORTS: A. Leavitt Park Association –Minutes of August 10th meeting. B. Weirs Community Park Association- No report C. Tardif Park Association- The floor has been installed at the Park house and funded through the non-capital fund reserve. Kevin Dunleavy mentioned that they should submit some minutes of the meeting because we have not seen any so far. XI. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: A. Asst. Directors Report submitted by Amy Lovisek The summer is officially (in the Parks & Rec. world) over! The beaches are closed, the lifeguards have gone back to school and the money is no longer being collected at the Weirs Beach. The summer season was a success in our book. The Weirs Beach was shut down for high bacteria more this year due to the state taking more samples. The USGS has a buoy in the water and need the beach samples to determine some possible reasons why the bacteria levels are high. This was hopefully a means to an end. The Squam Lake Science Center show that we put on was a big success. We had over 70 people in attendance. I was quite pleased at the number of families that came to the program. They were able to go up to the playground and play when the kids couldn’t sit any longer. How fun! The fall has brought with it our regular programs to the Laconia Community Center. The Fall/Winter Program Brochure is in your packet for you to check out. I am looking to start a new program this fall/winter/spring. The program will be about getting kids back into nature. Learning animal tracking, plant identification, shelter building etc. What I need now is an instructor or 2. If you know of anyone that would be qualified and interested, please let me know. Thank you. I am always looking for new programs to offer all ages for our department. If you can think of anything new, I would love to hear from you. Happy fall! B. Directors Report submitted by Kevin Dunleavy Department Updates: • Recent maintenance projects and activities include: Various work orders at City Hall, Library, park houses, bath houses, LFD and LPD Athletic field preparations for school sports Mowing and trimming Trash removal Pet waste bag restocking Irrigation maintenance Field lining Bathroom cleaning Beach raking  Planting area watering  Weeding of planting beds  Tree pruning at Rotary and Stewart Parks  Fertilizing Painting at Tardif Park House and Weirs Community Park • Now that the summer season has officially ended for us, our maintenance staff is focusing on athletic field preparations, mowing and various projects that we have not had time to address.  •WOW Trail – Construction continues to be on schedule. Tasks that have been started include fencing, boardwalk, paving, drainage, curbing and abutments. Major components still needing completion include paving, fencing, bridge and paver installation behind the railroad station. • Beacon Street West Riverwalk Connection – I met with DPW and the project manager for Chinburg Builders to discuss any final items remaining. The handrail has been installed and painted. The walkway is now open for use and a press release will be occurring in the near future. A few minor punch list items remain including the coring of drainage holes, installation of small section of ornamental fence, removal of some debris and removal of invasive species in the turf areas. •Happy Tails Dog Park –No update. We are still awaiting word from the National Park Service to make sure they have no concerns in relation to the original acquisition of this property through the LWCF program. • Meetings that I have attended the last month include City Staff meetings, City Council meetings, Special Events Committee, Downtown TIF Advisory Board, Weirs TIF Advisory Board and training on Pictometry software. • Rivers Edge Riverwalk Segment – This Riverwalk is completed with only some landscaping items to be completed. A grand opening of the facility occurring on August 19th. The Riverwalk is available for use and a press release will be issued in the near future. • Weirs Community Park – We are seeing an increase in requests for use of the picnic pavilion for birthday parties and family gatherings. Recent events at the amphitheater saw decent crowds and included a performance by Stan Jr. and an educational program by the Squam Lakes Science Center. •The Pumpkin Festival planning is moving along. Plans for Opechee Park include amusement rides in the parking lot off North Main Street and a running race in the morning organized by the WOW Trail. • Fall projects include installation of sod in the Gateway Island, irrigation installation at Memorial Park, bleacher installation at Memorial Softball field installation of flooring at Tardif Park House. • Two benches equipped with solar powered device charging stations have been installed recently. One is located on the boardwalk at the Weirs and a second in Downtown near MC Cycle. These benches were funded by donations receive from a Go Fund Me site set up by Breanna Henderson of the Polished and Proper Barbershop. The benches and charging stations are manufactured by a company called Soofa. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Roy motioned to adjourn at 8:31pm. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commission Chair