Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, May 16, 2022 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 and Arthur Kirk. Absent- Deanna Guyer. PARKS AND RECREATION STAFF PRESENT: Director of Recreation and Facilities Amy Lovisek and Secretary Liza Kelleher. Absent- Asst. Director Matthew Mansur. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS: 1. Regular meeting minutes of April 18, 2022 Commissioner Roy moved to adopt the minutes from the April 18, 2022. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Laconia Youth Alliance- Wyatt Park- July 9, 2022, Saturday for Prevention Party in the Park. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance for the prevention party in the park. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. B. Nor’Easter Softball Club- Opechee Park field A, B, C, D and Memorial Field- July 21 through July 24, 2022, Friday from 7:00am to 5:00pm and Saturday & Sunday from 7:00am to 7:00pm for Nor’Easter Classic Softball Tournament. Commissioner motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of the tournament fee, light fee, key deposit, and the submission of the certificate of insurance for Nor’Easter classic softball tournament. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. C. Laconia Chiefs (LYFCA)- Memorial Park Baseball Field- August 1 through October 31, 2022, Monday to Friday from 5:00pm to 8:00pm and Saturdays from 8:00am to 11:00am for Youth Football & Cheer Season. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of storage fee, non-resident fee, key deposit if needed, and submission of the certificate of insurance for Youth Football & Cheer season. Separate bill for the lights will be mailed once we get the bill from Eversource. Seconded by Commissioner Roy. All were in favor. D. Laconia Multicultural Festival- Rotary Park- September 10 & 11, 2022, Saturday from 6:00am to 6:00pm for Laconia Multicultural Festival. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request for Annual Multicultural Festival. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor  E. Laconia Middle School-Opechee Point/Cove- Friday, June 16, 2022, from 10:00am to 2:00pm for 8th Grade celebration event. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request with the food truck in the vicinity. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION A. Laconia Little League- Memorial Park Batting cage- Friday, April 15, 2022, from 5:30pm to 7:30pm for batting practice. B. Briana Delong- Rotary Park- Saturday, October 21, 2023, from 2:00pam to 6:00pm for a wedding ceremony. C. Carly Weeks- Rotary Park- Saturday, September 2, 2023, from 2:00pm to 6:00pm for a wedding ceremony. IV. NEW BUSINESS: A. Commissioner Election- Commissioner Roy motioned to appoint the same officer for the Parks & Recreation Commission. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. B. Possible removal of Green Monster at Robbie Mills replaced with chain link fence- Commissioner Kirk motioned to allow them to take down the Green Monster at Robbie mills and should be replace with the same fencing we have right now. The banners will follow the Banner Police and will be put up and should be taken down at the end of the season. The Commission is requiring a completion date and Director Lovisek will reach out to the organization. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. C. Car top boat launch at Weirs Beach- Commissioner Roy motioned to allow kayak and canoe launch at Weirs Beach designated area. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. 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- May minutes of the 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 We have seen some real progress and beautification in our city parks this month. The gardens are almost all weeded and mulch! Fay George is our new hire and has taken these under her wing and flown with them. The ball fields under Justin Tivey’s experience are looking great and the kids are playing on some of the best fields in all of NH! Jay Pitts is our senior man and maintains the parks by mowing and blowing All of them! He is an extremely hard worker and luckily, he has some help this year in the form of seasonal staff! I couldn’t be more pleased with the work everyone is putting into our parks! I met with legal counsel regarding the possible car top boat launch at Weirs Beach. They had no issues but gave us some ideas for signage to prevent possible issues. The City Hall Riverwalk repair will be completed in July this year. Breton Construction was awarded the job. The Downtown Tree Project is in full swing. The trees are all gone, and Belknap Landscape is doing the work of covering certain areas and prepping other areas for trees. We did have an issue in one of the beds where the crew hit a Consolidated Communications line. This is currently being replaced, but this issue is on the contractor as they forgot to call in a dig safe request. The trees will be planted in the first two weeks of June!! I have been in the planning meetings for the Ironman Timberman event. It looks like they will use Opechee Park starting the Wednesday before the event. We will have to move Youth Soccer and LMS soccer to another location for that week. We had our Arbor Day Celebration on May 2nd this year and planted a silver Linden at Leavitt Park. The Opechee Inn and Spa also planted a Red Maple in the same location to celebrate Earth and Arbor Days! Pleasant Street School 5th Graders helped clean up the WOW trail on Earth Day for the Day of Caring. Thank you PSS!! I have been using the big 16’ Toro mower on all the athletic fields since 4/28! Please don’t look too closely, but I think they are looking fine. The Rotary Park Patio project is coming along. We have decided on plants that will go into the project and will look very nice in the park. This may be done this month. We have had some small electrical issues down there, but they are working them out. Assistant Director Matt Mansur will be out for the next week plus for his wedding and Dane Anderson and his wife had their baby! I would like to congratulate them on this next chapter in their lives!!  B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Summer Preparations Beaches We’ve had a failry bit swing from last month. We are closer to having lifeguards at Weirs Beach then I have ever been. Skip Hounsell will be our Beach Supervisor and I will have (hopefully) made offical job offers to 4 lifeguards on Wednesday 5/11. With two others who have already signed on, we will be at 6 of the 12 that we need. I am tyring to secure an indoor pool for the first two weeks of June to do Lifeguard training. If you have any ideas, please let me know! The Huot has their prototype and will be securing materials shortly. We’ll get six chairs from them (4 at the Weirs, 1 at Bond, and 1 at Opechee Point). Hopefully we will get more in the future! Finally, we got one bid for the gazebo at Weirs beach, but it was more than we were able to spend so we will push the RFP out again (this is planned to be sent to Glenn on Wednesday May 11 th). Opechee Day Camp We are about half full with summer campers. I will be making an offer to a school teacher who is currently in Tennessee who will be moving back up to NH. I have an interviewed scheduled and I am hoping we can fill that 5 th spot and the rest of the campers spots! No update on trips yet. Community Center Programs Morning Activities Pickleball has moved to Leavitt Park. I am interested to see what this brings; we have already had a few requests to open (and therefore clean) restrooms for the pickleballers. Some cool conversation taking place with some of our pickleball experts and Tony and Michelle about throwing a pickleball tournament. We have not found a solution to our shades yet. School Open Gyms These ran well this summer. I think we will end up getting one staff member from them. Possibly two. We will close this down on Memorial Day Weekend. Evening Activities These have run smoothly over the last month. We will also close this down on Memorial Day Weekend. Spring Clean Up Amy and the team are doing a wonderful job in both Tim and Dane’s absence. The city still looks great. Things are moving all over the place, but we’ve kept it in front of us at the moment. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Roy motioned to adjourn 6:51pm. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Chair Commissioner