Dog park plan needs more work

Bringing a dog park to the city of Medford is a great idea.

Dog parks provide a place for urban residents to exercise their pets off-leash, while also serving as a place for visitors to socialize with other dog owners. In an era when social interaction, especially among younger people, is more likely to occur via computer or cellphone screens, the value of providing a venue for actual human interaction cannot be understated.

The people who have taken leadership with the dog park proposal should be commended for the work they have done and for being willing to step up and address a community need. This level of civic engagement is essential for the continued health of local communities.

All those things being said, as recent interaction with county committees show, more work needs to be done before any significant financial investment takes place.

Primary among these concerns is with the long-term viability of a privatelyowned, publicly accessed park.

The traditional model of park improvements are for concerned citizens and civic groups to work in partnership with local government to identify a need. Individuals and groups work to raise funds for the municipally-owned facility. This is how playgrounds and ballfields in community parks have been built across the country.

The organizers of the Medford dog park are insistent that they want the facility to be privately owned with their biggest issue wanting to retain control. This model of ownership is problematic on a number of levels including the property tax status, ongoing insurance costs and long-term sustainability when the current board members move on.

Insurance for any animal-related recreational facility is far from inexpensive. For a private group this can be prohibitive or at the very least take up a significant portion of their yearly operational budget. With hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure and parks already under its insurance umbrella, city ownership would allow for much more affordable insurance. Likewise, property taxes on a privately owned park could be a potentially large ongoing burden depending on how improvements were assessed.

Beyond these concerns is also the question of location and access to the facility. In many ways, converting the existing undeveloped meadow between the Campus Woods and the railroad tracks would be a great use, not the least of which the willingness of a business to donate the land. However, there are legitimate concerns with lack of parking in the area and having to walk about a half-mile from the trail entrance along the rustic Campus Woods trail network to even access the park. If the dog park is as successful as it promises to be, it would only be a matter of time before the county would be asked to make significant trail improvements and provide greater accessibility. These county improvements would come at signifi cant cost and would be a hard sell for the county board.

Taylor County supervisors are correct in noting the need for a place to exercise a dog off-leash is primarily a “city” problem rather than one which impacts rural residents. For its part, the city of Medford is more than willing to be a partner for the park offering the significant donation of mowing it on an annual basis, the gravel needed for park development and the labor to install the fencing that is essential for the park to open. The labor and material costs are estimated at about $15,000. With the park group’s insistence on private ownership, the question of city ownership has never been part of the discussion. It should be. Public ownership provides a mechanism for ongoing maintenance and upkeep, access to affordable insurance and no surprises when it comes to property tax assessments. It will also ensure continuity for decades to come and ease the mind of potential donors.

While it is understandable for the organizers to feel dejected in having members of the county’s finance committee reject a grant proposal. It was far from being a hard no, with the invitation to refine the plan and come back again with a more focused and realistic ask.

At the same time, the city and county should form a special joint committee to work with the dog park organizers to identify potential locations on existing public lands in and around the city of Medford. There are misfit parcels of public lands throughout the area, which while not suitable for other development, may be a good fit for a dog park. While there is a desire to get the park underway as soon as possible, it would be next spring before serious work could be done. Between now and then, organizers and civic leaders should take the time to work together for a plan that will meet the needs of today while looking to the future.