Dear dog parents,
I'm Pauline, Sacha's mom. Sacha and I, both long-time dog park veterans, are both thrilled that this new dog park came along. The short drives, wildflower strewn vistas & church steeple, the open spaces with soft stuff to run on, the cool people and cooler dogs.
But we see things that could be improved. Though Sacha loves the mud and I can live with it (it miraculously disappears from her coat), many people hate it. The beautiful grass is fast disappearing. The gate has a gap so big that small dogs can get out and that brings out the worst in dogs with a tendency to gate-aggression. The uncovered garbage cans stink. One of the pools is broken. There is not enough seating, and the picnic table benches are very uncomfortable. There are no umbrellas or anything for shade.
All of these things would take money to improve. The park is free, and the county is obviously doing the minimum.
I propose that we take these steps:
--first, have a couple of open meetings on a Saturday or Sunday morning to brainstorming what we want to buy or fix and how we want to do it, and figure out how much money and work would be involved.
--to meet a specific monetary goal, encourage voluntary donations from users based on ability to pay and amount of use and...
--have a program of fund-raising activities, such as a used-book sale or holiday party
--recruit volunteers for whatever activities we need to realize our plan, from advertising events to making purchases to to laying paving stones.
I know everyone is busy. I myself work eight to thirteen-hour days all week. And nobody wants a holier-than-thou junta unilaterally laying down the law or anything like that. But I think there are probably enough of us with either a little bit of time or a little bit of money, or both, to spare that could make a really good dog park into a great one.
And it could be fun.
Is anyone interested?
