Much like in the outside world, this peaceable place is suffering from the actions of a few bad dogs.
Make that misbehaving humans.
Sequim’s off-leash dog park, a 1.7-acre swatch of Carrie Blake Park at 202 N. Blake Ave., hasn’t been maintained as well as it could have been, said Jeff Edwards, the city’s parks coordinator.
He means that some of the playground’s two-legged users aren’t picking up the deposits their dogs tend to leave on the grass.
And that grass has taken a beating from the run-and-play crowd, Edwards added. Since dogs love to dig big holes and kick up ruts, the place was looking ratty.
So about six months ago, “we decided the best thing was to close the park down for a month,” so maintenance crews could get in and do some restoration work.
But there came a lot of whining, Edwards said, from the human users.
He decided to instead put up temporary fencing to divide the small-dog and large-dog sections of the park in half.
Then city public works crew members could fill in holes and plant grass seed inside the fence.
The dogs, meantime, could keep on doing their thing in the open half of the park.
But some dog owners, Edwards said, are taking the orange fence down to allow their dogs more space to run, throwing balls over into the temporarily fenced section and then, in some cases, not picking up the feces their pets leave behind.
“It’s not everybody,” Edwards emphasized. Many are using the plastic bags provided at the park.
Still, he wants those who enjoy the off-leash playground to take responsibility for it.
When the dog park opened in April 2007, the group known as the Sequim Dog Park Pals (www.SequimDogParks.org) promised to self-police it, Edwards said.
Now he hopes at least some Pals — and others who frequent the park — will step forward and become volunteer maintenance workers.
Limited staff
The city Public Works Department has exactly 1.5 workers to maintain all of Sequim’s parkland, including Carrie Blake Park, the adjacent Water Reuse Demonstration Site, Margaret Kirner Park at Fourth Avenue and Pine Street and the June Robinson Memorial Park at Spruce Street and Sunnyside Avenue.
The dog park — “the most well-used part of Carrie Blake,” Edwards said — needs a lot more people to help keep it clean and smooth.
Those interested in volunteering are invited to a meeting at 6:30 tonight at the Public Works & Planning offices, 615 N. Fifth Ave. in Sequim.
“I need more bodies,” to simply care for the park, Edwards said. “I’m looking forward to [tonight’s] meeting.”
At the dog park Monday afternoon, pets of varying sizes frolicked with gusto, as their masters and mistresses shivered in the increasing wind and cold.
This is a friendly place, said Bernie Bellow of Sequim; he and Scooter, his black cockapoo, have enjoyed meeting humans and dogs from Sequim as well as from Port Angeles and Port Townsend.
A happy place
“People are very happy to have this place,” Bellow said, adding that once in a while he’ll see someone who doesn’t watch his or her dog enough, and doesn’t see when it’s time to pick up and dispose of a deposit.
He’s heard rumors of it being shut down by the city, but Edwards said there are no such plans.
People just need to talk to one another, nicely, about keeping the park pleasant for all — by heeding the signs that say “scoop poop.”
Irv Mortenson, who enjoyed a romp with his puppy, Molly, at the park Monday, said he’s seen people neglect their dogs’ leavings.
But he’s also seen other dog owners cheerfully patrolling the place:
“I’ve seen some go around,” Mortenson said, “with a shovel and a scoop, picking up after others.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
