Discuss and Brainstorm Adair Dog Park Issues and Opportunities This Wednesday
Decatur Metro | January 30, 2012 | 10:11 amFrom Be Active Decatur…
Adair Dog Park Meeting
Wednesday, February 1, 6:30pm at the Beacon Hill Complex -430 W. Trinity Place (Behind the Police Department)
Decatur Active Living will host a dog park meeting to discuss the following items:
- review and have a discussion about exercise equipment and park amenities
- erosion issues and possible solutions
- dog festival ideas
For more information contact Gregory White, Active Living Director at 404-377-0494 or [email protected]
Is this just about the dog park? Is part of the discussion around exercise equipment for dogs? Are there any other details regarding this meeting?
I am sure more exercise equipment for our dog friends will be popular.
Are pets allowed in the Beacon Hill complex? Instead of assuming we KNOW what dogs want, we should include them in the discussion.
Survey Monkey for dogs!
Dog exercise equipment? WTH? I can’t see my four month old puppy doing leg lifts. …at least not without a competent St. Bernard to spot him.
While we’re on the subject of dogs, can anyone tell me if I need to register my dog or get a dog license for Decatur? I have the dog park tag–what else do I have to have so the nasty man with the net doesn’t take my dog to the pound?
In theory (okay, in reality), I believe you’re supposed to have your dog licensed with DeKalb County. However, we’ve always considered their bureaucratic inability to enforce or even prod compliance as tacit approval to take a pass. Others’ mileage may vary.
Remember this? http://www.decaturmetro.com/2011/05/08/eye-on-the-street-182/
The tree is still sad as far as I know.
I would be the first person to buy tickets or volunteer for a dog festival. However, this talk of exercise equipment for canines is not just silly, it’s moot. Decatur already has plenty of exercise equipment for our friends of the furry persuasion. They are called squirrels, chipmunks and birds!
my dog would really dig a tennis ball cannon or maybe a pitching machine . I wonder if the city has money for that.
I talked to my dog. She wants plastic scratch hands planted in the ground at belly level. Also, a meat fountain.
And probably speak for many humans when I say I want a trash can along the sidewalk of Adair Ave. A person or persons regularly leave(s) bags of dog poo next along the sidewalk there. It’s strange – somebody goes to the trouble of bagging it, but then leaves it there. The bags are there so frequently, maybe the way to “stop” it is by placing a municipal garbage can there.
Andisheh, I nominate you lead a newly formed dog-excrement trash can location committee. I’m only half joking. I just got a dog, and you know what I learned? I was apparently the last one if the City of Decatur to do so. It’s like they come with the houses here. Everyone has a dog, and everyone walks there dog, and everyone could use more trash cans strategically located along the main thoroughfares. I would personally lobby for one at the corner of Labmont and Vidal.
Not sure where Labmont is. Does it cross Vizsladal?
In all seriousness, more trash receptacles would be nice. I think both Lamont/Vidal intersections would be a good start. Until then I guess I’ll just continue following local custom and depositing the bagged poop in my neighbors’ recycling containers 😉
The negative effects of writing on blogs when you really should be working! Yes, Lamont and Vidal would be a great start. I wonder how many others feel the same?
More trash cans = good. I would also like more mailboxes, pay phones, and water fountains scattered around public spaces. But that would be me. I know there’s a view that public amenities are communism or entitlement.
Why are you poking the monkeys? 😉
Whoops. I’m avoiding my daughter’s homework narrative (or is it expository or persuasive writing?) on industry and technology in Oklahoma, a fascinating topic that proves that some things never change.
last night Wile E. and his friends told me they are hoping for later hours and simpler gates for late night users, especially if they are getting that meat fountain. and a few free range chickens would be nice as well. isn’t decatur coyote friendly these day?
I would venture a guess they are referring to agility type equipment that is available in some dog parks (a-frame, jumps, etc)
I think an agility course would be a terrific enhancement of any of our dog parks. I also think it’s something that dog owners who use the park and would use the new equipment should get together and build/install. Get materials donated from local hardware and lumber merchants in exchange for a permanent sign in the park acknowledging their contributions. City involvement should only extend to oversight, to make sure everything is safe. I say this because, while it’s a lovely amenity, it only serves a fraction of residents. At the same time, we continue to be in dire need of things that serve most everybody — like repairing dangerously deteriorated sidewalks, more traffic-calming measures, etc.
Maybe Decatur should have an entire “Barn-raising projects” division of volunteering? Not sure Ms. Harvey could take on the additional task, but I think you’re right that there are lots of these “little projects” that residents would like to implement themselves. They just need someone to organize it.
LIke the Scott Underpass at Westchester?
If they want it, then they need to organize it themselves. Obviously, they’d need to work closely with the City, but the City’s role would only involve permission and oversight. There’s no reason LeeAnn would need to have anything to do with it. My main point is that, for something that will directly benefit a only sub-set of residents — especially something that could be achieved without heavy machinery or the involvement of DOT or any such complications — then I’d like to see that sub-set of folks assume the heavy lifting and let the City focus resources on the many direly needed things that benefit most or all residents. There’s tremendous volunteer energy and momentum in this town, and no reason we have to have the City lead us by the hand on every little thing. Instead, we can take advantage of how consistently the City will support this kind of initiative. (Imagine trying to do something comparable in Atlanta.)
Isn’t the “most or all residents” argument a little slippery? What about speed-calming measures you Oakhurstians are always making noise over? Do those benefit “most or all residents”?
That said, I agree for the most part and we’re mostly splitting hairs.
“They just need someone to organize it.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
the responses are hilarious!
+1 for meat machine and pitching machine!
(btw, where is the person who used to post as their dog??)
Yes! I so miss that person!
Well, I dunno about the dog poster you’re referring but I’m here to voice the canine opinion (mine of course and that’s all that matters, cause it’s all about MEEEEEEEEEEEEE).
I love the Adair park because this one time (at dog camp) a squirrel fell out of the tree and into my mouth. Well I had to actually grab it from a pesky beagle when it fell and mom said “good job” under her breath but Ewwwww! publicly but I digress ’cause I’m a dog & have a 5 second attention span.
So where were we? Oh yeah, what I want at the park……
1. Water, lots of it. And a good spot from which to jump into it. (Mom seconds this request)
2. Squirrels, lots of them. I prefer those genetically chosen for their slowness and stupidity. Not like those really fast smart cemetery ones.
3. Yeah, a meat fountain, with lots of meat or a buffet with bacon, cheese, ice cream and BEEEEEEER. No bananas please.
Thank you!!! Can we go there now? …Now? ….How ’bout NOW??????? I wanna go NOW!
1. A single gated entrance to the dog park. Close fence connected to the Swanton House property.
2. Heavy mulching and landscaping in all areas. The park and the surrounding property is a mess.
3. Move garbage cans inside and outside of fenced in areas so they are not near the sidewalk.
4. Create two separate dog parks; one for large dogs and one for small dogs. Possibly a bridge to connect the two over the drainage culvert?
5. Designated parking for dog park users to exclude parking in front of the Mary Gay House.
6. Remove white picket fence and install a matching brick wall that is more in keeping with the Swanton Hill property on the west side of the park.
7. Fix the erosion problem.
Thank you for this forum.
Why do you want to get rid of the Swanton Hill entrance? I admit it doesn’t make a lot of sense when the other pedestrian gates out of the neighborhood are locked, but I’d prefer to move in the direction of having them all be open.
Believe me when I say this: if installing traffic calming measures could feasibly be done as a DIY project, we would have been all over it years ago.
From where I sit, in my (extremely) revenue-positive household, it’s not splitting hairs at all. I want the City to be extremely judicious about spending money on relatively specialized amenities. IMO fancying up the dog park falls into that category. (Yes, I know different stuff gets paid for out of different pots of money. But it would still raise my hackles if there were serious discussion about the City investing in a dog playground while there are still sidewalks that are perilous for humans to use.) And I also believe that when a group of residents work together and accomplish something like the theoretical project we’re discussing, that in itself is a very powerful community-building phenomenon. It enhances our infrastructure, enlists public-private partnership, inspires others to dream up other projects and get them done, etc. etc. etc.
meant as a reply to DM, above.
Okey doke. I’m not sure where I fall on the “How many man-hours should LeeAnn devote to barn-raising projects?” scale of 0-100, but I certainly champion anything that encourages “powerful community-building phenomenons”. And we can both still pull our hair out together when people exclaim “Why doesn’t the city build something nice at the corner of Commerce and Church Street?”
And we can both still pull our hair out together when people exclaim “Why doesn’t the city build something nice at the corner of Commerce and Church Street?” +1
The City does a great job coming up with and executing on projects and initiatives that go beyond the basics and enhance life in Decatur, and of marshaling volunteers to help make a lot of those things happen. I just think there is also room for people to get things going on their own sometimes, instead of always coming up with the idea and then waiting for the City to take the lead. (I can think of several events and projects the City now manages which originally started when a handful of residents got obsessed with an idea and somehow got sufficiently organized to get something going.)
I wholeheartedly agree. It’s a big next step in Decatur’s evolution.