The potential for a new dog park in the city received an airing Monday, with a council committee asking that a lease agreement be drawn up for council’s consideration.
Council’s Parks, Recreation, Public Lands and Buildings Committee met to receive public input and discuss the potential installation of a dog park at Ridge Park.
“This is a topic of conversation that has been ongoing for years now here in the city of Bowling Green,” said committee member Mark Hollenbaugh just prior to making the motion regarding the lease agreement, “and I haven’t heard any argument pro or con the notion of a dog park that I haven’t heard multiple times before over this period of time.”
The idea of a new dog park in the city has received serious discussion at public meetings since at least 2022. There is a dog park currently located in the city – the Wood County Dog Park, at 1912 E. Gypsy Lane Road – but concerns have been voiced that that facility isn’t easily accessible for some residents and the desire was expressed for a park within walkable distance. City council has designated $150,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds towards such a project.
The Citizens for BG Dog Parks organization has been among those working on the issue; the group’s board president, Wendy Manning, recently announced at a council meeting that the group has been incorporated as a legal entity.
Committee chair Damon Sherry began by discussing provisions of a draft lease agreement between the city and Citizens for BG Dog Parks. Among the provisions, the lease would last three years, and infrastructure improvements – including water, sewer, electric, gas, and others – would be the responsibility of the group. They would also be responsible for the maintenance and repair of the dog park and grounds, including lawn mowing and the removal of dog feces.
City Attorney Hunter Brown fielded some questions on the issue which had been posed by Councilman Jeff Dennis and others. One of the questions involved the group having an amount of money in escrow which could cover lawn mowing and feces cleanup “in case something went south,” he said. Municipal Administrator Lori Tretter, as the discussion continued, later estimated that a few thousand dollars would likely be recommended in escrow for that purpose.
Asked by Sherry about the likely hours of operation for the park, Brown said “I suppose we just go by sunup (to) sundown just like we do with the parks currently.”
With the meeting opened to public comment, resident Jenny Swope asked about the standards or maintenance at the park. Brown reiterated the issues of lawn mowing and feces cleanup, and said that if that was not occurring, it would be a breach of the lease and could result in eviction of the dog park. He also said that city exterior maintenance ordinances would apply to the site.
Resident Dale Arnold asked about the size of the proposed dog park and whether it would be fenced.
Mayor Mike Aspacher responded that the final design and layout is still a work in progress, but that it has been his impression that the working concept is that the dog park would be situated on the northern portion of the park, and that it would be fenced in.
“There have been discussions about creating some form of electronic access to the park,” Aspacher said, but the details were still to be worked out.
Asked by Arnold about parking, Aspacher said that there is already parking at the site and “I would expect a good portion of those using the dog park would arrive on foot.” He said that the site would be monitored to see that best practices are being implemented.
“The whole thing with regards to the lease is that if it goes south, we don’t have to renew the lease,” said Brown. “It’s kind of an experiment, in a way. A good one, hopefully.”
Raising a number of concerns was Enrique Gomezdelcampo, who argued, among other points, that the park would not benefit a majority of citizens. He said that about 38% of BG residents are dog owners, but likely not all of them would use the park.
“If we run the numbers, we say 20% of the residents of Bowling Green would benefit from a park which currently now serves everyone,” he said.
Further, Gomezdelcampo said that Ridge Park is the only park in Ward 1, and putting the dog park there would take a substantial amount of it out of general use.
“Most of the users of this park would probably not come form Ward 1,” he said.
Resident Rose Drain said that she and her husband look for locales with dog parks when they travel with their dogs, and said that the dog park on Gypsy Lane is open only by membership. She also argued that Ridge Park was selected after a feasibility study carried out by Bowling Green State University graduate students.
“It was found that Ridge Park was the most optimal to be a within-walking-distance dog park because of the density of the population on the east side of town,” Drain said.
Later, Drain also noted that the group has discussed having a QR code at the site that users can scan in order to acknowledge that they have read the rules and regulations of the park. By signing an electronic waiver they would then receive a code to open the dog park’s gate.
Sherry also said that they have not seen the proposed dog park site being utilized in peak summer months, and that they have seen people walking their dogs in the area.
Hollenbaugh later moved that a lease agreement be drawn up between the city and the Citizens for BG Dog Parks group, with the lease agreement to be presented before council for their consideration.
The matter passed 3-0.
In other business, council:
• Heard a follow-up regarding concerns recently expressed by a citizen about speeding cars on West Gypsy Lane Road. Aspacher noted he had communicated with Police Chief Tony Hetrick about the issue, and that the Bowling Green Police Division conducted a comprehensive traffic study over 9 days in that area. He said that “of all the cars that were surveyed over this period of time, the average speed was three miles per hour over the speed limit,” which he said didn’t indicate a serious problem in that corridor. Additionally, in the previous nine months, 31 speeding tickets were written in that area. He said that his takeaway from the data was that there is not necessarily a significant problem with speed on that roadway and that there is a consistent police presence there. However, Aspacher said they did not want to minimize the concerns of the resident and that “we do, of course, want to hear concerns residents have and we are mindful of observations we receive from residents like him.” The city takes people’s opinions and experiences seriously, he said.
• Witnessed the swearing-in of two new firefighters into the Bowling Green Fire Division, Kayla Laumann and Dolly Outland.
• Heard from Tretter that the Climate Action Plan committee continues to meet regularly and is nearing completion of the final draft of the city’s Climate Action Plan. She noted that the draft is nearly 100 pages in length and includes tables, charts, figures and other appendices.
