Chaz and I met with three people from the MAC this morning. It was a great experience–enjoyable and enlightening. They were highly appreciative of the card and gift basket, and it was fun bringing Chaz into the lobby, where he was doted on by everyone who passed by.
I met with two representatives from the public information office as well as the manager of environmental affairs. They are all, by the way, dog owners themselves. They expressed that the MAC is happy to provide this property for the use of the community, but–and this is an important point–they don’t consider it to be a dog park. It’s a greenway, open for public use, that has no prohibitions against dogs.
The MAC needs to find a balance between allowing us to use this property and taking no responsibility for what happens with our dogs. If they were to support this usage in any way–even to the point of calling it a “dog park”– it would make them liable in terms of insurance and environmental regulations and other legal complexities.
I asked them what they would like us to know, and here’s what they said:
- They don’t want the property to appear to be a dog park, meaning, the usual dog park accoutrements (water bowls, chairs, signs, etc.) need to go. We can have these things around while we’re using the property, but please don’t leave them there.
- The most serious problem that they’ve experienced is when a dog gets on the other side of the runway fence (the tall fence with the barbed wire on top). This can happen if a dog slips through the rolling gate when a MAC vehicle is passing through, or there may be gaps under the fence large enough for a small dog to crawl under. If your dog gets on the other side of the fence, call 911 immediately. This kind of incident triggers all kinds of FAA attention, so needless to say, we should all be extremely vigilant when our dogs are near the fence.
- No kite flying. I haven’t seen anyone flying a kite here, but apparently someone did recently and it caused a kerfuffle. It should be obvious that it’s not a good idea to fly a kite where airplanes are taking off and landing. Not to mention that it breaks all kinds of FAA regulations. ‘Nuff said about that.
- Please don’t bring dogs into the small area by the parking lot where the benches are. (They left it at that, but let me add that this area is for the use of MAC employees, and nobody wants to each lunch where dogs have done doggy things. Know what I mean?)
- When you’re leaving the park, if you hang your poop bag on your windshield, don’t turn on your wipers. There has been a rash of blue bags on the street in front of the MAC building (someone on the blog mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, too). After a while, it starts to look like people are losing poop bags accidentally-on-purpose.
- They also reiterated that Mother Lake is not a drainage area. It’s a natural pond that feeds into the chain of lakes and eventually flows into Minnehaha Creek. While there are no chemical hazards to worry about, the marsh can be so mucky that dogs can get stuck in it. They told me that over the years, a couple of dogs have perished in it.
My impressions:
- We call it a dog park, because that’s how we use it. But we need to remember that it’s really not one. It’s just a place where we can run our dogs off leash.
