Dear Council Members:

             I'm writing this as a member of the Menlo Dog Owners group, and although I'm not an official representative of DOGMA, I know most members feel as I do, and they have urged me to write. Many would be willing to add their names to this request as well.

             Since the dog park at Nealon Park ballfield is closed for the rest of the summer, a number of us are visiting Willow Oaks with our dogs instead. The afternoon hours of 4 p.m. to dusk are fine and the park is well-used then. However, the posted morning hours, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., make it difficult for a lot of people to get there in time to make it worthwhile. Frankly, the hours seem strange at best, since I would think that neighbors (if neighbor concern is the reason) would prefer any noise from the park to be made later, rather than earlier, especially on weekends. When open, Nealon allows dogs from 8-10 a.m.; we would like to have at least those hours at Willow Oaks, and ideally, all day on weekends.
The early hours at Willow Oaks have always been a mystery to most of us, since this is a dedicated dog park, and not a dual use area—at least it has never been used for anything else, to my knowledge, whether that was the original intent or not. It's not suitable for a sports field or a picnic area, and informal games of catch or frisbee could certainly (and happily!) include the family dog.

As it stands now, the space is wasted during most of the day, which seems especially sad on weekends, when many neighborhood families walk their dogs and bring their children to the park, only to be unable to use the dog area after 9 a.m. Noise can't very well be a concern, since soccer games and children in the play area are probably even noisier, and they take place later in the day.

             We would greatly appreciate having the City revisit this policy. It seems a waste to let the area go under-used after having had fencing, gates, and a concrete pad installed,. We would like to request that the weekday hours be expanded to at least coincide with Nealon's, if not to leaving the dog park open all day. Although weekday hours are presently our first concern during Nealon's closing, it would be ideal if the City would also expand weekend use to more than a few hours a day.

Teddy Wilson
118 Baywood Ave.

P.S. Incidentally, we have requested a change in the watering schedule, since the current early morning schedule creates mud, which creates lots of dirty dogs, as well as doing damage to the turf. Received on Thu Jul 24 10:54:51 2008