Dog Park Problems (LONG) About This Page:

[RobinKay6573]

This has been a weird week so far. This is going to be a bit long so hold on to your seat. As many of you know I am the co-vice-president and the volunteer coordinator of our local “friends” group for the dog park. Since the inception of the park in September we have had several vocal neighbors complain about the park (noise, poop…whatever they could find that would “stir up trouble.”) Our park is 17 acres with a pond in the middle and the main pathway and the home is only separated by a fence and a road. The park sits almost on their door steps. I wasn’t involved with the dog park until January 2007 when the plans had already been announced and set and I only became an officer in February. During the building process (and after) I did make a few suggestions (fence? Berm?) to separate the neighbors from the park….all were rejected. After the signs went up we thought all was well. We were sadly mistaken. In late winter as soon as our president took office she suggested we try to start mediation with the neighbors (and have our partners the city & county involved…who we have a wonderful working relationship with). That is what happened…right before the calls from the mediator were being set up one of the neighbors called the Mayor of Lansing and complained about the park. He told the park commissioner to “do something”. This happened literally 3 days after we had our monthly Dog Park Taskforce meeting with the city, county, animal control and friends group officers. The park commissioner contacted everyone and told us that a fence was going up ASAP and blocking off a good portion of the park. The county (who oversees the maintenance of the park) then sent out an e-mail to me saying they were no longer responsible for the park. Apparently they felt slighted by the city (who owns the park) and were angry that such a decision was made with out consultation and BEFORE mediation.

Okay fast forward, we waited a week…no fence. The county and city finally discussed the “communication problem” and the county is now helping maintain the park again. Finally mediation happen and the results were revealed to the Friends group at our board meeting on Saturday. The agreement was to cut off about 1/3 of the park. WHAT?? I was outraged. How could our president agree to THAT?? We still have about 11 acres to work with but it seems like was lost an awful lot of land (the entire opening at the front of the park and on quarter of the side).

Needless to say this “agreement” ticks off a lot of people. I am on a Lansing dogs list serv and I have been a member for over a year. People on there started blaming ME for the changes. Scapegoat anyone?? I am not happy either BUT at least we still have a park and we still have a lot of land to work with (a pond, sandy field, forest….lots of room for the dogs to run and bounce and swim). Now I am getting attacked for trying to put a positive spin on the changes. Some of the posts got pretty nasty and probably stuff that you would never say to someone if they were standing in front of you. Thankfully the moderator of the group was able to delete a few of the posts before I even saw them (she said they were pretty hurtful). I did my best to be diplomatic and not to “stoop to their level”. My Co-VP joined the same group and posted a lot more information then I was willing to. Apparently she did something right because people keep thanking her for being so “helpful”. Now I feel like a twit for being diplomatic.

We have a public meeting with all the parties that will be mediated on May 12 to discuss what we are going to do with the rest of the park. It is going to be a very heated meeting and I almost want to bring ear plugs and sit in the back with a baseball cap over my head hoping no one notices me. People are VERY angry with the dog park board. I am trying my best to feel bad for the neighbors but it is so hard. They KNEW about the park well before it was even built. They KNOW where it was going to be located. They KNOW that dogs aren’t always silent animals.