City of Rochester, NH Recreation, Arena, and Parks

Includes all parks, playgrounds, athletic fields, tennis courts, swimming pools, band shells, music pavilions, recreation areas, parking lots, and structures under the jurisdiction of the Director now owned or hereafter acquired by the City of Rochester for park or recreation purposes.

[Amended 3-5-2019]

PERMIT

Any written authorization issued to an applicant through the City's permitting process.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

§ 158-2 Conduct prohibited in parks and Arena.

Disturbing the peace. No person shall disturb the peace at any Department facility or park by any act.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

Immorality and indecency. No person shall do any obscene or indecent act at any Department facility or in any park; or display, expose or distribute any picture, banner, or other object suggestive of sex in a lewd, indecent, immoral way; nor shall any person dress or undress at any Department facility or in an any park except in dressing rooms provided for such persons.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

Solicitation. No person shall solicit money, subscriptions, or contributions for any purpose or attempt to sell any wares of any nature whatsoever at any Department facility or in any park unless authorized by a permit issued through the City's permitting process.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

Improper admission. No person shall gain improper admission to, or use of, or attempted admission to any Department event or any park facility, for which a charge is made, without paying the fixed charge or price of admission.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

Disobeying authorities and signs. No person shall, at any Department facility or in any park, disobey a proper order of a police officer or an employee of the Department or any employee designated by the Director to give orders, nor shall any person in any park disobey, disregard or fail to comply with any rule or regulation, warning, prohibition, instruction or direction, posted or displayed by sign, notice, bulletin, card, poster, or when notified or informed as to its existence by an employee of the Department or City employee(s) or other authorized person.

[Amended 3-5-2019; 1-5-2021]

Defacing park property. No person shall cut, break, injure, deface, or disturb any tree, shrub, plant, rock, building, cage, pen, monument, fence, bench or other structure, apparatus or property or pluck, pull up or out, take or remove any shrub, bush, plant or flower or mark or write upon any building, monument, fence, bench or other structure, or injure, deface or remove any property, real or personal, or any natural growth, structure, equipment, animals, signs or other park or Department property.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

Setting of fires. No fires shall be set at the Arena or in any park except in areas where fires are designated as permitted or except as authorized by permit issued under the authority of the Director, the Licensing Board and the Fire Department.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

(Reserved)[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: Former Subsection H, Discharging in bodies of water, was repealed 1-5-2021.

Waste matter. No person shall deposit, drop or leave any papers, bottles, debris or other waste matter or refuse of any kind in any park or part thereof except in such receptacles as may be provided for that purpose, nor shall any person urinate or defecate in or upon any part of the Arena or any park grounds.

Drinking and illegal drug use. No person shall enter any Department facility or any park in an intoxicated condition, nor shall any person drink any alcoholic beverages or consume illegal drugs of any kind or nature within any Department facility or in any park or on any park grounds, including parking lots; provided, however, that a temporary waiver from the prohibition related to alcohol consumption of this subsection may be granted to any Rochester-based nonprofit organization upon written application to, and approval by, the Licensing Board and the Rochester City Manager, which application and approval shall specify the date and hours during which such waiver shall be effective.

[Amended 6-6-2006; 1-5-2021]

Dogs prohibited on the so-called Common. Dogs shall not be permitted within the confines of the municipal park known as the "Common," situate off South Main Street between Common Street and Grant Street. No person shall enter or remain upon said Common with a leashed dog, nor shall any person allow a dog to run at large within the confines of said Common at any time.

[Amended 5-7-2002; 3-5-2019]

Smoking on the Rochester Common. No person shall smoke on the portion of the so-called Rochester Common between northeasterly side of the path bisecting said Common, at the Civil War Memorial, and the northeasterly fence line surrounding said Common where it adjoins the South Main Street right-of-way, at any time.

[Amended 10-15-2013; 1-5-2021]

§ 158-3 Recreation and Arena Commission.

This Commission shall consist of 13 members to be nominated by the Mayor and elected by the Council, in accordance with the provisions of Section 74 of the Rochester City Charter, as follows: one member from the City Council, one member from the School Board, and 11 interested citizens. Up to two members of the Commission may be a nonresident of the City of Rochester, provided that at the time of election of such individual to the Commission such individual is associated with communities or organizations utilizing the Rochester Arena facilities or has other specialized skills related to the provision of recreational services.

[Added 3-5-2019]

The terms of the City Council and School Board Commissioners shall be commensurate with their terms of service on their respective boards. Commencing January 2016, the 11 Commissioners shall be appointed for one-, two- and three-year terms as determined by the City Council. Thereafter, all appointments and reappointments shall be for a term of three years. The Mayor shall appoint the Chairperson and the Commission shall, from its own members, elect a Secretary and other necessary officers to serve for one year or until their successors are elected.

[Amended 9-4-2007]

The Commission shall:

(1)

Act as advisory body to the Director.

(2)

Aid, assist, and advise the Director in formulating plans for maintaining, equipping, operating, and regulating the recreational facilities, related programs and Department facilities and advise the City Manager in establishing a fee schedule for the use thereof.

[Amended 1-5-2021]

(3)

Inform itself of ways and means by which its plans and programs for development and use of the Department recreational facilities may best be achieved and may advise the Director, the City Council, and public of the manner in which such objectives may best be accomplished.

§ 158-4 Recreation and Arena Director.

[Amended 3-5-2019; 1-5-2021]

The City Manager, in accordance with the provisions of Sections 15 and 18 of the Rochester City Charter, shall appoint the Recreation and Arena Director for the City of Rochester, who shall be the department head of the Rochester Recreation and Arena Department. The Director shall be responsible for the direction of all phases of the City's recreation programs and parks owned or controlled by the City subject to the supervision of the City Manager. The Director shall be responsible for hiring and supervising all personnel as may be required to carry out Recreation and Arena Department programs. The Director, with the consent of the Commission, shall have the power to promulgate reasonable written rules and regulations to govern the use of the City's parks and equipment and to issue permits consistent with this Code for the use thereof as set forth in this chapter.

§ 158-5 Use of parks.

[Amended 6-5-2001; 1-5-2021]

City parks are open for the general use of the public and in particular of the residents of the City of Rochester, subject to the following exceptions:

No person shall conduct, operate, present or manage, at any Department facility/grounds or in any park, a parade, drill, public meeting, ceremony, speech, public contest, exhibit, or performance of any kind without a permit.

All organized events, picnics or outings or gatherings for a group larger than 25 persons shall require a previously obtained permit through the City's permitting process.

No person shall exhibit, sell, or offer for sale, hire, or lease any object, service, or merchandise of any sort whatsoever except under a previously obtained permit to do so through the City's permitting process.

All parks shall be open during the hours of 12:01 a.m. to 12:00 midnight every day unless signs specifying more restrictive opening hours shall be prominently posted around such park(s). Buildings or structures within said park(s) shall be open in accordance with signs posted on said buildings or structures by the Director specifying hours during which such buildings and/or structures shall be open to the public.

§ 158-6 Appropriation; reports.

The City Council shall annually appropriate such sum of money as the Council may determine for recreation and parks, such sum, together with any moneys received by the Department from charges, donations, or other sources, to be paid to the City Treasurer and by him/her placed in the credit of the Department, subject to its expenditures therefrom for the purposes as set forth herein. Annually, on or before the first day of the budget, the Director shall make a detailed report in writing to the City Manager of his/her acts and proceedings, of the condition of the facilities under his/her jurisdiction, of the standing of his/her recreation and parks program, and of his/her receipts and expenditures, together with an estimate of his/her anticipated revenues and expenditures for the following fiscal year. The Director shall make such other interim reports as from time to time may be requested by the City Manager.

§ 158-7 Violations and penalties.

[Amended 3-5-2019]

Any violation of this chapter or of the rules and regulations as provided for hereunder shall be considered to be a violation and subject to a penalty as provided in § 1-1 of this Code.