Parks & Recreation Commission

LACONIA PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING Monday, September 16, 2024 Laconia Community Center 6:00 P.M. CALL TO ORDER: Commissioner Roy called the meeting to order at the above date and time. RECORDING SECRETARY: Director Amy Lovisek recorded this meeting. ROLL CALL: Commissioner Roy called the roll with the following Commissioners in attendance: Deanna Guyer, Rodney Roy, Arthur Kirk and Laura Ringer. Absent – Mitch Hamel PARKS AND RECREATION STAFF PRESENT: Director of Recreation and Facilities Amy Lovisek, Asst. Director of Recreation and Facilities Matt Mansur. Absent- Administrative Secretary Liza Kelleher. ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS: 1. Regular meeting minutes of August 19, 2024 Commissioner Kirk moved to adopt the minutes from the August 19, 2024, meeting. Seconded by Commissioner Guyer. All were in favor. I. FACILITY USE REQUEST FORM: A. Rock Steady Boxing- Wow Trail- Saturday, September 21, 2024, from 8:00am to 2:00pm for a race. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Guyer seconded the motion. All were in favor B. 603 Bandits- Robbie Mills Sports complex- Friday, July 4, 2025, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, Saturday & Sunday, July 5 & 6, 2025 from 10:00am to 4:00pm for a baseball tournament. Commissioner Kirk motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Ringer seconded the motion. All were in favor C. New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Assoc.- Bartlett Beach- Saturday, October 5, 2024, for the Bass fishing tournament. Commissioner Guyer motioned to accept the request with all the requirements and changes listed in the application. Commissioner Ringer seconded the motion. All were in favor. D. LRCS-Leavitt Park Playground and Picnic Area- Thursday, October 24, 2025, from 3:30pm – 6:30pm for a resource fair. Commissioner Guyer motioned to approve the request with all the requirements listed in the application. Commissioner Kirk seconded the motion. All were in favor. II. OLD BUSINESS: A. Organization of sub-committee meeting regarding summer 2024 rules and regulations – No update. III. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROVALS-ROTARY PARK, BEACHES, WEIRS AMPHITHEATER & PAVILION A. Hometown Senior Solutions- Laconia Community Center- Friday, November 8, 2024, from 9:00am to 1:00pm for Medicare seminar. IV. NEW BUSINESS: A. Key Policy- The request by Commissioner Kirk to hold a credit card with a deposit and to charge the full amount if the keys are not returned is not feasible. The credit card company that the city works with does not allow a hold for longer than 14 days. Director Lovisek will provide the Commission with a couple of ideas for the next Commission meeting for a deciding vote. The department does not want to change the keys prior to this new policy. B. Rentals at Opechee (Kayak)- After much discussion about this topic of having a for profit company doing business on city property in a park Commissioner Kirk motioned to deny the request. Commissioner Guyer seconded the motion. The Commission was not in favor of allowing any business to operate inside the parks. They felt this would leave the door wide open for any and all others to come in as well and that is not what we are all about. All were in favor. C. Discussion with regional wood bat baseball league- Alec Allred, CEO of the Players League, presented his organization to the Laconia Parks & Rec Commission. The league, which operates multiple wood bat leagues across the country, aims to expand into New Hampshire. Allred emphasized the league's player-centric approach, growth from 4 to 22 teams in North Carolina, and the elimination of yearly fees. The league focuses on local player recruitment and community engagement, with games scheduled from early June to late July. Allred discussed the league's financial model, which includes in-house manufacturing and flexible contracts with municipalities. Commissioner Kirk motioned to allow the director the opportunity to move forward with planning future meetings to finalize details. Commissioner Guyer seconded the motion. All were in favor. D. Water Lantern date discussion- The organization who puts these events on throughout the country is interested in having this event in June at Weirs Beach. The Commission discussed it and are not comfortable having another event during beach season. Weirs Beach is already blocked 2 of those weekends in June for Motorcycle Week. They did not want to see it blocked for another weekend that month. They also felt that Weirs Beach has many visitors every weekend during our beach season. We don’t need more visitors at that time of year. What we need is the shoulder season to see more visitors. They suggested this event be held in either September or October. Director Lovisek will reach out to the organization. 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- September 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 Happy fall Y’all! My favorite time of year has come again. The beaches are officially closed, fall sports are upon us, and the leaves are about to drop. We can handle this. As you may have seen there is movement on the statue at Opechee finally. The original pedestal has been removed and they are installing the forms for the new concrete. This pedestal will be 24” off the ground, which is 24” lower than the original one. The track closest to the road was shut down and people just turned around in the track when this was happening. I had our yearly cemetery tour with the Trustees of the Trust. This is a requirement for the trustees. I also went down to Londonderry to view the Woodmont Commons that is being developed by the potential new owner of the state school property. I went with the planning department to put eyes on and see what they did there. It was quite impressive and as a part of the Planning Board it helped me get a better understanding of what to expect from the developer. We had the walkthrough, and a bid was awarded for the conversion of the fire alarm systems to a 3 rd party monitoring company as the city is getting away from the hard-wired system. This was for all buildings. I also did a walkthrough with the owner of the new cleaning company. It showed some deficiencies that they are working on correcting. We have great communication with this company. We do have some issues here and there but for the most part they are great. We have a replacement truck for the one that was in the accident in June. I went to Connecticut to pick it up, but it was worth it as this model has an aluminum frame that has a 10 year warranty. Matt and I met with Placer.ai, which is a company who specializes in data collected by cellphones. It shows the number of people at a location on any date or timeframe requested. It shows where people are from that visited Weirs Beach on any given day and where they went after they left the beach. It was very interesting but a bit steep on the cost for a yearly subscription. It also could be a bad image for the city with this information. There are no real addresses or names associated with who is there but generalized. It is not something we are looking to have at our department currently. There is a new bench placed at Opechee Point in memory of Aria, the little girl who lost her life in a motor vehicle accident this summer. This location is where her and her family would frequent most. The Leavitt Park playground now has 4 benches. They were purchased by the Leavitt Park Group and we are paying for the installation. They look great and have all the colors of the elements of the park. The state will be lowering the water level for Opechee and Winnisquam starting October 14 th. We will work at that time to clean up the scrub brush again. This will be a thing we need to do every 2 years at the time of the drop down. We will do the Opechee Cove area as well as the Perley Pond area. The Bond Beach project is still not finished. The electrician and plumbers were there yesterday still working. I presented to the NEPA New England Parks Association this week about our department. It was a great opportunity for me to show us off to our neighboring states. This group chose Laconia as their host community out of anywhere else in New England. It was quite the honor B. Assistant Director’s Report submitted by Matt Mansur Beaches The summer season is over. We are still getting some patrons at the beaches, but it is a fraction of what we got this summer. I am beginning to take in swim lines at all of our beaches. Hopefully the in-town swim lines will all be in by the time of our meeting. Weirs swim lines will come in when Mr. Schofield’s Huot class is able to help me drag them across the beach. Weirs This was a very successful year at the Weirs. Our staff would tell you it was tough because there were so many people and very few rainy days, but the fact that we only had to call police twice, means that we are stringing together years where we are “raising the bar”. That is very exciting. I have replaced the cable on one of our sections of swim lines and I will need to replace another sometime this week. This means this cable system roughly has a life span of about 3 years. It is a constant question about whether or not this is the right system or not. I am still weighing toward yes, but with every need to fix something I grow less confident. Bond We got what we could out of Bond this year. In a perfect world, next year the bathhouse will be finished and will be full operational and clean and perfect. We would also have about a half dozen retirees who are trained as Lifeguards who would each work about 3 days a week and have a ton of pride and initiative in the beach and its operations. Opechee Opechee Point is becoming the hub of youth programs in the area during the summer. It is something that we will need to continue monitoring and perhaps figure out a way to increase the capacity of the swim area. Opechee Day Camp Very strong year at Opechee Day Camp this year. I am interested in perhaps figuring out a way to open earlier and stay open later. We also need to figure out a way to collect payment more consistently… we still have people who are trying to sneak past us without paying. Community Center Programs We are looking at rolling out with the below schedule this year: HS FOOTBALL RIVALRY WEEK ALERT! Laconia vs Gilford. At the Gilford Meadows 2:00 Saturday 9/14! C. Foreman’s Report submitted by Dane Anderson COMPLETED Location Project Additional Notes Leavitt Special Projects- Phase 2 earthwork surround playground. Grade, loam and seeding. Leavitt Forestry- Limbing up of low hanging branches throughout park with focus on walkways/trails. Elections Events- Elections set up and take down. Parks and Facilities Fertility- fertilizer, seed, soil amendments application. Sports Fields Fertility- fertilizer, seed, soil amendments application. Sports Fields Turf Care- Aerate and Verticut fields Cemeteries Grounds- Mowing and trimming ops Parks and Facilities Grounds- Mowing and trimming ops Sports Fields Grounds- Mowing ops. Rotary Forestry- Removal of large, downed limb from pear tree next to gazebo Irrigation Irrigation- Repair work throughout various parks and facilities. Wow Trail Signage- New Wow trail signs with QR codes installed and 1 Set of Adopt a Spot signs installed. River Walk North Signage- Replaced stolen "No Smoking" sign by cobbles. Gale Library Graffiti removal. Train Station Graffiti removal. Stewart Graffiti removal. Leavitt Carpentry- Paper towel dispenser replaced in concessions bldg. restroom. Robbie Mills Pest Control- Wasp nest removal. Weirs Community Park Pest Control- Wasp nest removal. Weirs Community Park Cleaning- Amphitheater bldg. exterior and pavilion pressure washing. Weirs Community Park Grounds- Beds clean up and pruning surrounding amphitheater bldg. Wyatt Cleaning- Vomit clean up on slide. Wyatt Graffiti removal on playground pieces Opechee Playgrounds- Swing replacement at Point playground. Opechee Carpentry- Gaga ball pit repairs. Gold St Carpentry- Damaged fence board replacements. Trees Forestry- Young and newly planted tree watering. Downtown, OPE, LVT, SNB. Seasonal Restrooms Janitorial- Regular Cleaning, Stocking and Plumbing checks for seasonal restrooms. City Hall Furniture- Removal and relocation of various furniture pieces. Sports Fields Painting- Weekly Fall sports field line painting Downtown Event- Multiculture festival prep work. City Hall Carpentry- Building of new wall to create additional office space City Hall Carpentry- Desk modifications Leavitt Playground- Loose hardware checks and tightening Gale Library Grounds- Hedge pruning. Gale Library Electrical- Outlet repair. Gale Library Homeless camp removals. LPD Grounds- Beds clean up and pruning throughout property. Sports Fields Game Preps- Youth Soccer, LMS Soccer and Field Hockey, Coed Softball. City Hall Electrical- Outlet and ceiling fan removal. Maintenance Garage Carpentry- Built and install new storage deckings for small equipment, implements and lumber. Opechee Damaged picnic table removal. City Hall Grounds- Damaged built in trash can removal, channel side of bldg. Wow Trail Grounds- Pruning of brush overhanging into walk/trail, various locations. Wow Trail Grounds- Volunteer brush piles removal. City Hall Carpentry- Hanging of pictures/paintings. Bartlett Graffiti removal. Bartlett Carpentry- access gate chain repair/replacement. Opechee Electrical- Replacement of photocell for flag light. LFD Central Plumbing- Faucet repair. Opechee Plumbing- flushometer rebuild. XII. PRESENTATIONS XIII. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Guyer motioned to adjourn at 7:22pm. Seconded by Commissioner Kirk. All were in favor. Respectfully submitted, Amy C. Lovisek Rodney Roy Director of Recreation and Facilities Commissioner Secretary