Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, August 15, 2022 Laconia Community Center 6:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER: Commissioner Rodney Roy called the meeting to order at the above date and time. RECORDING SECRETARY: Secretary Liza Kelleher recorded this meeting. ROLL CALL: Commissioner Roy called the roll with the following Commissioners in attendance: Deanna Guyer, Laura Ringer and Arthur Kirk. Absent-Mitch Hamel. 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 July 18, 2022 Commissioner Guyer moved to adopt the minutes from the July 18, 2022, meeting. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: 1. Department of New Hampshire American Legion Baseball Program – Robbie Mills- Monday, August 7th to Thursday, August 10, 2023 (rain date August 11 th) from 2:30 to 9:30pm for State baseball tournament. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request pending upon the payment of tournament and light fees and the submission of the certificate of insurance for the tournament. Key deposit of $25.00 per key is required if needed. Commissioner Kirk seconded. All were in favor. 2. Homeschool Helpers- Memorial Tennis Court- Fridays, September 9, 2022, through Oct. 21, 2022, from 9:00am to11:00am for Homeschool Tennis event. Commissioner Guyer motioned to withdraw the request. Commissioner Ringer seconded. All were in favor. 3. Lakes Region Girls Softball- Opechee Park fields A, B, C & D, Memorial Park Softball field and bathrooms and storage- July 28 through 30, 2023, Friday from 8:00am to 9:00pm and Saturday & Sunday from 6:00am to 8:00pm for Summer of Chaos Softball Tournament. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request pending upon submission of the tournament fee, key deposit of $25.00 per key if needed and submission of the certificate of insurance. The use of 20lbs propane gas and the no cooking rules have been waived. Commissioner Guyer seconded. All were in favor. 4. Lakes Region Mental Health Center- Leavitt Park Field- Thursday, August 18, 2022, from 8:00am to 5:45pm for wellness event. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request for wellness event. The special event fee has been waived, key deposit of $25 per key if needed. Commissioner Kirk seconded. All were in favor.  5. Weirs Action Committee- Endicott Rock Park parking lot- June 10~18, 2023 from 8:00am to 8:00pm for Laconia Motorcycle Week. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance and final approval from the City Council for making money on City property. The special event fee has been waived. 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 Guyer seconded. All were in favor. B. Possible increase in users’ fees. Commissioners are trying to figure out how to charge fees for the larger events that are making money on City property. Commissioners suggested to ask for security deposit so that any damages after the event can be taken care of. Director Lovisek will ask the City Manager what he suggests regarding the fees for large/high impact events. The 2 options given were either a certain price depending on the amount of people attending the event or a price range. C. Metal Detector Permit. Commissioner Guyer motioned to remove the metal detecting permit from our rules and regulations but leave “Digging is allowed in beach areas only”. Commissioner Kirk seconded. All were in favor. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION 1. WOW Trail- Bartlett Beach- Wednesday, August 10, 2022, from 7:00pm to 7:30pm for Wow trail volunteers Ice Cream Social. 2. Amber Howei- Weirs Community Park Pavilion- Saturday, September 10, 2022, from 10am to 1:00pm for a 3rd birthday party. IV. NEW BUSINESS: 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- August 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 are officially past the halfway point for the summer season. It has been a tough season for us for many reasons, but Labor Day is just around the corner. The budget was past just before July and we have a number of CIP items that are either completed, in process, or will be worked on soon. Completed items are:  Riverwalk paving  Lifeguard Chairs  Opechee Track roof Items that are in process (going through RFP or being constructed):  Weirs Beach Gazebo  Weirs Beach ADA mat  Bond Beach ADA mat  Memorial Park Door Replacement Items yet to start:  Bond Beach Bathhouse/Sewer replacement  Weirs Community Center Door replacement  Wyatt Park ADA improvements  Code Office Renovation The maintenance crew are still short staffed. We are working on what we are looking for in the new employee and we will advertise it soon. The city has a new city manager Kirk Beatie. He will be a huge asset to the entire community and will be great to work with. Congratulations to Kirk. Matt and I met with an organization this month to discuss the possibility of building an outdoor fitness center in the parks. This is very new to us and we want to discuss this as a possible CIP item. CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) is due next month. We are currently looking for possible new plans for our parks and facilities. If the commission has any suggestions, please let me know asap and I can add them to the list. The Laconia Skate “Board” is ready to install the lights at the skate park. This organization was formed at the request of the city to show interest and raise funds for the park. This is their first donation. This should be done hopefully by the end of the month. The net at Memorial Park in the left field foul area has been installed. The neighbors should not have any more foul balls going into their yard. LHS has come to us to request the use of the racquetball court to be used as an off-season training area. They would be putting down temporarily mats, but eventually synthetic turf to run drills and do conditioning. This is something that would block that room from being used as a racquetball court. We have not seen many using the court recently. B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Beaches It has been a struggle this season. Staff morale is at an all-time low for Weirs staff for multiple reasons. The Weather. We have had days where the weather is 90 and Sunny on weekends for nearly two straight months. Which is great for patrons and local businesses, but the numbers of people coming up to the beach has really taken a toll on our staff and our facilities. Disrespectful Patrons & Death Threats. We’ve had to issues No Trespassing Orders to a couple from Massachusetts because they have made death threats to one of our employees on more than one occasion and on more than one day. They did not take it well. Additionally, I will be informed of 2-3 incidents of rude patrons on a weekly basis. Gazebo Issue. We lost the Gazebo to our contractor before the 4th and he finally brought it back to us last week. Unfortunately, staff has been huddling under a tree to get out of the sun during this stretch. Pretty quickly upon its return we realized that the Gazebo is not what we asked for in the RFP. Glenn, from Finance, has asked him to redo it or take it away without payment and we will find another company to buy one from. Kiosk Debacle. The kiosks have been highly inconsistent this summer and that has presented a problem for our staff and our department that we cannot solve. DPW has been working on diagnosing the issues and coming up with creative solutions. This has made for some endless troubleshooting that wears on everyone. Sinks in Women’s Restroom. For the last three weeks, the sinks in the women’s bathroom have been backing up and overflowing onto the floor. Really making for a disgusting bathroom. It has taken a lot of troubleshooting to figure out what is going on, but Dane finally fixed it Thursday morning and the women’s bathroom will finally be fully functional for the first time since the 4 th. Unfortunately this has led to patrons being upset with our staff and our department for not having nicer facilities. Finding New Jobs. We could not find another Beach Caretaker to fill Michael’s position and he eventually found a lifeguarding job back in Florida, so he has left. As soon as Michael was gone it was only a matter of time before Zach found something else to do also – and he did. Losing them will be visibly noticed by residents in terms of garbage… we will not be able to keep up with the trash collecting without them. Raven will finish up at the end of next week and we will begin piecemailing staff for the weekends at that point. Reports of Disrespectful Staff. Finally, we’ve had numerous reports of our staff being rude to patrons as of late. It is really difficult to pinpoint the truth on these reports because our patrons tell us one story and our staff tell us another. I think we are narrowing it down. Opechee Day Camp Opechee Day Camp is going well. We are very lucky to have them operating as efficiently as they have. Community Center Programs We haven’t had too much use of our community center in terms of programs. Lunch time basketball is consistent, and the library has used us for midweek programs on Wednesdays. We have not found a solution to our shades yet. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Guyer motioned to adjourn at 7:18pm. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Rodney Roy Secretary Clerk Commissioner