Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, November 21, 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: Laura Ringer and Deann Guyer. Absent- Rodney Roy and Arthur Kirk. PARKS AND RECREATION STAFF PRESENT: Director of Recreation and Facilities Amy Lovisek, Asst. Director of Recreation and Facilities Matt Mansur and Secretary Liza Kelleher. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS: 1. Regular meeting minutes of October 17, 2022 Commissioner Guyer moved to adopt the minutes from the October 17, 2022, meeting. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Downtown Gym-WOW Trail- Saturday, December 3,2022 from 9:00am for Run/Walk 5K Race to benefit the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction. Commissioner Ringer motioned to approve the request for the Run/Walk fundraising event, insurance and special event fee has been received. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. B. Lou Athanas Youth Basketball League- Laconia Community Center- December 17, 2022, through April 1, 2023, Saturdays from 8:00am to 5:00pm and Sundays from 8:00am to 1:00pm for LAYBL League. Commissioner Guyer motioned to approve the request pending upon the submission of the certificate of insurance for LAYBL regular season games. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. C. Lou Athanas Youth Basketball League- Laconia Community Center Gym, Kitchen, and Conference room- February 22~26, 2023, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 5:00pm to 9:00pm and Saturday and Sunday from 7:00am to 9:00pm. Commissioner Guyer motioned to approve the request pending upon the submission of tournament fee, concession stand fee, the submission of the certificate of insurance and the City Council approval for LAYBL basketball tournament event. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. D. Laconia Adult Coed Softball (LACS)- Memorial Park Softball field, Concession, Storage, and lights- April 2023 through November 2023 Monday through Thursday from 5:30pm 11:00pm and Saturday, Sunday from 8:00am to 11:00pm for Laconia Adult Coed Softball. Commissioner Guyer motioned to approve the request pending upon the payment of storage, concession, non-resident users fee, lights, and the submission of the certificate of  insurance for Laconia Coed Softball 2023 season. Any charity tournaments will be administratively approved with a fee of $100.00 upon the submission of the facility use request form. Key deposit of $25.00 per key is required at the time of the issuance. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor E. New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Assoc.-Robbie Mills Baseball field- June 6 & 7, 2023 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm for NHIAA baseball Tournament. Commissioner Guyer tabled the request due to no representation. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. Rules about RV’s, Trailers, and buses, as well as other rule changes per request through the police department. Commissioner Guyer motioned to incorporate the changes with the existing Rules and Regulations the No RV, trailers and buses in the parks parking lots and the proposed Park Rule changes with the no trespass order form as listed: 1. No person shall affix, hang drape, or display items n any structure, either natural or manmade, within a city park or city-maintained property, without permission from the Parks and Recreation Department. 2. No person shall bring in, use, or posses any shopping cart in a city park 3. No person shall bring in, use, or possess more than one bicycle at any time in a city park. This shall also include bicycle parts. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. The next step will be to send these to the legal team for approval. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION A. Real Life Church- Rotary Park Gazebo- November 13, 2022, Sunday at 6:00pm for prayer vigil. B. Celebrate Laconia- Rotary Park, Stewart Park, Opechee Park, Parking lot between Pleasant & Main Street and Gateway- November 19, 2022, through January 7, 2023, Celebrate Laconia Lights Festival and November 27, 2022, for the parade. IV. NEW BUSINESS: A. Cartop boat launch at Bartlett Beach- Commissioner Guyer motioned to allow the cartop boat launch at Bartlett Beach. A sign will be placed for the launch’s location at the park. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. B. Discussion on changes to the Facility Use Request Form- Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the updated changes in user’s fee that were approved by City Council. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. V. ANNOUNCEMENTS: VI. NOMINATIONS, APPOINTMENTS & ELECTIONS:  VII. PUBLIC COMMENT: VIII. COMMUNICATIONS: IX. OTHER REQUESTS REQUIRING COMMISSION ACTION: Commissioner Guyer motioned to cancel the December Parks and Recreation Commission meeting, the next Parks and Recreation Commission meeting will be Tuesday, January 17, 2023. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor X. PARK ASSOCIATION REPORTS: A. Leavitt Park Association- No report B. Weirs Community Park Association- No report C. Tardif Park Association- No report XI. DEPARTMENT REPORTS: A. Director’s Report submitted by Amy Lovisek Christmas Village is back!!! We are so pleased to have them back at the Community Center with some new ideas and new faces involved. I want to wish them best of luck for their program. The Community Center will be shut down for the month until December 12 th. I met with the new City Manager regarding our department. I gave him the “good, bad and the ugly” per his request. He also came over to our buildings to do a walk though and that gave him some more perspective. We are starting to really push the new community Center idea starting now. The department posted for the position of Foreman this month. Today (18 th) is the last day of submission for applications. I have been told we have a good number that we will be able to go through next week. Very exciting news. I have just completed a training at Primex on how to cultivate and promote positive workplace culture. It was a pretty good training on leadership and how to boost up your employees without more pay as we are in the public sector. We had the elections last week. We are responsible for delivering and picking up the voting paraphernalia (booths, tables barricades, everything). It is also stored in our building. We were complimented by 2 of the pole moderators and the City Clerk for the work our crew did. Well done crew! The Memorial Park House doors are almost completed. We ran into some snags on this project, but we are working on getting them buttoned up. I attended the Laconia School Districts Strategic Planning session they hosted this week. We discussed Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to the school. They will then take this information back and compile to determine next steps for the district. I attended the City Council meeting this past week and had the new user fees approved by them. We are now working on the new Facility Use Request form that is ready for your viewing at this meeting. I have been appointed by the City Manager to be the city’s representative on the Planning Board. Just in time for the State School project. This could be exciting. The state school property proposal mentioned quite a bit of recreation. 50% to be exact. The City Manager is looking into whether or not this will be private or public. Our jut instinct says the zip line and glamping spots will be private, but the other areas like the recreation trails and dog park could be made public and may therefore be gifted to the city and we will then have a much larger scope of work. Once Kirk knows more information, he will reach back out to us. The Weirs Beach Gazebo is finally in place and looks amazing. I have been meeting with Dubois & King regarding the Bond Beach Bath House and sewer system replacement. This should be up and ready for this coming summer! Holly Callanan from the LPD and I met regarding some new rules that the PD would like to see in our list. We also discussed having the police department be given permission to evict people who are violating our rules for a certain period of time. This will be discussed further in our meeting this month. B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Summer Wrap-Up The Weirs Gazebo came in! Just in time for the winter! It looks great. We were having some issues with the swim lines yanking up the moorings that we are using. It makes sense as there is a lot of floatation, connected to those mooring by steel cable. We were initially looking at getting bigger moorings, but, instead, we will try heavy chain next year. The chain will need to be heavy enough to hold down the swim lines, but provide some give when the waves bring the floats up and down. Summer Prep We have not yet kicked into full gear, but we will have materials ready to go out to begin recruiting for next summer during the holiday break for both college and high school students. Community Center Programs Our programs have really begun flourishing as the weather has dropped. We have seen disappointed and confused patrons with the re-emergence of Christmas Village, but no one is really willing to put up a fuss about it. I expect the flood gates to be reopened as Christmas Village is over. Christmas Village has been finding volunteers and going up quickly, I have been very impressed with their progress. Especially since they had such a hard time finding volunteers pre-covid. I will have dates for our Christmas Caroling and Cookie Decorating events coming up before Thanksgiving Break. Christmas Village took over Santa’s Calling last year, but I am assuming they will not do it again this year. Operations and Administration We have had numerous applicants via Indeed for the Foreman position. We are hoping to have the position secured soon. The FY24 budget proposals will be sent into Glen very soon and so we are looking at that. The budget is the financial representation of our plan from now until the summer of 2024, so there is a lot that goes into it. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Guyer motioned to adjourn at 7:30pm. Seconded by Commissioner Ringer. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Chair Commissioner