TodayDog park surprise an unwelcome one
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Editorial
Article RatingWe here at The Sentinel are all for dogs. But we’ll be doggoned if we can figure out what Carlisle Borough Council is thinking in its sudden turn in direction on a Carlisle group’s quest to create a dog park.
The Carlisle Area Dog Park Association has been working hard to establish a dog park somewhere in the area so that dog owners can enjoy free exercise and play with their canine companions. This has been done with success in Lower Allen Township and Shippensburg Township.
CADPA has been busy. It circulated petitions in Carlisle and Dickinson, North Middleton, South Middleton, Middlesex and West Pennsboro townships. It received non-profit 501(c)3 status so it could begin fund-raising. Back in May, with council’s blessing, it supported forming a dog park task force, with representatives from the association and surrounding communities, to figure out how to establish one or more dog parks either in the borough or the surrounding townships.
Then in September, the borough parks and recreation board gave its nod to putting the park on 2.4 acres owned by the borough on Royer Road, contingent on council’s approval. The thought then was that a public hearing could be held as soon as October or this month, though there were some potential roadblocks to be gotten around. There was some talk about whether a $17,500 grant to the borough from the Stuart Foundation to develop an athletic field would be affected, and any dog park plan at the site would also have to go before South Middleton Township supervisors for approval.
Now borough manager Stephen Hietsch revealed last week that the borough wants to sell the plot to the dog park association — and has included the sale revenue in the 2009 budget it is struggling to balance without a significant tax increase for borough residents.
Where did that idea come from? We’d like to know, and so would the members of CADPA, to whom the offer is a complete — and not necessarily welcome — surprise. As The Sentinel story noted Sunday, from the beginning, the group has told council it had no interest in owning land or operating a dog park privately.
CADPA has estimated that it needs to raise around $25,000 just for the fencing and other park features, such as a double-gated entrance, covered trash cans, pooper-scooper stations with plastic bags and separate fenced areas for small and large dogs. That’s a tall order apart from the $20,000 purchase price for the land being suggested by the borough.
Even if CADPA could raise upwards of $45,000 in this skittish economy — and do the bulk of that in the next calendar year — ownership of the dog park will bring with it liability issues a government entity could shoulder easily but which could cripple an organization dependent on donations and community volunteers. And we expect the public hearing and land use approval process would still have to be followed, with no guarantee of the outcome.
Then there is that proposed purchase price. The borough bought the Royer Road land from PPL in 2001 for $35,000, not $20,000. Hietsch suggests that the difference could be considered the borough’s contribution toward the dog park. He also notes borough police would still be expected to patrol the park.
He also thinks the other townships could be asked to contribute to CADPA — thus making another big assumption that this proposal would be embraced by all parties besides the borough.
It has us wondering, too, if this means the Royer Road tract is available to anyone who might want to make a better offer. Or is it that this land, wedged between Royer Road and Interstate 81, is unsuitable for other uses and couldn’t be sold for another purpose?
We appreciate that the borough is looking in every nook and cranny for ways to raise cash and reduce expenses. To some, selling a vacant plot of land to put it to a popular public use may seem like a win-win situation.
All we see, though, is an odd idea, oddly presented to the principal parties, that only dashes the hopes of dozens of people who, until now, thought they were close to realizing a long-held dream. It’s an idea that belongs in the dog house.
