Parks & Recreation Commission

1. LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Tuesday, February 20, 2024 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, Rodney Roy, Arthur Kirk and Laura Ringer. 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 January 16, 2024 Commissioner Rodney Roy moved to adopt the minutes from January 16, 2024, meeting. Seconded by Commissioner Deanna Guyer. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Rebecca Quimpo- Weirs Beach Community Park Gazebo area- Saturday, August 3, 2024, from 8:00am to 8:00pm, for Jordan and Beccas wedding reception. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Ringer seconded the motion. All were in favor. B. Meredith Center Freewill Baptist Church- Robbie Mills Sports Complex- Sunday, March 31, 2024, from 7:30am to 8:30am for the sunrise easter service. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Roy seconded the motion. All were in favor. C. Piedmont Print and Frame- Opechee Park- Friday March 29, 2024, from 8:00am to 4:00pm for the Good Friday Artwalk 2024. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Guyer seconded the motion. All were in favor. D. Laconia Lacrosse Club- Bobotas Field and Leavitt Park field (if there is an LHS turf field conflict) – March 11, 2024 or when the department opens the fields, through June 7, 2024, Monday to Friday from 5:30pm to 7:30pm, Saturday and Sunday from 8:00am to 6:00pm for Youth Lacrosse practices and games. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Kirk seconded the motion. All were in favor. E. Laconia Hospital- Memorial Tennis/Pickleball Court– Sunday, July 21, 2024 (July 28th rain date) from 7:30am to 3:00pm for High Fives for the Hospital. Commissioner Roy  motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Guyer seconded the motion. All were in favor. F. New Horizons Musical Organization of the Lakes Region–Rotary Park Bandstand and Weirs Beach Amphitheater- Rotary Park, Tuesday, July 16, 2024 (rain date July 24, 2024) from 6:00pm to 8:00pm and Weirs Beach Amphitheater, Tuesday, August 20, 2024, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm for a free concert. Commissioner Ringer motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Kirk seconded the motion. All were in favor. G. Plymouth State University- Robbie Mills- April 6 and 27th from 12:00pm to 6:00pm, April 16, 23 & 25th from 3:00pm to 7:00pm for a baseball games. Commissioner Roy motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Guyer seconded the motion. All were in favor. H. The Senior Muskrats-Robbie Mills- Sundays, April 21and 28th, May 5 and 19th, June 23 and 30th, July 21 and 28th, Saturdays and Sundays, August 3, 4, 10, 11, 17 and 18th 2024 from 9:00am to 5:00pm for Granite State Baseball League Games. Commissioner Roy motioned to table the request due to the scheduling and maintenance fee issue that will be discussed. Commissioner Kirk seconded the motion. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. 603 Bandits- Robbie Mills & Memorial Field- May 1, 2024, through August 10, 2024, Friday from 6:00pm to 9:00pm, Saturday and Sunday 9:00am to 9:00pm for 603 Bandits 13U Baseball. Commissioner Roy motioned to table the request due to no representation. Commissioner Guyer seconded the motion. All were in favor. B. Robbie Mills Fencing-no update III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION IV. NEW BUSINESS: A. Robbie Mills Baseball Field Fee- Commissioner Guyer motioned to charge users a fee of $100.00/game for the use of Robbie Mills Baseball Field. Commissioner Ringer seconded the motion. All were in favor. B. Sportskey Company (calendar software)- Commissioner Roy motioned to approve the use of the users’ fee account for the calendar software if the school will split the cost. Commissioner Kirk seconded the motion. 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- February 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 The winter that wasn’t! We had a tough year winter recreationally due to the lack of snow and the lack of cold air for ice making. This kept our rink out of commission for most of the winter and our sledding hill was open and great for a little while, but not long enough. There is still time for old man winter to show. I am just afraid he will show in April!! The IT Department and I met with a company to discuss the possibility of making City Hall a keyless facility. We would like to install card readers at the doors and allow access for each employee to certain areas. It would allow us to know who is in the building and when during off hours. This is important for the safety of the building and its protected contents. We are now just waiting to see what the price will be for this endeavor. I met with all of the other department heads as well as the new city council to discuss Goal Setting for their 2-year terms. Each Councilor was given the opportunity to provide 3 goals and they all seemed to line up amongst each other. None of the goals had anything to do with parks and only 1 facility was mentioned. The DPW building is currently sinking and needs to be replaced. This was mentioned, but our department doesn’t have anything to do with that building for some reason. Dane Anderson and I had a meeting with a company called Sportskey. They are a calendar software company that I am looking to possibly use for us. We are also looking to split this usage with the school department. This system would have the requested users of the facilities put in their forms online and it would populate into our calendar to be sure there are no overlaps. It would invoice them automatically and let them know of any conditions related to their usage. It is a bit pricy, but in my opinion not overlapping and having our calendar on a publisher paper that has the potential to have mistakes is very tempting. If the school will split the cost I would very much like to move forward with this. We had a couple of interviews this past month for the open position. We didn’t find the right candidate and have put the posting back out. Energy efficiency lighting has been installed at Leavitt Park House. The new flooring contract has been awarded and I am awaiting the scheduling of that. The old playground will be removed starting April 1st and the new playground will be installed just after that. Very exciting stuff happening at the park. Bond Beach Bathhouse has been something of a bear to start. We did have to have the building abated due to the presence of asbestos. That has been done and the report for that clearance is due to me today. The power should be moved soon as well. Removal of the building should be starting at the beginning of next month. The Pumpkin Festival is getting interesting to say the least. If you haven’t heard, the Chamber of Commerce are looking to move the festival up to the Weirs Beach area. Moving the festival from downtown is going against the city council’s wish. They do not want to see this moved out of the downtown area. My department seems to have gotten in the middle of this. I have been asked to investigate the possibility of us taking this over. I really am skeptical of our ability to accomplish this without help. Matt and I are meeting to discuss our true capacity to host this event on our own. We will then take that information to the City Manager to discuss it further. This may not even come to fruition, but I want to be prepared just in case. I may be coming to you as the Commission to help with this event in the future. Think Spring! B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Beaches The Bond Beach construction project will begin this week. This will be a massive improvement to the patron experience at our one Laconia resident only beach. I am still optimistic about staffing at Weirs and Bond this summer. We will begin locking those positions down soon. Opechee Day Camp We have people reaching out already about summer camp. Kegan appears to be on board. Along with a few other staff from last year. Our first ad is out through the Laconia Daily Sun and we have raised prices up again, but we are still keeping a resident discount and a sibling discount. We will also only run 3 days of camp on July 4th week. July 4th week is usually a small week anyway and giving our staff a four day weekend to celebrate will be nice. If any staff would like more hours that week, I am sure we can find some at one of the beaches. Community Center Programs Pickleball and Line Dancing are going strong. The resident-only days have seemed to be a success this year. We have had some non-resident players express some frustration, but that opens up the opportunity to share that our focus and obligation is to the Laconia residents. Lunch time basketball has not returned from the Christmas Village absence yet. Usually, they take their time coming back, but I don’t recall it taking this long to return. I am still optimistic that they will return. We are looking at working with Erin from ArtsFest to move her program from Sunday afternoons to some school vacation times. Luckily, this will open Sunday afternoons for programs or rentals. I know we have had youth sports organizations interested in renting out a large number of times in the gym during that late winter/early spring period. Evening programs have been going strong. We had one pickleballer express some frustration about skill-level matched playing, but they seemed to be the only person to feel that way. C. Foreman’s Report submitted by Dane Anderson  COMPLETED Column2 Project Additional Notes Bond Access Road and Bathhouse - cleared of snow for asbestos removal. Beach Bond Bathhouse - Asbestos Removal prior to demolition. Contracted out Beach City Hall Carpentry - Employee men's room - Door closer repairs. City Hall Carpentry - Welfare drop box replaced. City Hall Carpentry- Personnel Suite - door stop/holder installed City Hall Electrical - Lighting - Timer adjustments City Hall Electrical - Lighting - light cover repair for public restroom entryway. City Hall Painting - Personnel Suite - Office and Hall repainted City Hall Plumbing - Lines and fixtures checked and flushed after N. main St. mainline break. City Hall Plumbing - Public men's room - Faucet replaced. City Hall Server Room - Relocation - Window and A/C hook up blank switched from old server room to new server room. City Hall Unsheltered/Vandalism - Repaired and replaced metal panel for exterior Hvac unit that had been torn of by unsheltered and used as stash spot. Elections Events- Light towers rented from MB, delivered and set up at wards 4 and 6 park/exit locations. Elections Events- Light towers returned to MB. Elections Events- Voting supplies delivered and set up for all six wards Elections Events- Voting supplies taken down and returned to storage for all six wards Gale Carpentry - Volpe Room - Window trim repairs Library Gale Electrical - Lighting - Multiple ballast replacements through facility Library Gale Electrical - Lighting - Multiple bulbs replacements throughout facility Library Gale Electrical - Lighting - light timer adjustments Library Gale Furniture - Hanging of painting in Directors office Library Gale Furniture - Office chair assembly Library Gale Library Furniture- Removal of painting from oval room for restoration Gale Library Furniture- Staff assisted with antique desk relocation and repairs. Gale Library Plumbing - Public + Family restrooms - Replaced/rebuilt all flushometer shut off valves Gale Library Plumbing - Public restrooms - Rebuilt 3 remaining Flushometers and 1 handle assembly. Gale Library Plumbing- Family restroom flushometer shut off rebuilt Lakeport Event- Christmas tree lighting removal. Extensions and lower half accessible w/o lift. LCC Boiler Room- water leak determined to be coming through foundation and not from H2O heater. LCC Plumbing - Gym- Multiple water fountain push bar repairs. One side bar permanently disabled. LCC Masonry - Roof/Chimney repair work completed by contractor. Interior water damage repairs TBD. LCC Painting - Gym - Restroom entry and shower room painted. LCC Snow plow piles hauled away. 1/31/2024 LCC Snow plow piles hauled away. 1/18/2024 LFD Central Carpentry - EMS Chief Office - Window casing repaired, insulated behind (appears to not have been done when built) and reinstalled. LFD Central Painting - EMS Chief office - Drywall repairs and complete repainting. LPD Grounds - Sand build up from snow ops removed from sidewalks/entryways. LPD Plumbing - Main level restrooms - toilet leak repaired, all flushometers rebuilt, toilet secured. Maint. Garage and Staff Room- Season lockers replaced Yards Memorial Ice Rink- Liner installed and filled for base ice formation. Vandalism (kids throwing rock through ice) delayed 1/12 - 1/18/24 process as well as snow storm Memorial Ice Rink- Opened for use 1/19 - 1/29 2024 Memorial Ice Rink- Opened for use 2/7 - 2/12 2024 Memorial Ice Rink- Opened for use 2/14- - Current Memorial Smoke Detector Replacements (x10). Memorial Vandalism- Storage Shed Broken into, door kicked in. Temp repairs/securement until permanent fix and upgrades completed. Meredith Bridge Unsheltered- Abandoned encampment and trash removal, 500lbs. 3 attempts needed due to unsheltered refusal to Cemetery vacate. Opechee Fencing - Damaged section of fence that had been driven into removed. Opechee Cove Ice Rink- Monitoring ice formation for thickness and safe conditions. Weather not permitting for minimal ice thickness for safe conditions. Robbie Mills Carpentry- Press box clean up and shelving unit removal to make space for weather/air monitoring system. Snow Removal Snow Removal Operations- Lots and walkways cleared and treated 1/16/2024 Snow Removal Snow Removal Operations- Lots and walkways cleared and treated 2/24 - 2/25 2024 Snow Removal Snow Removal Operations- Lots and walkways cleared and treated 1/29/2024 Snow Removal Snow Removal Operations- Lots and walkways cleared and treated 2/16/2024 South Street Sledding Hill - Parking area - "No overnight parking" sign temporarily installed until permanent sign and post can be installed. Staffing Parks Tech 1 - Attempt to fill open position unsuccessful. Reviewing applications and completed interviews with potential candidates. Job posting reopened until filled. Stewart Event- Christmas tree lighting and power cords accessible w/o lift removed and stored. Tardif Smoke Detector Replacements (x3). IN PROGRESS Location Project Additional Notes City Hall Plumbing Faucet replacements City Hall Carpentry/Paint - Entry way reno/refresh. Department Wide Dog Bags- Checking and filling dog bag dispensers Facilities Winter temperature and fuel level, plumbing, building locked and secure, 1-2 times per week. Facilities Electrical- Lighting timers adjustments as needed Gordon Lawerence Forestry- Down limb removal Cemetery LCC Plumbing- Faucet replacements LCC HVAC- Steam trap replacements 9 replaced Memorial Ice Rink- Monitor conditions, resurface, open/close as needed dependent on conditions. Memorial Electrical- Baseball scoreboard repairs. Opechee Electrical- Smith field scoreboard troubleshooting. Opechee Access Road- Gate repair damaged by LMS lot plowing contractor 2022-23 winter. Paint Paint standards, colors, and procedures project. Rotary Sun Dial repairs Shop Carpentry- Old Office conversion to Staff room with built in lockers Shop Carpentry/Plumbing- Paint/Cleaning Room Phase 2 reorganization, painting, plumbing fixture repairs/moving. Shop Carpentry- Tool Room Phase 2 reorganization. Sledding Hill Monitor conditions, trash, jump removal, lighting Snow Removal Daily walkway checks and treating for snow/ice. Training New staff onboarding and training Vandalism Graffiti- continual monitoring and removal throughout parks and facilities. Vets Sq Power to Irrigation/Fountains and Lights shut off due to misuse. Winter Trash Services Trash- Routine trash can servicing and ground litter removal. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Guyer motioned to adjourn at 8:02pm. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Liza Kelleher Mitch Hamel Secretary Chair Commissioner