Dog Park Update!

Hello!

We think things are finally moving, with the Arcata Dog Park, although continuing at a snail's (or slug’s) pace. At our last meeting with the City Manager (we continue to meet monthly), Karen Diemer let us know that the EPA was involved with the site. Their first step is to make sure that the city did its due diligence in getting the site (which it did). If the city can't find a viable Potentially Responsible Party for clean up, they can use their own funds to clean it up. Karen also said that it would probably be 3 months to get approval of the sampling plan and reminded us that some dioxin contamination from the kiln room was removed years ago. So that’s good news.

It has been a challenge for us to be patient with this long, drawn out government process, but because we are committed to having the finest dog park north of the Bay Area, our focus will continue to be on this Little Lake Property spot next to the Arcata Marsh. It is a beautiful piece of land, close to other walking and biking trails as well as the downtown, and the only spot in the city where we can have some acres to develop separate small and all dog areas (“all dog” instead of large dog because we’ve learned that there are many small dogs who love to play with their larger buddies). We remain committed to having a wide trail around the entire fenced dog park, knowing how much people enjoy watching the joy of dogs running and playing, even if they don’t have their own pooches.

We continue to service a dog waste station at the Arcata Marsh, and Marni, another member of our dog park working group who owns Humboldt Pet Supply, continues to organize clean up of dog waste along the marsh trails. Lynnette has been steadfast in meeting with the city manager so we can stay on top of things.

We hope you will stay in touch with us. You can email me at py4@humboldt.edu. We also have a Facebook page where we try to keep folks updated along with our website.

Pooches wishing all of you a wonderful summer of fun, play, swimming, running, and chewing!

Woof woof!

Pam