Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, November 15, 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, Deanna Guyer, Arthur Kirk and Laura Ringer. 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 October 18, 2021 Commissioner Rod Roy moved to adopt the minutes from the October 18, 2021. Seconded by Commissioner Deanna Guyer. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Gilda’s Club New Hampshire- Weirs Beach/Endicott Rock Park- Saturday, September 24, 2022, from 6:00am to 4:00pm for Dragon Boat Festival. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of $100.00 non-profit charity event fee, submission of the certificate of insurance, vendors permit and final approval from the City Council for raising funds on the city’s property. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. B. Celebrate Laconia- Rotary, Stewart, Torrey, Wanda Park, Gateway and Opechee Park – November 20th for set up through January 8, 2022 for the tree display and November 28, 2021, for Celebrate Laconia Lights Festival and Parade. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance, vendor permit, approval from the licensing board, special event board and the loudspeaker permit. Special event fee has been waived. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. 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. B. Parks & Recreation hourly fee for special events. Commissioner Roy motioned for the Parks & Recreation special events staff hourly fee of $150 for the 1 st 3hours per person and additional $60.00 per hour after. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor.  III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION A. Richard Legassie- Rotary Park- November 13, 2021, from 12:00pm for a wedding ceremony. IV. NEW BUSINESS: A. Preliminary budget numbers- Director Lovisek presented the new budget for 2022-2023. All departments were given their budget to prepare for December 10 th. Utilities went up for most buildings’ budgets. The outside contract went up due to hiring Joyce Janitorial for cleaning all our bathhouses during summer season. Our playground line should be added to the budget, maintenance of some broken equipment is always needed in our playground. We are asking for additional employee to help with our workload as well. Asst. Director Mansur recommended to put lifeguard in Bond Beach, Opechee Point and Weirs Beach if we can get some applicants. V. ANNOUNCEMENTS: VI. NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS & ELECTIONS: VII. PUBLIC COMMENT: VIII. COMMUNICATIONS: IX. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: Commissioner Hamel suggested to the Commission to cancel the December meeting. Commissioner Guyer motioned for the meeting to be cancelled. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. X. PARK ASSOCIATION REPORTS: A. Leavitt Park Association- Minutes of the November 10th 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 During November things start to settle down a bit for the department outside. We are not as pressed with the grass growing and ball fields to prepare. We are now starting to focus on the interior of our jobs. Tim Ford our Foreman is out for a few months on medical leave and Dane Anderson our #2 guy has stepped up to take the reins. Therefore, there will be no maintenance report, but I will give a short overview. Below are some of the things the maintenance crew have been doing this month.  Prepare Vet Square for Veterans Day  Set up and removal of elections.  Fall cleanups.  Removing netting from baseball fields.  City Hall and Library maintenance  Irrigation and restroom winterizations  Another round of fertilizer  Soil testing I met with the Trustees of the Trust for their annual tour of the cemeteries. They are making sure they are properly being cared for. Matt and I went to the state conference in Concord and came away with a few helpful tips. I had a meeting with Laconia Little League as the board are all and wanted an idea of the process of the Facility Use Requests, banner policy and athletic field policy. They were grateful for the guidance. This month all departments were given their budget to prepare for December 10 th. I have included the preliminary numbers with the agenda under new business. We are asking for more money as well as an additional employee to help with our workload. The WOW Board met and their next plan is to work closely with a group from Meredith to start the trail from Weirs Beach through downtown Meredith. It is a 4 mile route and would be a great next step. DPW is working on reworking Clinton Street. This is the backside of Sanborn Park. They lowered the road and sidewalk for ADA compliance and will now have to lower our 10’ fence as some of the concrete has been exposed. They may replace the fence completely or rework it back in. Either way the fence will be improved. We have been given some money ($5,000) to install cameras at Bartlett Beach. We are working the RFP process now and the cameras will be directly linked to the police station for security and so they may respond if they witness anything happening that shouldn’t. The camera system will be high tech enough to see license plates as well as easy descriptions of people. Christmas Village will not be happening this year again due to COVID concerns. B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Summer Beaches I have been going to check on the beaches occasionally and it is very quiet. Mostly walkers and people cleaning out their cars. It’s a very peaceful time at the Laconia Beaches. Community Center Programs Morning Activities Pickleball Pickleball Pickleball!!! The complaints of our rates have disappeared. Our active pickleball community has created their own sign-up page to regulate how many people are coming in and out of the pickleball session. It seems to be working well so far. Quite a few of our pickle-ballers have been joining our line dancing group in the late mornings. Revenue has increased quite a bit due to both increased prices and increased times. Plus, it is very nice to have people in the gym again. School Open Gyms These are beginning to pick up and Skip is doing a great job making sure everything is going well. It has been mostly just a couple of kids coming to shoot around. We are asking kids to bring their registration sheets home and have their parents fill them out, but that hasn’t really gone anywhere. Evening Activities Pickleball has been picking up on Monday and Wednesday evenings also. Tuesday night basketball is beginning to bring in about 20 people. I think this will continue to build up. This is the program (outside of high school open gym) that may bring a little more aggression and high intensity moments to it, but so far so good. Administrative Budget The Budget Process has begun. This is a fun process because the budget is the plan. Last year we made a compelling argument for increasing our operational budget over the course of the next five years and this year will be the first year that we say, “Here is what we can do in addition to what we’ve done in the past and this is how much we need in order to do it”. I have modified old excel sheets that I used at a previous job to hopefully help us on a few budget lines. Personal Thank you to Amy and Liza Just wanted to take the opportunity here to thank Amy and Liza for putting up with me over the fall. I am very lucky to work a job like this that allows me to coach football on the side and I know my leaving at 3:00 can be frustrating at times, but it is appreciated so much. I can’t thank Amy and Liza enough for holding down the ship during the football season. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Roy motioned to adjourn at 7:20pm. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Commissioner Chair