Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING November 21, 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: Arthur Kirk, Tony Pederzani, Rodney Roy and Deanna Guyer. 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 October 17, 2016 Commissioner Rodney Roy moved to adopt the minutes from October 17, 2016. Seconded by Commissioner Tony Pederzani. The motion passed unanimously. I. OLD BUSINESS: A. Review of rule against use of Coast Guard approved life jackets. No discussion occurred. B. Laconia Kiwanis- Rotary Park- Sunday, August 27, 2017 from 8:00am to 3:00pm for Rogers Ride. Commissioner Roy motioned to table the request due to no representation. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. II. FACILITY USE REQUESTS: A. LAYBL – Community Center Gym – February 23, through 26, 2017 Thursday and Friday from 5pm to 9pm, Saturday 8am to 8pm and Sundays 8-1pm for LAYBL basketball tournament. Commissioner Pederzani motioned to accept the request conditioned upon submission of a tournament fee, concession stand fee, certificate of insurance and a deposit of $25.00 per key for any keys issued. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. B. National MS Society- Opechee Park & parking lot- September 16, 2017, Saturday from 7:30am to 2pm for Walk MS Laconia. Commissioner Kirk motioned to table the request due to no representation. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION The following birthday party and wedding requests have been approved administratively:  a) Laura Hachez & James Popek- Rotary Park Gazebo- June 3, 2017 from 12:00pm to 4:00pm for a wedding ceremony. IV. NEW BUSINESS: A. Parks and Recreation FY 2017-18 Budget – Preliminary Discussion Kevin Dunleavy said that he has provided the current year’s budget in the Commissioner’s meeting packets for their review. Kevin said that he will be sending the Commission a copy of the proposed budget in the next few weeks for their review and discussion of the proposed budget can occur at the next meeting. V. ANNOUNCEMENTS: VI. NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS & ELECTIONS: VII. PUBLIC COMMENT: VIII. COMMUNICATIONS: A. Letter from American Cancer Society-Making Strides B. Letter from Salvation Army-Turkey Plunge Kevin Dunleavy said the Department received two letters from organizations using our facilities. Kevin said it is nice to get feedback and the Making Strides and Turkey Plunge are great events and the organizations are great to work with. IX. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: X. PARK ASSOCIATION REPORTS: A. Leavitt Park Association –Minutes of October 12, 2016 meeting. B. Weirs Community Park Association- No report C. Tardif Park Association- No report. XI. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: A. Asst. Directors Report submitted by Amy Lovisek This month I was able to finalize the work on the gym floor. Every year since we installed the new gym hardwood floor, we have re-coated with 2 coats. We are trying to build up the coats on our floor. After the 2 coats we will be putting on the floor after Christmas Village we may take a break on the amount of coats we apply. The floor is in really good shape at this point. We will have roughly 8 coats on the floor after this application. We will evaluate the floor every year and decide then if it is in need of more coats. The gym will be closed through December 19th due to Christmas Village and the floors being done. Speaking of Christmas Village… they started their intensive set up process in the gym and in the basement. They are already close to being complete! Amazing how fast they are to set up. Tim Ford and I have been working with Scott Rolfe from the states forestry department on a grant for trees. The grant is the TD Green Streets grant. We are still waiting to hear if we qualify for this. The city has to be low or moderate income level. We are awaiting to hear where we fall. If we get the grant we will be planting around 30 trees in our parks! This is $10,000 worth of trees! Cross your fingers! We have been working on the Christmas decorations for downtowns Gateway and Vet Square areas. I am hoping this will look really nice this year. We are also working on getting the playgrounds up and running at full capacity. We received CIP money for the playgrounds and are working on getting the right product for each piece of equipment. Most will be ready for a spring fix. Enjoy the holidays with your families!! B. Directors Report submitted by Kevin Dunleavy Department Updates: • Recent maintenance projects and activities include: Various work orders at City Hall, Library, park houses, LFD and LPD Bath house shutdowns and irrigation winterization Mowing and trimming Trash removal Pet waste bag restocking Removal of trash barrels at park facilities started Start holiday decorating/lighting Summer equipment winterizing and preparation of winter equipment Fall cleanups/leaf and debris removal  Tulip bulb planting  Fertilizing and other turf amendments Pumpkin Festival setup/breakdown/cleanup Christmas Village setup assistance • Now that the outdoor sports season is finished, maintenance staff has had a focus on getting projects completed before the winter and preparations for the next winter season. Major maintenance projects include fall cleanups, Pumpkin Festival support, bathroom shutdowns and irrigation winterization. •WOW Trail – Phase 2 of the WOW Trail is 99% complete. There are a few punch list items  and appurtenances that still need attention but the trail is open to the public. Use of the trail appears to be significant already with positive reviews rolling in. We look forward to making this trail a real highlight and destination for the community and visitors to the area. Much credit goes to the community, WOW Trail organization and City of Laconia for making this a reality •Happy Tails Dog Park – We awaiting review by the NH Division of Historic Preservation to ensure the project will not impact potential historical features. This approval should be arriving soon and no impact are expected. Once this approval is received, a formal agreement with the Happy Tails Dog Park can be executed and the project can go out to bid for construction. • Pumpkin Festival – Parks and Recreation played a support role in this year’s Pumpkin Festival. Our main responsibility was to have the Downtown looking clean and decorated for the event. We assisted with some cleaning tasks during the event. The date of the event for next year has been announced and will be a week earlier. •Memorial Park- Gilford Well has been working on the installation of the new irrigation system at Memorial baseball field. The project is nearing completion with a few minor items to be addressed in the spring. A concrete pad for the new softball field bleachers is expected to be installed in the next week or two. Delivery of the bleachers is expected at the beginning of December with installation following. •City Holiday Tree – Due to significant negative feedback from the community, we are transitioning away from using the large Norway Spruce in Veterans Park starting this year. The large tree has been a challenge for the City to light due to our limited resources. A cut tree has been donated to the City and with the help of DPW, this cut tree will be installed in Veterans Park and lighted as the official City Holiday Tree. We expect this plan to use cut trees to last some years until we can plant a suitable replacement in the Downtown area. • Meetings that I have attended the last month include City Staff meetings, City Council meetings, Special Events Committee, Downtown TIF Advisory Board, WOW Trail Board. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Roy motioned to adjourn at 7:19pm. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commissioner Chair