Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING October 21, 2019 Laconia Community Center- Parks & Recreation Office 7:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER: Commissioner Mitch Hamel called the meeting to order at the above date and time. RECORDING SECRETARY: Secretary Liza Kelleher recorded this meeting. ROLL CALL: Commissioner Chair Mitch Hamel called the roll with the following Commissioners in attendance: Tony Pederzani, Arthur Kirk, Rodney Roy and Deanna Guyer. PARKS AND RECREATION STAFF PRESENT: Director of Recreation and Facilities Amy Lovisek, Asst. Director of Recreation and Facilities Matthew Mansur and Secretary Liza Kelleher. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS: 1. Regular meeting minutes of September 16, 2019 Commissioner Rodney Roy moved to adopt the minutes from September 16, 2019. Seconded by Commissioner Deanna Guyer. The motioned pass unanimously. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Holbrook Insurance & JG Realty- Opechee Park Field – September 19, 2020, Saturday from 9:00am to 5:00pm for the first annual Boggin N Braggin Cornhole Championship. Commissioner Kirk motioned to table the request due to no representation. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. B. LAYBL – Laconia Community Center – December 21, 2019 through March 9, 2020, Saturday from 8:00am to 4:00pm and Sunday from 8:00am to 12:00pm for the LAYBL Basketball season. Commissioner Pederzani motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance and key deposit of $25.00 per key. LAYBL is a Laconia resident only league and therefore no user fee is required. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. C. LAYBL- Laconia Community Center- February 19th to February 23, 2020, Wednesday to Friday from 5:00pm to 9:00pm, Saturday & Sunday from 9:00am to 9:00pm for LAYBL Basketball Tournament. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of $100.00 tournament fee and concession stand fee of $240.00. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. D. Nor’Easter Softball Club- Opechee Fields A, B, C & D, Woodland Heights field, Memorial Softball field- July 24, 25 & 26, 2020, Friday from 4:00pm to 9:00pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7:00am to 5:30pm for the Nor’Easter Classic Tournament. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of $300.00 tournament fee, Memorial field lighting and submission of the certificate of insurance. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor.  E. New Hampshire Interscholastic Assoc.- Robbie Mills- June 9th and 10th 2020, Tuesday and Wednesday from 2:30 to 9:30pm (June 11th rain date) for NHIAA Baseball Semifinals Tournament. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request pending upon submission of the certificate of insurance, $300.00 tournament fee and lighting fee. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. F. Lakes Region Girls Softball - Opechee Field D, Woodland Heights and Elm St. School field- Woodland Heights and Elm St. School field, April 1st to October 31, 2020 and Opechee Field D April 1st to July 31st Monday through Fridays from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday from 8:00am to 8:00pm, Opechee field D Sunday only from August 1st to October 31st for Lakes Region Girls Softball season. Commissioner Pederzani voted to accept the request pending upon the payment of non-resident users fee, storage fee, lighting fee and the submission of the certificate of insurance. Propane tank Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. G. Lakes Region Girls Softball - Opechee A, B, C, D, Woodland Heights and Memorial- July 31, 2020 through August 2, 2020, Friday Saturday and Sunday from 8:00am to 8:00pm for Summer Chaos Tournament. Commissioner Roy voted to accept the request pending upon the payment of $300.00 tournament fee and the 20lbs propane tank has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. H. Lakes Region Girls Softball - Opechee A, B, C, D, Woodland Heights and Memorial- October 10 and 11, 2020, Saturday and Sunday from 8:00am to 8:00pm for Fall Chaos. Tournament. Commissioner Kirk voted to accept the request pending upon the payment of $300.00 tournament fee and the 20lbs propane tank has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. I. The Salvation Army Turkey Plunge- Opechee Cove and the Parkhouse- Saturday, November 9, 2019 from 7:30 to 2:00pm for Turkey Plunge. Commissioner Pederzani voted to accept the request pending upon the payment of $100.00 special event fee and approval from the City Council for the fundraising event on the City property. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. Checklist for facility Use Request- Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the changes in the Facility Use request Form. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. B. Muskrats Contract- No action was taken. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION The following request have been approved administratively: A. Ryan Stackpole Wedding- Rotary Park Gazebo- Saturday, August 29, 2020 from 4:30pm to 6:00pm for a wedding ceremony. IV. NEW BUSINESS:  Memorial Baseball Field- Mike Clifford and his neighbor Irene who reside on Memorial Park Road and directly behind and beside the baseball field approached the Commission in the ongoing issue of foul balls damaging their property. Mike put up a 60ft long x25ft high net in his 3-family home property just to avoid more damage in his house and some cars. Mike mentioned also some close calls being hit by the ball. He showed the Commissioners some balls he had collected through out the summer. Irene complained that she was worried about her elderly Mother getting hit with the fly ball and also mentioned that they had already balls hitting their house and car. Mike and Irene are asking for some help from the Department to come up with some solution to avoid this issue next season. The Commissioners stated they will look at for options to fix this situation while remaining on city property. Commissioners stated that they are looking to get netting for the Robbie Mills Sports Complex for safety reasons. They stated that this may be the solution to this problem as well even though there is already netting at Memorial Park. It looks like the field netting needs to be higher. Director Lovisek stated that she would contact the city’s insurance company to ask for suggestions. Director Lovisek will keep Mike and Irene informed with the progress as we move forward. V. ANNOUNCEMENTS: VI. NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS & ELECTIONS: VII. PUBLIC COMMENT: VIII. COMMUNICATIONS: IX. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: X. PARK ASSOCIATION REPORTS: A. Leavitt Park Association- No report. B. Weirs Community Park Association- No report. C. Tardif Park Association- No report XI. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: A. Directors Report submitted by Amy Lovisek As of this point in the fall, we have seen the end of youth soccer and will soon see the end of all other fall sports. This eliminates the field preparations until spring and gives us a chance to catch up on other items on our “to-do” list. We will have the fall clean ups and the winterization of all irrigation and bathrooms start shortly as well. Our department presented to the CIP committee 2 weeks ago and will be attending again this week to answer some of their questions. They asked us to give phases for the skate park just in case they want to partially fund that project. They also had questions about the Bio-Barrier that we are suggesting to install at the Riverwalk near City Hall. This barrier will prevent the roots from causing the same damage again. And lastly, they asked about the renovations to the Weirs Bath House that was in a future year. We broke down the items and will present them with all of this information. The United Way Day of Caring was on September 25th and we had a large turnout for the event. We actually filled all of our slots. We had a total of 20 adults clearing brush on the WOW trail behind the library with 55 5th graders from Pleasant Street School helping as well. They also cleared some of the bittersweet from the trees from the library lawn. Another group cleared some brush from in front of the picnic pavilion at the Weirs Community Park. Now you can see into the park more. Thank you to all who helped. The employees from Patrick’s Pub commissioned a sculpture to be placed on the WOW trail in honor of the Beetle Family. The piece will be placed on a 7’ pole and will be located on the Lakeport entrance to the park. The City Council approved the gift to the city at their last meeting. Bond Beach Renovation Project: The original plan was to have the work begin in mid-September. However, the design needed altering to allow for ADA compliance. I just received the revised design from the engineering firm. We now have to wait for the firm to send in the revision to NHDES for the permit. This supposedly is a quick process. The contracted company doing the project is planning to install the drainage at the top of the parking lot starting October 28th. Then they will finish the job in the spring after the ground thaws. This will give us enough time to get the permits needed from NHDES. Our department mostly installed a new water line to the bath house this fall and we are waiting for the drainage to be completed before finishing our install. The water line will be placed above the drainage as it is a seasonal line and is winterized. Bartlett Beach Renovation Project: The city is still waiting for a wetland permit from NHDES that needs to be submitted by Loureiro Engineering. Construction can not start until spring of 2020. Perley Pond Project: The Perley oak was pruned on September 23rd by Donovan Tree Services. They did a great job and the tree looks much healthier. We have a date of 5/5/20 for Donovan to inject the tree with insect repellant for even better health. A topography study was done of the area and given to the RFS engineering. Downtown Banner Poles: An RFP has gone out and we received one response for this project. It is more costly than originally expected and we will need to go back to the Downtown TIF and City Council to ask for more funding. Weirs Community Center Walkway: We awarded the RFP to Belknap Landscaping to complete this job. There are a few alterations that will be made to the area as well as additional drainage. This work will begin October 21st. Centralized Irrigation System: We are finally going to start setting this system up. We decided to install the system ourselves to save money to be able to add more parks. B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Late September and October have been less busy than the summer, but, in a way, more challenging because I am learning this aspect of the industry. I know Summer Camps and Aquatics Facilities. CIP Presentations, Facilities, and Community Programming are all still new and require me to gain experience. Amy, Tim, and Liza have all been excellent teachers and a pleasure to get to know. CIP Presentation - On 10/8/19 we gave a presentation to the CIP Commission sharing the importance of our requested programs. Our presentation was awesome and we followed up on it Thursday the 17th to answer clarification questions. Fire Alarm – In mid-September our Fire Alarm system was consistently and randomly reporting an issue with a device and thus began the Wild Goose Chase that was the fire alarm system. Our current fire panel is very new while all of our detectors and devices are, functional but, very old. One of our old detectors had a loose connection and it took going through the entire zone to discover the source. There was a lot to learn about the system, but I believe we have come up with a long-term, yet temporary, resolution after a day on the scaffolding in the gym. The true solution would be to completely replace all of the devices throughout the building. Impact Fire quoted this process at $13,000. New Programs Stalling - Our Jazzercise program fell through very abruptly, due to staffing issues. It has left us in the lurch because, although we have had a few interested programs, they are hesitant to join us for the month before Christmas Village only to be out a space again. I am hoping that we can line up programs during Christmas Village so that we can roll them out during the holidays and in the new year. Christmas Village does offer some additional challenges for the remaining 11 months. Currently Christmas Village takes up the entire back office and the entire basement level of the Community Center. Although we haven’t had demand for programming in those spaces yet, we would like to be able to meet that demand if and when it arises. This year we have had three programs look at the basement for programming space – two of them we can, hopefully, get into other areas of the building while another was unrealistic anyway. All three programs wanted to avoid as much Christmas Village as possible. Additional issues arise with our pricing. It is difficult to figure out a pricing structure that is fair for everyone. The flat rate doesn’t work well for LRGH Strength Training – but that is a great community program. Whereas the percentage is almost unregulated and allows a large program like Jazzercise this space for very cheap. Furthermore, if instead of renting, we establish our own programs that we face staffing and liability issues that we may not want to dive into (i.e. pickleball lessons). My next steps are to really explore what other cities and towns are doing – unfortunately the NHRPA Conference did not yield much in that regard. Internal Safety Check - Stacey Pate of Water Works came over and did an internal walk through of our facility to make sure it was safe for our employees. We met all expectations. Lifeguards 2020 - I am leaning more and more toward not having lifeguards in 2020. I will need to explore the proper steps toward doing that. Please let me know if you would like me to explain the rationale. As of today, I have talked to Parks and Rec Directors from Belmont and Wolfeboro and, last I heard, they were thinking the same thing. NHRPA Conference (9/19) - It was very nice making it to this conference and meeting some people in the field. That being said, it was not as impactful as I had hoped or experienced in other industries. Explore-A-Truck Day (9/28) - This was a big success! Phil Sylvia was the visionary behind it and I just made sure his vision came to fruition. C. Foreman’s Report submitted by Tim Ford Weekly mow and trim of parks and athletic fields. Clean bathrooms as needed Adjust irrigation run times. Turn off irrigation as they become not needed Repair broken irrigation heads and elbows as needed. Groom Memorial softball field 2 – 3 times per week Fertilize parks, city facilities, and fields Set up Robbie Mills and Memorial for baseball tournament Prep fields for High School and Middle School games Put away left out baseball equipment Put away youth soccer goals Edge and weed plant beds and tree rings Day Of Caring – WOW Trail and Weirs Community Park Perley Oak – clean up tall growth around pond Library – clean up bittersweet and broken branches along railroad track Remove AC units from LCC and Tardif Fire alarm repair LCC Gym Light repair LCC Gym Rotary Park – investigate lights not working at Gazebo LFD – R & R toilet flange and wax ring LCC – Paint back door and surround City Hall – Replace toilet seat Dispose of old chair Dispose of shredder Move furniture Install 2 key cabinets Gale Library – Dispose of old chairs Repair leaking toilet Repair hanging light on outside ramp Remove cobwebs from outside ramp Bond – Replace concrete well tile cover Stewart Park – Install orange post lights Replace breaker and photo eye sensor Playgrounds – continue safety audit ADA – start self assessment XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT:  Commissioner Guyer motioned to adjourned at 8:29 pm. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commissioner Chair This meeting facility is ADA accessible. Any person with a disability who wishes to attend this public meeting and needs additional accommodations, please contact Cheryl Hebert, meeting ADA coordinator, at City Hall by calling (603) 527-1265 at least 72 hours in advance so that the City can make any necessary arrangements.