Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Yes, I'll make a motion to open at 7.37. Second. All in favor?

Aye. Okay. Did everybody have an opportunity to read the minutes? Any suggestions or comments?

And these are the main minutes. There's no June minutes?

There's no point in June.

No? Okay. No.

All right. So, do we have a motion to?

Yeah, I'll make a motion to accept.

Second? Second? Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Aye. I don't see anybody else. NEW BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 28.

YEP. SO THE ONLY UPDATE WITH THAT IS I HAVE MY FIRST MEETING WITH FINANCE TOMORROW TO START PLANNING AHEAD. SO I'LL HAVE MORE DETAILS ON THAT AS WE GO ALONG. BUT MEETING WITH THEM AT 12 O'CLOCK TOMORROW, START LOOKING AT THE BUDGET AND BEGIN THE BUDGET PROCESS.

OKAY. CIP UPDATES.

So our meeting, we're scheduled next Tuesday, the 21st, 6 o'clock in Moose Hill. We'll be going with the school to present those projects that were submitted as part of the CIP. We submitted seven total projects, included the tennis courts, reconstruction. lighting at LAFA and the LAFA fields, the dugouts at LAFA, potential pickleball courts, skate park restoration of the space that's currently there, as well as looking at a skate park for a new location, a little bit smaller with phasing out. And then Forest Field, we're looking, after talking with Lapo, is looking at potentially turning one of those fields into turf. So working with kind of what the school has been doing with what their projects are looking for as well. But some of these projects that we're looking at, obviously, we rank them a certain way as they get presented to the CIP committee. The CIP committee will rank them a certain way, and then we'll have more information about the presentations next week to kind of go over each of those.

Which field were they thinking about for the turf?

Forest.

Oh, okay.

Yes.

Because I was thinking the ones that don't get any watering.

No, no, no, no. So, I mean, the idea of turfing a field, you're lessening the need for irrigation, the field maintenance, the mowing, the fertilization, you know, over X amount of years, it cuts down the costs, you know, and kind of eventually we get there.

Still have to clean and sanitize them.

Yes, second question. more. So that's one. Again, that's the seventh on the list that's been proposed. Obviously, we have some that are higher priorities right now.

Is there a calculation on the break-even on that? Like five years, six years, eight years?

Yeah, it comes out, I think it's they usually do it in a 10 to 15 year run. That's usually within that expansion of time. That's where you get, you know, where you kind of hit that break-even point.

Yeah, and what's the quality on your artificial turf?

Well, that's something we'd have to look at. to, you know, what's being done, who's, who's doing it, you know, what's, you know, what's the repair we're talking forced force that, uh, CIP project that's been submitted there. So, um, So that one's got a lot. I mean, that's got a big price tag to it, too. So it's not, you know, for something that's, you know.

They are expensive.

They are, yes. So, like I said, priority-wise, looking at some of the ones that will be submitted next week, you know, tennis courts. And we've got to look at discussing the skate park and pickleball courts as well. So just kind of some things that are needed here in town.

So you still use stone dust on the infield?

would be the turf. You could turf, well, so there's two options. You could turf just the infield or you could turf the entire, you could turf the entire field space.

Of a baseball diamond? Really? No. Okay.

I don't know, Mike might have played on some fields there.

Yeah, Lynn has a field like that where the infield is all turf and the outfield is grass.

And you still have stone dust then between the bases?

No, it's all turf. It's all turf. All turf, okay. The only thing they'll do is they'll sometimes change the color of the turf. Okay. So like the orange instead or the brown.

Okay. There's some field spaces that are turf all the way up. I've played on those too. Okay. It just goes all the way.

Okay, Color Run, LPD.

This is just a quick update for the Old Home Day. So this year, the Recreation Department, I mentioned last time, we're running the Color Run as well as we're bringing back the Police First Fire softball game. So the Color Run, that's been promoted. That'll be on Thursday, the... the 13th this year. I believe that's the right date. Sorry. I got mixed up dates. It's August 13th. Yes, Thursday the 13th from 530 to 630 at the Town Common. So with people arriving at 5 o'clock, there will be some different activities going on down there that day as well. They're planning on hopefully doing the touch truck across the street as well as Lender Police Association is going to do their movie night. So Kind of a kid-friendly aura going on down there there that day, but so that'll be the third year We're running that and then again bringing back police first fire softball game. That'll just be one game happening over at Matthew Thornton they are planning to do a I believe they still plan to do a home run Derby and kind of kids games over at the lava complex earlier in the day But prior to fireworks and the food trucks as well so more that information will be coming out with old home dang as the committee continues to meet and and starts unveiling that as we go on throughout this month but that's what recreation is going to be running in terms of this year's event summer programs yep so we are about halfway into all of our summer camps right now so summer playground program about 350 kids uh 20 staff members it's going really really well they just started i think our theme this week is animal week so we have Reptile show coming. Last week we had police, fire, and DPW visited, which was great. Kids always love that, so they get demonstrations, they get to ask questions, they get to sit in the vehicles, wear the equipment. It was a really nice collaboration, so we appreciate working with all those departments. And then, we're entering our fourth week this week, so we've been... Getting pictures posted. We've been everywhere, here and there, everywhere. We added that field day this year. That's been really popular on Tuesday, so we'll be getting into that again tomorrow. Trips this week, we're going up to Mount Major, up near Winnipesaukee, as well as Weir's Beach. We're doing Canopy Lake Park, which is probably our most popular trip. And then we do an outdoor laser tag on Friday. So that's what this week looks like, bud. That's going really well too. So again, we've got 100 total kids that are participating at the various different field trips. Staff's doing an awesome job, especially with some of the heat and the weather that we've had. Really got to commend them for what they've been taking on this year too. Attendance lessons for our youth grades three to 12 began tonight, so 20 total participants. We weren't able to get the grades one to two program with the USTA. They unfortunately didn't quite get to that number and also didn't have an instructor to run the program. So that's something we've been working to partner with them, but we found it's been a little bit easier when we actually have our own instructor and run the program ourself, because we don't have minimum numbers in terms of what we need for each grade level. uh the adult lessons are set to begin on on uh wednesday so that's an introductory program we have eight participants in that five football clinic it's five week clinic begins on wednesday as well we have 30 participants that's maxed out so that's the highest we've had in the last couple years that's over at west road not on field two so that's all right we'll avoid that over there kevin these kids all right yeah fee schedule so there's a public hearing coming up uh for monday the 20th at the town council meeting to discuss the fee schedule that was discussed at the previous meeting um so recreation is in there uh some of those fees weren't initially in there in past years there's never been really a fee structure for recreation so some of the the details for what's been submitted recreation wise is a requirement of a certificate of insurance which is something we've already started implementing the last couple years anyways but when people are using it to name the town as additionally insured or to have their own TULIP policy that names the town as additionally insured. So there's different variations of what you require depending on if you're a nonprofit or if you're doing a day off activity. Some of the other fees that were submitted include just in general what we've been doing with our recreation programs, our camps, any of our lessons, and that's all collected through the revolving fund. And then we've also looked to implement some field and facility rental fees that will vary depending on who's applying, if it's resident, non-resident, non-profit, or for-profit, and there's variations within that. Those fees do vary, again, as part of that fee schedule. We're looking to start including security deposits for uses of fields, damage fees, as well as lighting fees. So some of those things that some of the leagues are currently doing, that would be implemented if groups are coming in. We know we have some groups using tournaments over at LAFA. I'm sure soccer fields are going to get used. So there's a way now that we'll have a structure for an application process to reserve those field spaces with the fees associated with it. Um, the idea, uh, with the fee schedule essentially is an offsetting revenue stream for our current expenses. So that comes anywhere from sometimes when people are using the field spaces or using the open spaces, you know, there's staffing, uh, staffing time that goes into them instructor hours. Um, or some, when it comes to programming wise, it's usually an offsetting costs. It's not about making money. It's about offsetting the. the cost of the instructors but we also have things like uh trash portal toilets general maintenance damages from the activities events all that kind of comes back in so these some of these fees are there to offset you know what potentially could happen there which again is why security deposits are involved and it's also a way of creating a revenue stream that's allocated specifically back to those fielded facility spaces So there's no cost to the taxpayers. So people are choosing to do as similar as they would with the programs. It's one of those things. So we start creating that general maintenance fund that isn't currently there. So like I said, it's a revenue source and it kind of helps us avoid going and having to request increases in the budget. Brian puts up on more articles that we can start upkeeping some of our own field and facility spaces. It's just a different generating revenue stream that's not currently there.

I neglected to recommend to everybody mention their names so they all get recorded as attending. Do you want to jump in and do that now?

tonight so that position is still open we haven't had any additional applicants so that that's its position for those that aren't aware that's a full-time position so still posted on some different websites you know open we'll get some applicants for that but are are kind of looking at some alternatives to that position in general too so But definitely those that are working out there are pretty strung out there, doing the best they can to stay with the field maintenance. And obviously we're having some additional things that have popped up over at West Road. So staff has been busy, the seasonal staff as well as some of our temporary and Sid himself.

And I was drafted into it.

And you were drafted back. I better be careful too. Pull them back in. Grant opportunities? So grant opportunities, I'm going to send this along probably in an email, but we received some different opportunities that have come in that can be applied through boards and commissions as well as LWCF. So LWCF is Land, Water, Conservation funds that's been used for various fields and court spaces here in town in the past. So those are some options as we look at specifically the capital improvement plans and the projects that are there is backfilling some of that potentially or taking care of the costs of those facility spaces through those grant opportunities. So we're just going to start looking into that. Happy to share that with the commission as well. So those would be some things. Those might be items coming down the road that some assistance might be needed from the commission in terms of helping to gather information, past insight, knowledge, all that sort of thing. So check your emails.

Good. Okay, old business. Facilities update.

I'm going to throw this over to Kevin first with the facility update over at West Road.

Yes, we had a problem a couple weeks ago with a leak in the discharge pipe that actually runs underground. And I can pass it around. But I guess you can take it if you want. So the piping comes out from the pump house down underground, takes a couple turns. That actually happened at Field 6 a few years ago, and we had to change the first 10 or 15 feet of piping. That's so funny. We were able to throw a clamp on it for now. We have RH White coming out Monday to give us a price to fix that. Then we put a brand new foot valve in a couple months ago, and that already failed. When you take a straw and you put it in a drink, you put your finger on top. you take it out you can take it so the foot valve keeps water in but the check valve after the pump does the same thing but when you have a leak like this it lets the water run right out the foot valve so for a few days it had a wicked hard time trying to keep the pump primed but to change the foot valve it's out in the pond And we have no way to get into it except for an old rowboat we have. So we've got to go out in a rowboat and reach over the edge and try to get this 100-pound valve out. So we're going to talk to Irish White about putting some flanges in on the beach where you can unbolt it and then pull it up in. But right now there's rocks in the way and brush. So we've got to kind of clear a path down to the pond, make it so we can get it with our tractor and some straps and pull it in. We're going to get a price to see what it's going to take to do that because it's only Sid and I really that know how to do this. And you can't get another company to come in. They don't really specialize in this kind of stuff. So we've got to make it easy for the next person. And it's what they do with the school, but the school's got a little tiny suction pipe. Ours is a 4-inch. Ours is a 6-inch. And ours is hundreds of pounds heavier. And they struggle pulling theirs out with a golf cart, so... We've got to make that a little bit easier to do. So we're working on that. And then, just today, we developed on field two the big wet spot and sit-call TLC irrigation, who takes care of LAFA. Yeah, they do. So he's gonna try to get them out there to look at that because that's a bear to try to fix. Whenever you cut one of these big lines, they always spring. And because it's down underground, it's hard to move around. But they're gonna let it dry out for a day. So they're gonna look at that on Wednesday. And that's all I'm aware of so far. I don't want you telling me anymore. I started dating.

Come on over here. Let me show you all this stuff. Look at what's happening. Hey, equipment. Nothing to report there. Same with budget. We just started new budget season, so we're doing great right now. But no, we looked pretty good by the end of last fiscal year as well, which is great.

Yeah, that's good.

Anybody have any comments or should I share what you instead called me about you again? Yeah. So the 1st problem called me about right now, which was throwing some. A donation to the recognition to support that from. The soccer club, and so I have preliminary approval to do it, but. Just looking to find out how much it's actually going to cost before we... So that'll be Monday?

Yeah.

Yeah, so we can kind of... It should probably take them a week to figure out after that. Yeah. In a couple weeks, we should know.

Yeah, so once we have that, I can go back, but I have a couple... I don't have a quorum yet, but I have most of it.

Well, I appreciate you even looking into that, because that's very helpful, obviously. As we start a fiscal year, we don't want to be dipping into some buckets that we barely have the funds in there anyways for, so...

If the other question we have is, because we've faced this before, having to fund certain things, but other groups that use those fields, are they also being asked to support, to maybe put a donation towards that?

So you're talking to other leagues? Yeah. So that's something we can definitely work on addressing. Yeah, I think... Part of what's coming through, as Mike knows, we're going through a transition year with some of our policies too, but having those agreements in place going forward too, so people know what's expected of them. Memorandum of agreements, that'll be something starting in hopefully 2027, we get that all going. Everybody's on the same page. We're getting leagues back to the table with the schools, working together with the town and making sure everybody's in alignment in terms of scheduling who's doing what any other additional maintenance needs projects that need to be done and how do we work collectively together to get that done so um as we're kind of i know we're midway through the summer but that is something it's very much on the docket so summer ends that's yeah that's what my priority will be is getting that going which is why fee schedule is important too i think just to have that because it will be a component of those agreements and and facility and usage agreements in general yeah let's talk about that so to find out what that fee schedule looks like and see if maybe this will help offset some of that and that would be something so leagues won't be there won't be charged to leagues for that sort of you know other than what agreements that are already in place lights things like that that are paid for you know if there's you know water or stuff whatever whatever there may be um we'll figure that out but that'll be separate yeah i mean we have our meters pay for the lights on one two three right so yeah yeah we can look at that but we're

We're going to have led on all of them, so that's going to be helpful. Yep.

And that's something I know you guys are. Yep. So we're, you know, we're looking just in general with, you know, we talked a lot of alignment and, you know, making sure the concession stands are up to code and doing all that. So just things that have, you know, haven't been done, we're going to start getting those in alignment so that again, it's covered not only by the groups using them, but also by the town and because it falls under a town property and town insurance policies. We fixed the bungee cords on great.

It was really just one shelf that had a bunch of cords. No, no. Stronger ones. Somebody came in and put wall anchors in. It was literally just this little shelf where things sat on top of it, and it was being held up. So those are fixed. Those are fixed. Yeah. I think that was our only finding. Yeah, yeah.

Does anyone else have any things they want to bring up?

Anything from Laffer or anything like that?

No, I think we meet Wednesday night just for a general board meeting. One thing I will say, I was at the gym today, and a person who had just moved to town was actually really impressed with the offerings that we have in the rec department. He has three younger kids. young family he said it was just nice to be able to put them all in things and not worry about the cost so for what it's worth the public is that was unsolicited he just we were talking about something and that came up and he said he i think they did the run the track program um so they just they he appreciated him and his wife awesome yeah nice to hear that yeah a lot of credit goes to staff instructors too they're doing a really really great job so we got a great group of people this year that are

Enthusiastic, you know and really really care about the program participants too.

So good buddy of that What will you be reaching out for volunteer needs for those events that were yes?

Yeah, I think that's something I'll probably do it prior to next because next meeting comes that same week is old home day So I'll do it prior to that about what what it is. We need. Yep. I know I'm sure Shearson that committee will be looking for volunteers in general to his old home day week is always busy, but just

or something at Old Home Days?

We haven't in the past. We could reach out about that. I don't know. I'm trying to think of other boards and committees. Do any other boards and committees have their own table at Old Home Day? You might know better on that.

They can. Conservation does. Beautified legendary does. Green team. We all stand together because it's all environmental. Well, I'm not volunteering. No, yeah, yeah. Careful. Years ago, it would be cool if you guys had like, what is that? Is it Nerf or something? The foam? Oh, yeah, yeah. And Patty used to do all the, like a sumo wrestle all you wanted to do. stick on the wall. It was a big sign, and people were signing up for soccer.

Well, laugh us off the last couple years, I know, too. Yeah, they do something for the Cougars. The games and everything. But no, if we have anything like that, I'll be sure to let the commission know. I think kind of just in general, as we kind of, again, through the transition is I'll probably be reaching out to, you know, I, we're looking to, I'm starting to speak about, you know, the commission doesn't quite have bylaws in place and everything too. So it's, it's establishing those kind of giving this, the red commission purpose aside from what the skill sets are here, the past experiences, the insight, and kind of starting to really get us on a focus and the trajectory of what, what it is, you know, this commission can be doing to help out our department, which we now know is right now is one person. Cause when I know the position's not filled, it sounds, So obviously looking to lean on the knowledge base that's there from the past, people, volunteers, and that is there now. Not to ask everybody in this room to do more than what it is you're already doing, but as we start going through these projects, you know, I want to start focusing on that. And if there's things that you feel like you can be assistance to, expertise that you have, feel free to pass that along. I'm always open to that. I think that's the best way to kind of make sure collectively to work together. So that's all I have to say on that.

Sure.

Great.

need a motion to uh sure eight o'clock make a motion to adjourn second on paper okay good we're done