Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Tuesday, May 18, 2021 Laconia Community Center Gym 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: Laura Ringer and Deanna Guyer. Absent: Rodney Roy and Arthur Kirk. 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 April 19, 2021 Commissioner Deanna Guyer moved to adopt the minutes from April 19, 2021. Seconded by Commissioner Laura Ringer. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. NH Children’s Business Fair/Acton Academy- City Hall Parking lot- August 7, 2021 from 9:00am to 2:00pm for NH Children’s Business Fair. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance. The special event fee has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. B. Lemonade Stand- All the parks field- June 1 through Nov. 1, 2021 Saturday and Sunday from 8:00am to 6:00pm to sell Lemonade, bottled water and small snacks. Commissioner Guyer motioned to deny the request to sell lemonade, bottled water, and small snacks in the City parks and facility. Any solicitation or vending is prohibited in any parks and facilities anytime. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. C. Laconia Kiwanis- Rotary Park- Tuesday, June 8, 2021 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm for Club meeting and New member installation. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request to use the Rotary park for a group meeting. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. D. Weirs Community Park Assoc.- Weirs Community Park Parking lot- June 12, 2021 through June 20, 2021 from 8:00am to 10:00pm for Motorcycle week. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon submission of the certificate of insurance and final approval from the City Council for their annual motorcycle week parking fundraising event. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. E. Lakes Region Vineyard Church- Opechee Point- Sunday, August 15, 2021 from 12:00pm to 6:00pm for a Church Picnic/Water Baptism. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept  the request pending upon the payment of special event fee. Cooking in the park using the charcoal has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. F. American Heritage Girls Troop NH 2018- Sanborn Park- Saturday, May 22, 2021 from 8:00am to 11:00am for American Heritage Girls Welcome Neighborhood event. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon submission of the certificate of insurance. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. G. Weirs Action Committee- Weirs Amphitheater- Sundays, July 11 th through August 22, 2021 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon submission of the certificate of insurance and key deposit of $25.00 per key if needed. The special event fee has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. H. Laconia Little League- Opechee A, B, C and Colby Field- June 21-27, 2021 Monday through Friday from 5:00pm to 8:00pm, Saturday and Sunday from 9:00am to 4:00pm for Colby Jr. Classic. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of non-resident users’ fee. The tournament fee, concession, and storage fee has been waived for this year only. Seconded by Commission Ringer. All were in favor. I. Wilkins Smith Post 1 American Legion Baseball- Memorial Baseball field- - for American Legion Baseball. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance, non-resident users fee and storage fee. Joe Dee promised to submit the schedule by May 19, 2021. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. J. Laconia Chiefs (LYFCA)- Memorial Park Baseball Field- July 26 through October 31, 2021, Monday through Friday from 5:00pm and 8:00pm, Saturdays from 8:00am to 11:00am for Youth Football season. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance, payment of non-resident fee, storage fee, light fee (will send the bill) and the key deposit of $25.00 per key if needed. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. K. The Ironman Group/Timberman- Opechee Park- August 18 through 21, 2021 Wednesday through Saturday from 7:00am to 9:00pm, Sunday from 4:00am to 9:00pm and Monday from 8:00am to 1:00pm for Timberman Triathlon. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon submission of the certificate of insurance. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. Administrative Approvals with regards to Coronavirus-no update B. Coronavirus updates- Community Center programs attendance has been up from 10 to 20 participants per program. The mask is not mandatory in the building. C. Fourth of July- no update D. Request to move the meeting earlier than 7:00pm.- no update. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION 1. Bishop Brady- Weirs Beach- Tuesday, May 18, 2021 from 12:00pm to 5:00pm for a Senior trip.  2. Elizabeth Skiffington- Rotary Park- Saturday, August 14, 2021 from 11:00am to 5:00pm for a wedding ceremony. 3. Heather Leonard- Weirs Community pavilion, playground, and restroom- May 7, 2021 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm for a post-funeral gathering/picnic. 4. New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Assoc.- Robbie Mills- June 12, 2021 for Baseball State Championship. 5. Ben Cone (Life Scout of Troop 68)- Belknap Mill- Install a two-panel sign near the front of Belknap Mill. IV. NEW BUSINESS: V. ANNOUNCEMENTS: VI. NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS & ELECTIONS: VII. PUBLIC COMMENT: VIII. COMMUNICATIONS: IX. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: Director Lovisek mentioned that the fields would be treated with a pesticide as of this coming Friday, May 21, 2021. She mentioned that the fields would be turning white and that is a normal situation for the grass and weeds as they would be dying back. She contacted all teams and leagues to notify them to stay off the fields through Saturday. 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 May is notoriously busy for our department. We have school teams we are prepping the fields for as well as adults. We are working towards getting the irrigations all up and running, bathrooms too. Then we are still working on spring cleanups if you can believe it. We are also working towards summer and those programs like day camp. We are crazy busy. I met with the Conservation Commission last week to discuss the maintenance plan for the Perley Pond area. The plan is for the Con Com to stake out the area they want us to keep away from with our mowers and trimmers. The reason for this is that we got too close last year due to the drought and cut into the wetlands. We will not be doing that again. The Con Com will be planting blue irises along the water’s edge to brighten things up and make it pop even more. The plan that was approved through DES was not funded this year. Our department received some money to do the Downtown Tree Replacement Phase 1 this spring. I am working to have all the trees along Main Street removed. Some will be replaced, and others will be concreted over as they are too close to an entrance or a light or street sign. This project will be done this year. We also received money to purchase some new equipment. We are now proud owners of some battery powered equipment (Go Green)! The Skate Park now officially has a non-profit group working with it. They have some great plans for the park and will come to you with those plans. Some things they are looking for are lighting, shade, landscaping, and a picnic table. The picnic table they have now. Yay Laconia Skate Park Group! The City Manager presented his budget to the Council this month. Our department will be presenting on May 17th just before this meeting! The department did not receive any CIP items other than 2 vehicles. We did however get the new equipment and downtown trees this year instead! I have been working with the Putnum Fund to help fund the bands for the 4 th of July event. The 4th of July Committee does not have enough money to have bands this year. They are going to help us out and I look forward to seeing who our headliner will be!! The department is working towards becoming weed free! That is a pipe dream, but we are moving towards less weeds. The City Council has asked us to do something, and we are responding. We will be verti-slicing and overseeding next week. Then Turfpro will be coming in to lay down a pesticide that will kill the weeds. It will cause the fields to become white while it kills the weeds. This is temporary. We are asking all leagues and schools to stay off the 5 major fields we are using the chemicals on. I will keep you in the loop as to what happens from here. We are still looking for quite a few employees for the summer. I am attending the Huot Tech’s Job Fair and hope to find to applicants there. Keep talking us up to those you know. The Community Center has had a couple of changes due to the “Universal Best Practices” put out by the state. We are now allowing 20 people in at a time. The users of the facility are also not required to wear a mask but are encouraged to do so. B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Summer Preparations It is that time of year when I wake up at 2am in the morning stressing about one thing or another. We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. Before our meeting on the 17th, we will be presenting our budget proposal to the City Council. In the presentation we will show where we stand compared to the recent NRPA report that shared numerous “key findings” about P+R agencies across the country. I’d be thrilled to share more if anyone is interested. Opechee Day Camp We have hired three staff for Opechee Day Camp, we are still looking for more in the event that we would like to raise our camp’s capacity over 20. Alex, the long tenured staff member who would have filled Kathleen’s supervisor role has also decided to step down this summer. It is certainly a big blow to the program that the two most experienced staff leave… in the late spring… coming out of the pandemic… but this will force us to have a hard reset on the program and allow us to redevelope it. This year may be a bit bumpy with given the inexperience of our staff – including myself – especially when it comes to special events (i.e. the peanut carnival), but I am excited for how we can set ourselves up in the future. We are closing in on 100% full and we will begin to put registrants on a wait list for certain weeks. Parents and campers are very excited for Opechee Day Camp this summer. Beaches Our beach staff is coming along. We have a Beach Supervisor, a closer, and three lifeguards for Bond Beach. We are still looking for staff on weekends. EVERYONE is looking for staff this summer and we are not getting a lot of bites. We particularly need staff to work the weekends at Weirs Beach. If they would like more hours we can give them Seasonal Maintenance hours during the week, but we are trying to staff ourselves out for Friday Saturday & Sunday. Here is our schedule so far: I will also begin tackling the swim lines at our beaches soon. I am not particularly looking forward to this process. If anyone has time and would like to help, please let me know. Website Redesign We will be ready to launch fairly soon. I need to update a good amount of content which I plan on doing after this meeting on the 17th. Its unfortunate timing that this has all come at once, but it is what it is. I will mostly be adding content to our calendars system and I am hoping that we will be able to use the calendars on the website as our official calendars moving forward. I need to ‘deep dive’ the calendar module so that we can keep it updated. Community Center Programs Community Center Programs are slowing down as most people are very enthusiastically moving outside for their recreation. This does not come as a complaint from our department as we need to focus our efforts on the outside facilities as well. C. Foreman’s Report submitted by Tim Ford Park, cemetery, field spring clean ups Lower, raise flags Daily clean bathrooms Dispose of computer parts Weekly mow and trim fields and parks Graffiti removal Install benches for season at Millstone Pressure wash exterior of buildings City Hall – repair light cover 200A Athletic field set up for games Daily – drag fields Irrigation update, install meters and backflow. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Guyer motioned to adjourn at 8:41pm. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commissioner Chair