Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, October 18, 2021 Laconia Community Center 6:00 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 Hamel called the roll with the following Commissioners in attendance: Rodney Roy, Laura Ringer, Arthur Kirk 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 20, 2021 Commissioner Rodney Roy moved to adopt the minutes from September 20, 2021. Seconded by Commissioner Arthur Kirk. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Lakes Region Girls Softball- Opechee A, B, C, & D and Memorial Softball- Friday through Sunday, July 29 through July 31, 2022, from 7:am to 7:00pm for Summer Chaos tournament. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of the tournament fee and submission of the certificate of insurance. Key deposit of $25.00 per key is required if needed and the use of 20lb. propane tank has been waived for the tournament. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. B. Lakes Region Girls Softball- Opechee A, B, C, & D and Memorial Softball- Friday through Sunday, October 14 through 16, 2022 from 7:am to 8:00pm for the Fall into Chaos Softball tournament. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of tournament fee and coordination with Laconia Youth Soccer and the submission of the certificate of insurance for the Fall softball tournament. Key deposit of $25.00 per key is required if needed and the use of 20lb. propane tank has been waived for the tournament. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. C. Lou Athanas Youth Basketball League- Laconia Community Center- Saturdays, December 4, 2021through February 12, 2022, from 8:00am to 4:00pm for LAYBL Basketball season. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request contingent upon the snow days scheduling with the Parks Department and submission of the certificate of insurance. Key deposit of $25.00 per key is required if needed. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Commissioner Roy abstained. D. Lou Athanas Youth Basketball League- Laconia Community Center and conference room- Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 4:15pm to 9:00pm, Saturday and Sunday from 7:00am to 8:00pm, February 23 through February 27, 2022, for LAYBL Basketball  Tournament. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request upon submission of $300.00 tournament fee and final approval from the City Council for making money in the City property. Key deposit of $25.00 per key is required if needed. Concession fee has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Commissioner Roy abstained. E. Allie Gould- Bond Beach- Saturday, June 25, 2022, from 1:00pm to 5:00pm for a wedding ceremony. Commissioner Roy motioned to table due to no representation. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION A. Weirs Action Committee- Endicott Rock Park parking lot- June 11, 2022, to June 19, 2022, from 8:00am to 8:00pm for Laconia Motorcycle week event. B. Rockshow- Opechee Park- Saturday, October 2, 2021, early morning until midnight for Chaos and Kindness event. C. Emily Theberge and Zach Home- Rotary Park- Friday, October 1, 2022, from 12:00pm to 4:00pm for a wedding ceremony. IV. NEW BUSINESS: A. Parks & Recreation hourly fee for special events. Director Lovisek mentioned that the LPD and LFD are charging to recoup expenses when services are required at large special events. Director Lovisek mentioned the overtime wages needed if we need to call up our maintenance crews. The Commissioner agreed with the need to recoup the overtime wages and would like to discuss more in our next Commission meeting. Director Lovisek will provide firm numbers for the November meeting. 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- Minutes of the October 13th meeting. 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 starts the slow down for the outside recreation and as the weather turns colder, we start our process of winterizing the irrigation and bathrooms. We also start thinking of our winter projects that we can’t accomplish during our busy schedule in the spring summer and fall. We have been busy prepping for fall and winter programs. We are planning the Halloween event at Opechee Park and would like to welcome anyone willing to volunteer. The event will take place October 31st from 5:00 – 8:00. I met with the City Manager as well as the HR director to discuss the possibility of increasing the “grade” of our maintenance crew. With the sheer amount and skill it takes to work in this department we need to pay the staff appropriately. I will notify you of any updates as they come. We presented our CIP to the CIP Committee last week. The presentation went well, and we were asked great questions by the committee. We are asking for 11 different things this coming year and only 1 item is new. All others have been previously asked for. We have received donations from Café Déjà vu, Patrick’s Pub and the WOW Board and will some money from the city we will be installing security cameras at Bartlett Beach. We will be meeting with IT and the LPD next week to discuss locations of the cameras and logistics. We will be thinking of all other locations we would like to have the cameras as well. At our last months meeting, it was mentioned by a resident some issues we were experiencing at Wyatt Park over the summer. Commissioner Hamel and I met with the resident and the Chief of Police to discuss possible solutions for these issues. The police are going to increase patrols in that area, install a temporary security camera to view any misbehavior and that video stream is going directly to the police dispatch. The police asked us to investigate the legalities of banning someone from the parks for any length of time. Our legal council is working on this now. Chaos and Kindness had their fireworks event at Opechee this month. The area was packed with people and everyone seemed to enjoy the show. There were no major issues with the event. Tim Ford our Foreman will be taking a leave of absence for medical reasons at the end of this month. I will be on vacation from October 28th through November 1st. FYI B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Summer Prep Welcome all to the glorious month where summer is in the review and next summer is still far down the road! Beaches Beaches are closed up and swim lines are in. I will still go up to Weirs after the weekend to make sure things are in order. It is mostly walkers and and a few regulars at this point. It is very peaceful. I did count over 200 geese today at Opechee Park. I scared them off with our Geese chaser gun, but it is becoming overwhelming. People were stopping to take pictures – it is becoming a spectacle. We did ask the CIP committee to approve some money for Beach Improvements which will include paying the US Dept of Wildlife to come and remove them in the spring. We are hoping to get approved. I will send them a photo of all the geese today to follow up. Opechee Day Camp Joyce Janitorial has stripped and sealed the floors at the Opechee Day Camp. My goal now is to maintain communication with our staff and see who we can get to return next year. Ideally if Stephen and Anna are able to return we will have a foundation to build upon. My fear is that all 4 staff will be unable to return. In that instance it will be difficult to build upon what we did last year. Community Center Programs Pickleball I believe Pickleball conversations make up roughly half of all conversations I have daily. We know, and have known, that there is an outrageous demand for pickleball not only in Laconia, but in the entire Lakes Region. We have planned for that and have dedicated roughly one-third of all our available gym time to pickleball. I am still concerned that that will not be enough! We have a group of about 20-30 regulars, but we have had phone calls and drop-ins from roughly 20+ more pickleball fanatics. It is a great problem to have, but one that continues to be an area of focus for me. School Open Gyms This is another area of concern for me. I know that behavior in the schools has been a big issue for every school across the country. It seems Laconia High has been having a very tough time. Fortunately, we have hired a gym attendant – Skip Hounsell will be returning to the department after a successful summer. Evening Activities Skip will also stay for the two evening pickleball sessions and our men’s basketball on Tuesday nights. These three areas will be the foundation of our off-season LCC program. I am hoping that once they are secured that we can begin reaching out to other activity leaders to help us begin new programs. Administrative CIP Last Thursday, Oct 7th, Amy and I shared with the Capital Improvement Program Committee the areas that we need money to improve our department. From Geese removal to a new shop for our facilities team. I believe you can check out the presentation on YouTube! C. Foreman’s Report submitted by Tim Ford Athletic Field game and practice prep Tournament Prep – Memorial, Robbie Mills baseball Memorial softball Bobotas soccer Mow and trim parks, cemeteries and athletic fields Weed plant beds Remove plants from beds Irrigation winterization Bathroom winterization Clean up from homeless Lower / raise flags Pump out Robbie Mills septic tank Robbie Mills baseball field renovation – aerate, verticut, compost, seed Clean bathrooms 2-3 times per week XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Roy motioned to adjourn at 7:00pm. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commissioner Chair