Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING September 21, 2020 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 Mitch Hamel called the roll with the following Commissioners in attendance: Tony Pederzani, Deanna Guyer and Arthur Kirk. Absent- Rodney Roy. 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 August 17, 2020 Commissioner Tony Pederzani moved to adopt the minutes from August 17, 2020. Seconded by Commissioner Arthur Kirk. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Christmas Village- Community Center- November 12, 2021 through December 12, 2021 for the Christmas Village Festivities. Christmas Village Festivities has been cancelled this year due to Corona Virus issues. Commissioner Pederzani motioned to approved the request for the Christmas Village Festivities. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. B. Belknap Mill Society- Rotary Riverside Park- October 16, 2021 Saturday from 9:00am to 6:00pm for Riverside Duck Derby. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon approval from the City Council for making money in the City’s property. Special event fee has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. C. Waters Edge-A Church of Christ- Opechee Park Field- Saturday September 26, 2020 from 2:00pm to 5:00pm for prayer event. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request pending upon amplified sound permit and submission of certificate of insurance. Special event fee has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. Expectations for clean up after events. Commissioner Pederzani motioned to take out the request from the table. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. B. Election of Officials- Commissioner Deanna Guyer motioned to appoint Mitch Hamel as the Commissioner Chairperson and Rodney Roy as clerk. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. C. Administrative Approvals with regards to Coronavirus  D. Coronavirus updates- Anyone who wishes to use the Gym will call ahead of time to reserve the place. We do have line dancing going on every Monday morning with 10 people in attendance right now. Temperature are being taken, screening questions are asked and we required mask in the building. This applies to all our programs in the Community Center. E. Weirs Community Parking Lot- Lucerne Avenue property owners requested to use the Weirs Community Park parking lot for an overnight parking from May to October for a fee. Commissioners unanimously denied the overnight parking request. Commissioners did not want to create a precedent that others could follow at other facilities, overnight parking is not allowed in any City’s parking lot right now. Commissioner Guyer motioned to decline the request for overnight parking at Weirs parking lot. Seconded by Commissioner Pederzani. All were in favor. F. Protocol concerning non-profits using Weirs Parking lot for fundraiser. Commissioners asking Asst. Director Matt Mansur to present a proposal or a policy in regards to the fundraising event at Weirs beach and the Commissioner will review at the next Commission meeting. G. Laconia Rotary Club Invoice for Rotary Park Landscaping. Director Amy Lovisek mailed a letter then emailed a letter to Laconia Rotary Club that the request was denied by the Commissioner. The club will need to come to the Commissioners to ask for this payment to be made and prior to any future money being used for this purpose a request will need to be made by the club. This is money they used for flowers in the park. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION 1. Advantage kids- Memorial Tennis court- August 29, 2020 through September 26, Saturday 9:00am to 11:00am for tennis lesson. 2. Troop 68- Weirs Amphitheater- September 1, 2020 (rain date September 8, 2020) from 6:00pm to 8:00pm for court of honor. 3. New Hampshire Musical Organization of the Lakes Region- Weirs Community Park Pavilion- September 19, 2020 from 1:00pm to 2:00pm for social gathering for band members. 4. Firecracker Sports- Robbie Mills Sports Complex- September 19, 2020, Saturday from 1:00pm to 10:30pm and September 20, 2020 Sunday from 8:00am to 8:00pm for Firecracker Sports-Granite State Fall Brawl. IV. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Commissioner Hamel requested that the Non-profit ID# be added to the Facility Use Request form for some added security. 2. Prepayments for Users Fee- We have issue collecting fees from some of the Leagues every season. Letters are mailed after getting approval from the Commissioners of the fees and requirements needed before picking up the keys. Keys are also not being returned unless we call and remind them that they will lose the deposit in a certain time. Director Amy Lovisek suggested that we will ask for prepayments for non-residents, special event, tournament, storage, concession stand, light fees etc. from the Leagues before the leagues can pick up the key for the season. Commissioners agree to change the padlocks and keys that are not returned within 14 days after the season and they will lose the deposit.  3. School Fields- Director Amy Lovisek mentioned that the school fields should not be Parks responsibility. Anyone who would like to use the school fields will have to ask the School Department for approval and the City’s field will need approval form the Parks Commissioners. Schools are responsible for their own fields and this is to avoid any conflict with the school activities as well. 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. Director’s Report submitted by Amy Lovisek This month has seen the end of the most bizarre beach season. While numbers were lower due to capacity levels the season was extended this spring much earlier than in normal years because people were out of work and looking for outdoor recreation. They were looking for the outdoor recreation everywhere in our state and I firmly believe we handled our fair share of visitors well. We never had to threaten to shut down our facilities as we had the infrastructure to provide the services needed, especially at Weirs Beach. The intown beaches saw more use as well and once the Weirs increased their capacity the intown beaches were completely manageable. Our numbers started to decrease as of August 1st. Our CIP requests have been submitted. They were due September 17th. What we are requesting for the next fiscal year are as follows: 1. Commercial Turf Care Equipment $20,000 2. 4x4 Truck with a plow and dump bed $59,000 3. Small SUV replacement $25,000 4. Warning Track around Robbie Mills Baseball Field $30,000 5. Door replacements for Memorial Park House $21,000 6. Maintenance Building Design $50,000 7. Downtown Tree Replacements Phase 1 $56,000 8. Memorial Park Tennis Court Renovation $50,000 9. Steel Roof for Opechee Track Building $10,000 10. Pavement Replacement for City Hall and $45,000 Rotary Park  Riverwalk 11. 35’ Boom Lift $50,000 12. Gale Avenue Beach Re-Design and Construction $80,000 $496,000 We are currently working on our fall programs. A couple options we are looking into are: 1. Halloween in the Park 2. Family Game Night on YouTube (we would upload a game family can play together each week. We will do games from camp as well as things like how to play chess/checkers) 3. Possible Craft Fair We have also opened the Community Center for a few different recreation options. We will be open for hour slots that people can sign up for ahead of time. We will be limited to 10 people per slot. We are open for pickleball, racquetball, line dancing, airplane flying and basketball (shooting and drills only). All participants must answer no to all screening questions that are listed on the doors and have their temperature taken when they pay for the hour. There is a half hour between timeslots for sanitizing to keep everyone safe. We met with City Councilor Sousy and explained our department to him. He gave us his ideas for the city, and we all have a better understanding of each other. This will benefit us all in the long run. He is a proponent for our parks & recreation in the city. We had the skate park meeting on September 1st and had a good group to discuss ideas, materials, locations and elements. They unanimously want to see the park made of concrete. They chose the elements that will go into the park and all the elements are good for beginners as well as advanced. They also determined that they would like to see the park at Opechee Park. It would be located where the old club house was taken down. This is a very visible location and good for safety and security. I have given the City Council an update on this meeting and will be going back to ask for some money to do a phase 1 because the American Ramp Company has offered us 40% off if we can do something this fall while they have a crew in Maine. I really do not want to miss out on this opportunity. The Council seemed very much in favor of the park. The location and the request for money will go in front of the Council on September 28th. This fall will be interesting and will force us to think outside the box a bit in order to offer programming safely to all ages. If the Commission has any new ideas of what we could offer or how to offer a program, please reach out to me and I would be happy to discuss it with you. B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Beaches Update We can breathe a little easier now that the beach season has finished up. Our Bathrooms are currently closed during the week. On weekends they are opened by Tim C, one of our seasonal maintenance staff, and closed by Tyler, one of our Beach Caretakers. We will stop opening bathrooms at the end of this month. We are still seeing some patrons come to hang out at the beach, but our numbers are nowhere where they were. Beach Capacity Numbers The above graphs show us the numbers at Weirs Beach over the summer. Both graphs are a little misleading because they do not account for the June, the first weekend, and the Fourth of July. Additionally, neither graph takes into account the amount of people who waited in line. The GREEN BAR is when we raised the capacity of Weirs Beach to 1000 and the YELLOW BAR is when the CARES Act ended and the additional unemployment benefits stopped. This was obviously a difficult summer, but there is a chance that we weathered this storm very well – compared to some of our nearby communities that had to close down to tourists. I am proud of our team. This Fall Time is now being spent picking up the pieces of the summer. Both physically picking up the guard room we’ve operated out of AND mentally understanding what went well and what did not. We obviously hope we don’t need to do the same thing next year, but we ought to be prepared in the event that we do. I don’t know what our staff retention would look like if we had to have a capacity again next year. Along with that, we are looking ahead to Halloween and what we can provide to the community for a “Trick-Or-Treat” alternative – if needed. We have also opened the Community Center to “Reservation Only” activities of groups of 10 or less. Finally, we are hoping to provide some kind of “Virtual Family Programming” once a week that will provide families with an activity they can do with their kids without a lot of materials. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to create a very big list of activities. I am also hoping to film some local hikes in the area (like Bond and Weirs Community Park) so that we can push those. If you have any ideas please let me know! C. Foreman’s Report submitted by Tim Ford Election set up and take down Mow and trim parks, athletic fields, cross country trails and cemeteries Prep fields for baseball. Softball, soccer, football, and field hockey Bathroom cleaning and sanitize ports potties Paint Memorial bathrooms Lower / raise flags American flag replacement Clean up “Welcome to Laconia” sign landscape Edge, weed, and mulch plant beds Fertilize fields and parks Move file cabinets at City Hall Park water meter readings Fill in sink hole at Memorial Softball Over – seed athletic fields Take geodesic dome out of service at Leavitt Lock repair Tardif playground mulch renovation XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Guyer motioned to adjourn at 8:00pm. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commissioner Chair