OLDS — Spring will eventually make the flowers bloom again, but right now as the snow melts, it exposes something else rather unwanted at the off-leash dog park: dog feces.
Coun. Mary Jane Harper raised that problem during town council’s March 8 meeting.
She said while feces appear to have been left on the ground by a “very small minority of users” who thereby demonstrate “lack of responsible ownership,” she wanted to bring that issue to administrative staff.
"I understand the dog park is in not very good condition and I’d just like to hear from our operations or community (services) director what’s happening out at the dog park,” Harper said.
Operations director Scott Chant said town staff don’t go out to the off-leash dog park and clean up the feces per se, but when the ground dries up, staff do go out there once a year to harrow the park to break up the feces. The idea is that broken-up feces could perhaps help fertilize the ground.
Community services director Doug Wagstaff confirmed that droppings left behind are a problem at the park.
“Yes, as the snow has melted, a lot of dog droppings have emerged through the snow and there’s been lots of comment on social media about the responsible ownership out there, so it’s somewhat self-policed, but there's still a lot of doo doo out there,” he said.
Wagstaff said when summer staff arrived last year, they did a quick walk-through – likely after the harrowing had been done.
“There was actually a walk-through with sticks like you had lost something, ensuring things were broken up,” he said.
Wagstaff’s recollection was that users of the park also organized a clean-up bee of their own at the park at least once during the year.
Harper said many members of the public are suggesting that the town’s peace officers should patrol the park to watch for people who aren’t picking up after their dogs.
Wagstaff said town peace officers do indeed undertake foot patrols of the off-leash dog park. But catching violators in the act, so to speak, is not easy.
“Of course, if you think catching a speeder is by happenchance, catching a dog doing its thing and it not being cleaned up at the same time is even more remote,” he said.
