Parks Commission

Dog Waste Working Group Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Minutes Working Group Members Present: Sharon Asay, Lyn Munno, Susan Ritz, Elizabeth Grupp, Danis Regal 1. Dog Waste systems: the group further discussed which dog waste system to go with. Leaning toward the dogipot metal bin since it is meant just for people so people could not add other trash. The cost will be roughly 400 per system and is a little cheaper if you buy more than 10. Elizabeth will draw up a budget using a couple different systems for next meeting. Some discussion of whether the bins will be big enough to accommodate a week of poop. 2. Susan called Lisa Sanchez who handles the welcome areas for the state. We would be welcome to order the system and the bags through them. Susan will look into whether this would be a savings. 3. Cheryl King Fischer attended the meeting and recommended that we get a better sense of how many dogs use the park. Susan recommended that maybe this is something that folks as part of the Diversion program could help with. Lyn will check with Geoff on this and Susan will check in with someone from the Diversion program. 4. Lyn reported that she talked to Lloyd Franks who contracts with the city to pick up the waste from the city bins. Lloyd said he would be able to pick up the bins in the park as long as he can get to them and take them to the city dumpster. It would cost $3.75 per bin. 5. Funding options: Cheryl King Fischer recommended that we really know where dog related monies go in the city to see if there might be some left over before we look into grant options. She recommended that we see where dog license money goes. We also discussed the possibility of adding an optional fee on the dog license tag to help cover the costs of bags and pick up. Danis will talk to John Odum about all of this and also how any money raised could go through the city but be earmarked for dog waste fees. There might be some small grant opportunities available as well. Also talked about the idea of a donation box. Elizabeth will look into the idea of having a nice stone donation box for the park. Also folks are going to look into options for raising money from surrounding stores that sell dog goods – blue seal, Quirky Pet, Aubuchon, Guys Farm and Yard, Tractor Supply. The group is exploring having some fees covered by the dog walking community and some by the city. The Dog Waste Working Group will meet next in the Police Station Community room on July 10th from 7 to 8:30.