Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, June 21, 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, Deanna Guyer and Rodney Roy. Absent: 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 May 18, 2021 Commissioner Deanna Guyer moved to adopt the minutes from May 18, 2021. Seconded by Commissioner Rodney Roy. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Joshua Smith- Weirs Amphitheater and Pavilion- Tuesday, June 29, 2021, from 4:00pm to 8:00pm for a birthday party cookout and Musical performance. Commissioner Roy motioned to approve the request pending upon the payment of key deposit and the submission of the certificate of insurance. The use of a propane gas tank and cooking in the park has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. B. Real Life Church- Rotary Park boat ramp- Sundays, July 11, August 8, and September 12 th from 11:00am to 12:00pm. Commissioner Ringer motioned to approve the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance for a water baptism event. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. C. Real Life Church- Leavitt Park- Sunday, July 4th, 2021, from 8:00am to 2:00pm for a church in the park. Commissioner Ringer motioned to approve the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance. The use of Leavitt Park clubhouse should be arranged with the rental agent at 524-2105. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. D. Tower Hill Tavern- Weirs Beach- Saturday, September 11, 2021, from 7:00am to 11:00pm and Sunday from 7:00am to 10:00am for a Laconia Blues on the Beach Festival. Commissioner Roy motioned to approve the request pending upon the payment of a $500.00 special event fee, approval from the special event committee, loudspeaker permit, vendors and alcohol permit, and final approval from the City Council for raising money in  the City property. The use of propane tanks and cooking in the park has been waived, if needed. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. E. Navigating Recovery of the Lakes Region- Bartlett Beach Picnic area- Tuesday, August 31, 2021, from 4:00pm to 8:00pm for International Overdose Awareness Vigil. Commissioner Guyer motioned to approve the request for International Overdose Awareness Vigil. The user’s fees have been waived. A deposit of $25.00 per key is required if needed. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. F. Belknap Mill Society- Rotary Park Bandstand- Saturday, June 26, 2021, from 12:00pm to 4:00pm for Historical Laconia scavenger hunt. Commissioner Guyer motioned to approve the request for a Historic Laconia Scavenger Hunt. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. Administrative Approvals with regards to Coronavirus- Commissioner Roy motioned to remove the administrative approval from the old business. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. B. Coronavirus updates- Commissioner Roy motioned to remove the Corona updates from the old business. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. C. Request to move the meeting earlier than 7:00pm.- Commissioner Roy motioned to remove the request to move the Commission meeting from the old business. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION 1. Hope Caludett- Weirs Community Park Pavilion- Saturday, June 26, 2021, from 11:00am to 1:00pm for a birthday party. 2. Melissa Preston- Weirs Community Park Pavilion- Sunday, July 4, 2021 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm for a 50th birthday party. 3. American Red Cross- Laconia Community Center- Saturday, June 5, 2021, from 9:00am to 4:00pm for meeting with the clients in a recent multi-family fire on Union Avenue. 4. Tara Dulac & Eric Isnor- Rotary Park- Saturday, August 28, 2021, from 2:00pm to 6:00pm for a wedding ceremony. 5. Louisa-Marie Blevins & Richard Morin- Rotary Park, May 14, 2022, from 1:30pm to 5:30pm for a wedding ceremony. 6. Bridgette Robichaud & Mike Cady- Saturday, August 13, 2022, from 12:00pm to 4:00pm for a wedding Ceremony. 7. Dianne Reed & Van Wilson- Rotary Park- Tuesday, August 31, 2021, from 9:00am to 11:30am for a wedding ceremony. IV. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Archaeological Study at Weirs beach- Director Lovisek mentioned the basics of the project. The archaeologist will be present at the next meeting to give specifics.  2. Belknap Mill expansion- Tara Shore submitted a proposed plan for the Belknap Mill powerhouse patio revitalization. The proposed patio will be built in onto City property and the Mill is requesting the change of the property lines. The extension will go out towards the bandstand and to the right side of the building facing Belknap Mill. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the proposal as submitted and they will allow for some minor changes if necessary to move the patio towards the building. Commissioner Guyer seconded. All were in favor. 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- June meeting report The Leavitt Park Association would like to build a new Gazebo/Bandstand at the Park next year. They are working to get drawings done to present to the Commission. An invitation was extended to all to attend the 99th Leavitt Park Carnival this August. B. Weirs Community Park Association- no report C. Tardif Park Association- no report XI. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: A. Director’s Report submitted by Amy Lovisek June as usually has seen an uptick in park usage. The beaches have had a steady use as well as the ball fields and playgrounds. We have had great weather and people have been taking advantage of that to be outdoors. This does increase our workload. We have been given approval by the City Manager to open the Community Center to full capacity including offering regular basketball pick-up games. It looks like we are back to normal here. The Winnipesaukee Muskrats have invited key members of the city to join them for a Laconia Night on July 8th. This is to thank the city for all the help they have provided. If you have not RSVP’d to me yet, please do so. Staffing is still an issue for the summer, but we are getting there slowly. The camp will run at 4 staff and host 30 kids per week. The beach caretakers are almost at full staff, seasonal maintenance is under more, but we have 2 full time seasonal and 1 part timer. We do have 3 lifeguards for Bond Beach. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a WSI course for a lifeguard that was interested. Therefore, there will be no swim lessons again this year. We have taken some of our temporary salaries and put it toward a cleaning service for our bathrooms throughout the city. This company will clean some of the bathrooms daily and others every other day. This will provide more time for my maintenance crew to mow and maintain the grounds vs. cleaning bathrooms every day. This will take a large strain off the crew and allow them more time in the day to accomplish tasks that is visible by all. The 4th of July is on as usual this year as you had voted for last meeting. The 4 th of July Committee did not have the funds to provide for 2 bands and all that goes with it. Therefore, we asked the Putnum Fund to assist in the funding as well as finding a band for us. They agreed thankfully. The first band is call Bow Junction and they are a bluegrass band out of Concord. The headliner is The Baha Brothers out of Mass. They are a Beach Boys/Jimmy Buffett type of band. We look forward to having them both with us for the 4th! The RFP for the downtown trees should have gone out to bid. This is going to be quite the project as we are covering some tree beds, opening others and still others we are making bigger. B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Summer Preparations I have questioned my sanity quite a few times now. We still have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. Opechee Day Camp We are fully staffed for Opechee Day Camp. We will have four staff and will have a max of 30 campers this year. With an all new Camp Supervisor, Stephen, Opechee Day Camp will look a bit different than it has in years past. I am excited to work with this team. We will meet for orientation this coming Friday and begin with campers on Monday the 28 th. Beaches We have good news. We have three certified lifeguards as of this afternoon! Laconia will have a guarded beach for the first time in 3 years beginning tomorrow. We are close to fully staffing our Beach Caretakers. We will give them an orientation on Thursday afternoon. Swim lines are in across the city including Weirs Beach. This was a process, but it should be much smoother in the years to come! We had one hiccup with the lines over Bike Week, but we have remedied that and it should not happen again. I am proud of this one here. We are struggling with the No Cooking rule. We had one incident a couple of weeks back where patrons refused to listen. We will be implementing a zero tolerance policy asap and we will be relying on our support systems to assist. Please come visit the Weirs this summer! Website Redesign The City of Laconia Website will be ready to launch shortly. The Parks & Rec portion of the website has been completely redesigned in terms of the “site map” and, although currently functional, should look great under our new DHP. We have created numerous “Internal Pages” for our facilities, beaches, parks, programs, etc. If you have not had a chance to navigate around, please do so and give us some feedback. Once we launch, we will fine-tune and really catch it up to speed in the back half of the summer or early fall. One area that will take some time to update the calendar entirely. Community Center Programs The Community Center is now fully open. This got caught in “the squeeze” a little as all of our energies are focused on getting beaches and camps up and running, but as we open up we will keep registration forms & waivers as a “new normal” and we will develop “internal pages” for each program so that there is a home base for information. C. Foreman’s Report submitted by Tim Ford Beach clean up – York rake, remove debris Bathroom Cleaning Park / Athletic Field / Cemetery - mow and trim Repair picnic tables – vandalized or rot Fertilize parks and fields Athletic field maintenance - Game prep for schools, NHIAA, Muskrats, Legion Irrigation – set up, repair breaks Install air conditioner – Tardif Building maintenance – Tardif Light repair – Library Raise, lower, replace flags XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Roy motioned to adjourn at 8:25pm. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commissioner Chair