Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, July 18, 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: Deanna Guyer, Arthur Kirk and Rodney Roy. Absent- Laura Ringer. PARKS AND RECREATION STAFF PRESENT: Director of Recreation and Facilities Amy Lovisek, Asst. Director of Recreation & Facilities Matthew Mansur and Secretary Liza Kelleher. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS: 1. Regular meeting minutes of June 20, 2022 Commissioner Guyer moved to adopt the minutes from the June 20, 2022, meeting. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Central NH Foster & Adoptive Parent Support- Opechee Cove or Point- Saturday, August 6, 2022, from 11:30pm to 2:30pm (Aug. 20 th rain date has been canceled) for Foster & Adoptive Kid Beach Day & Picnic. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of $100.00 picnic fee and the submission of the certificate of insurance. Commissioner Guyer seconded. All were in favor. B. Alcoholics Anonymous District 11/PI-CPC- Opechee Point and Beach- Saturday, August 13, 2022, from 10:00am to 5:00pm for summer family barbeque. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance and payment of $50.00 picnic fee for your summer barbeque. The no cooking rule and the use of 20lbs propane gas has been waived. Commissioner Guyer seconded. All were in favor. C. Laconia Kiwanis- Rotary Park- Tuesday, August 16, 2022, from 6:00pm to 8:30pm for Laconia Kiwanis Meeting. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of $50.00 for the picnic fee and submission of the certificate of insurance for the meeting and barbeque event. Commissioners waived the no cooking rules and the use of 20lbs propane gas for the barbeque. Commissioner Guyer seconded. All were in favor. D. The Belknap Mill- Rotary Park & Gazebo- Thursday, August 18, 2022, from 6:30-7:30pm for a concert in the park. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request and waived the users’ fee for concert in the park event. Commissioner Guyer seconded. All were in favor.  E. Belknap Mill- Rotary Park- Wednesdays, August 3, 10, 17 and 24, 2022 for Kids in the park. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request and waived the users’ fee. Commissioner Kirk seconded. All were in favor. F. Laconia Police Dept.- Opechee’s Smith field and parking lot close to skate park- Thursday, August 11, 2022, from 2:00pm to 8:00pm for National Night Out event. Detective Eric Adams explained that they will try to get in the black hawk helicopter in our field and will fly in before the event and will also have a swat, motorcycle, K9 and drones’ demonstration. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request and waived the special event fees, no cooking rules and the use of 20 lbs. propane gas. Commissioner Kirk seconded. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. Cure SMA- Opechee Park -Saturday, October 29, 2022, from 7:00am to 2:00pm for 2022 New Hampshire Walk-n-Roll. Commissioner Kirk motioned to table the request due to no representation. Commissioner Roy seconded. All were in favor. B. Possible increase in users’ fees. Director Amy Lovisek presented the new draft users fee schedule to the Commissioners. Director Lovisek will speak with the City Manager regarding the amounts as well. Commissioners will review the users fee draft and will discuss in the next Commission meeting. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION 1. Samantha Sarson- Weirs Community Pavilion- Sunday July 31, 2022, for 10:00am to 3:00pm for kid’s birthday party. 2. Weirs Action Committee- Sundays, July 10 through August 7, 2022, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm and August 14, 2022, from 1:00p to 4:00pm for Weirs Jazz Series. 3. Meagan McQueen-Weirs Pavilion and Park- Sunday, August 7, 2022, from12:00pm to 2:00pm for the kid birthday party. IV. NEW BUSINESS: 1. Restrict Fireworks in the Parks. We received a complaint from the residents close to Sanborn that the park is being used for launching fireworks and debris are landing in their property. There is an ordinance that you can’t let off fireworks in someone’s property without permission. Commissioner Roy motioned to add to the Parks Rules and Regulations regarding restriction of fireworks in all the parks. Commissioner Guyer seconded. All were in favor. 2. Possible new sign at Rotary Park “Band Stand reserve for events only”. Commissioner Roy motioned to add a sign on both side of the Gazebo that the “Band Stand reserve for events only”. Commissioner Kirk seconded. All were in favor. 3. Metal Detector Permit- The Commission would like to see the minutes to the meeting that they originally discussed the Metal Detector Permits. There was some confusion about this process. This will be discussed further in the next Commission 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- July 6, 2022, 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 July, as you are aware, is our busiest month of the year. All of the parks are in use with picnics and games, the beaches are packed due to the great weather we have had, and the programs are still happening as well. The 4th of July is naturally our holiday. The weekend was quite busy. Weirs Beach on the 3 rd was our busiest day this year. This was a surprise due to the fact that historically the 4 th is always number 1. The actual 4th however was much more manageable. We closed the gate and handled the park as we normally would. The LPD was there to assist as well. The city’s Independence Day Celebration was a huge success at Opechee Park. This was held on the 3 rd with the parade and the festivities. The bands were appropriate for all ages and the vendors had lines extremely long! The fireworks were some of the best we have had! Three years ago Patrick’s Pub asked permission to install a sculpture at the Elm Street side of the WOW trail for Allen Beetle. They are now ready to install it! FYI The pavement on the Riverwalk by City Hall will begin on July 27 th. The entire department took a Primex course on dealing with difficult behaviors. It was very informative, and I hope helped my crew when out at the parks. The Weirs Action Committee approached the city regarding bike racks on the boardwalk. DPW and I have made decisions on where they will go. There will be a set near the Pier and a set in our park. The hope is to encourage bike riding at the Weirs. The Wyatt Park slides are here! We have measured the existing pieces in hopes that the slides will go on easily. Of course that did not happen! We will need to remove the existing posts from the ground and reinstall new ones in order to get the slides in. The netting is up at Memorial Park for the resident on the Lindsey Court side of the field. I was on vacation last week and had a much needed break. I am back in the swing of things now! B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Summer Preparations Beaches July Fourth Weekend has come and gone. It has been followed by beautiful weather weekends and therefore the Weirs has been slammed this month. Which is great for local businesses, but it has put a lot of stress on our department. Our staff are holding up well, but you can see that their motivation is draining. The actual following of the rules has been pretty good. We haven’t seen a lot of grills, booze, hookahs, or loud music. We have just seen a lot of people which is stressing our infrastructure. The garbage was astronimical over July 4th weekend – we filled the entire roll away (and then some). The bathrooms have been taking a beating also. With lines stretching towards the boardwalk stairs - they were used heavily. Over the fourth, when locking up the bathrooms, three of the four toilets in the women’s room were clogged and backed up over the brim of the toilet seat. There have also been reports of the sinks being clogged with sand from – what I imagine is – people washing their feet off. Joyce Janitorial has reached out saying that the Weirs Bathrooms are too disgusting and asking us to “tidy up” a bit and to pick up “anything disgusting”. I apologized and told him that we were in fact already doing that and that they were not seeing the worst of it. To make things more complicated, our contractor for the New Gazebo took down our Old Gazebo before having built the New Gazebo, so we have been without a Gazebo for the past three weekends including the outrageously busy Fourth of July Weekend. This has been another demoralizing aspect of the summer. Finally, we have yet to get the new LG chairs to their homes at Bond, Opechee, and Weirs. I am hoping we can get to it by the end of the summer. Opechee Day Camp Opechee Day Camp is going well. We have an experienced team of educators. They are desperately looking for me to set up field trips for them. I am hoping to have a few set up for them by the time we meet on Monday. Community Center Programs Morning Activities Every now and then I am reminded that we have programs in the Community Center over the summer. We’ll have some folks come in and ask about pickleball and we’ll explain the state of pickleball in Laconia to them. During these hot and humid days, our line dancers are becoming too uncomfortable in our Community Center. We are trying to brainstorm solutions. We have not found a solution to our shades yet. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Roy motioned to adjourn at 7:40pm. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Chair Commissioner