by Logan Gruber
operations@thenewsleaders.com
While a 4-2 vote by the park board in favor of placing a dog park in the drainage easement between Fir Street and the Wobegon Trail brought the matter before the St. Joseph City Council, a 2-3 vote of the council sent the dog park matter back to the park board to find a different location.
A spirited discussion took place at the Nov. 16 meeting while Park Board Chair John Anderson presented the board’s recommendation.
The drainage easement site is about five acres, but the dog park itself was recommended to be about one acre.
“What criteria did you use to rate the locations for the dog park?” council member Bob Loso asked.
Anderson said the park board had rated the various sites around town based on their suitability for a general dog park. The drainage-easement location received the most points in the park board rating system at 209. Centennial Park was the next highest with 181, with Klinefelter Park at 179 and Millstream Park at 169. Other parks rated for a possible dog park include Memorial, Northland, Monument, Hollow and Cloverdale.
“If you pick a site, shouldn’t it be one suitable for dog-park features?” council member Dale Wick asked. “The grass is so long [at the drainage easement] you wouldn’t be able to see small dogs.”
“I don’t like the site,” he continued later. “Not just because of the neighbors objections, but with the Wobegon Trail, dogs might be going up against the fence . . . I haven’t seen costs for anything, like fencing. I bet I asked for that two months ago.”
Public Works Director Terry Thene said the cost to bring water to the drainage easement would probably be about $2,500. He also said staff time to maintain the park would be about one hour per week.
Anderson noted dog park organizer Mary Munden had been contacted by a local Boy Scout who is interested in clearing brush and long grass from the area, should the park be approved.
“Have you looked at any other sites besides parks,” council member Bob Loso asked, “like out by the water treatment plant, like the archery space. It’d be a destination.”
Anderson said right now they had kept the search to parks and the drainage easement.
“We need schematics,” Wick said. “They should have been here tonight, including the fence location, mowed and not-mowed areas and where the plastic-bag dispenser would be.”
“I don’t think we want to go into the design business until we have a site,” Anderson countered.
“I’d like to amend the motion to approve the dog park to allow us to move forward only after we get some details on things, like cost of water, cost and size of fence, and noise or conflict with walking and biking,” said Mayor Rick Schultz.
After the amendment was added, the motion still failed 2-3, with Wick, Loso and Renee Symanietz voting against the drainage easement and Schultz and Matt Killam voting in favor.
The park board was directed to look at different sites and come back again.
The drainage easement is contained within the yellow line. Somewhere on the plot would have been the location of a dog park, had the council not rejected the park board’s recommendation. The park board was instructed to come back with an alternate location for the feature.
Park Board Chair John Anderson presented the park board’s recommendation to the city council that a dog park be authorized at the drainage-easement location between Fir Street and the Wobegon Trail.
