8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2015
Dog park: It probably won’t happen without mayor’s support
Continued from Page 1A
Linhart says it’s an at-
tainable goal. Many Wash-
ington communities have
successfully
established
parks, often with help from
community coalitions and
grants.
In 2011 and 2012, Lin-
hart did research and visited
a dog park in Warrenton to
learn more about how to set
one up. To make it happen,
city officials would need to
purchase, lease or trade for
a suitable property, Linhart
said. They would also have
to pay for fencing and a
source of fresh water.
City Administrator Da-
vid Glasson says finding a
location is the main obsta-
cle.
In 2012, the city identi-
fied a school district-owned
lot east of Culbertson Park
as an ideal site. But district
leaders were wary — in the
event that the district need-
ed to reclaim the land, it
would surely prove compli-
cated and unpopular to de-
commission a dog park.
In summer 2014, a local
man offered to sell the city
his property near the dog
shelter. But council mem-
bers said the asking price
was too high and it wasn’t
in the budget.
“Where is the next spot?
That is the issue. We hav-
en’t really come up with a
next spot,” Glasson said
April 24.
A reluctant council
Frustrated with the lack
of progress, Perez in Sep-
tember 2014 made a motion
to add a line-item for the
dog park in the 2015 bud-
get. That might have gotten
the project back on track
by setting aside dedicated
funds, but his effort fell flat.
“The mayor did not ask
for a second, so I asked the
council and no one second-
ed, not even Steven, who is
DAMIAN MULINIX — EO Media Group
DAMIAN MULINIX — EO Media Group
Sam, a standard poodle, drew lots of attention at the
2014 Doggie Olympics on the Long Beach (Wash.) Pen-
insula.
Piper, an oversized papillon —which means butterfly in
French — competed in the baseball toss and retrieve
event at the 2014 Doggie Olympics.
‘The mayor’s the CEO. He’s the bottom line on who does
what with what.’
— Steven Linhart
councilman
on the shelter board,” Perez
said in an April 23 email.
“So the issue is dead in the
water if it has no council
support.”
When asked why he
didn’t second the motion,
Linhart said he feels that
Perez has a history of stir-
ring up conflict, so he was
reluctant to align himself
with Perez, even for a cause
he supported.
“It’s because of the
blood between Mark Perez
and myself,” Linhart said.
“That was small of me … I
shouldn’t have done that.”
Councilman Jerry Phil-
lips, who plans to run for
mayor later this year, said
he didn’t second the mo-
tion because there wasn’t
adequate time to discuss it
during the council meeting,
which lasted about seven
minutes, according to city
records.
“It would have been bet-
ter to bring it up in a work-
shop,” Phillips said. “We
need to have the staff do
research … that’s not some-
thing you can do in the mid-
dle of a council meeting.”
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
An ambivalent mayor
Linhart and Perez do
agree on one other thing
— the park probably won’t
happen without support
from the mayor.
“The mayor’s the CEO.
He’s the bottom line on who
does what with what,” Lin-
hart said. He says when he
has tried to broach the top-
ic, Mayor Bob Andrew has
never specifically said “no.”
“He just didn’t say any-
thing about it,” Linhart said.
When asked whether he
favored building a dog park,
Andrew declined to answer
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Phillips says he supports the
dog park, “if it can be built
in the right location at the
right cost.” But he says the
city needs to pay for other
projects, including street
and water system mainte-
nance before setting aside
money for the park.
the question directly, say-
ing that responsibility for
the dog park lies with the
council. While the council
does have to vote to approve
new projects and policies,
the mayor is expected to
provide leadership by sug-
gesting goals and policies
for the city, proposing the
annual budget and making
sure city staff implement
policies, according to “The
Mayor’s Handbook,” a pub-
lication of the Association
of Washington Cities.
“I don’t think the City
Council has made up their
mind what they want to do.
It’s not been on the front
burner,” Andrew said April
24. “At this particular time
I haven’t seen the interest
level of pushing forward.”
Andrew said, “There
are plenty of places in
Long Beach where people
can take their dogs with-
out having a dog park.”
For example, he said, “the
beach.” However, the new
city policy requires leashes
anywhere but private prop-
erty. At an April 20 city
workshop, council mem-
bers and staff noted that
with a potentially volatile
mix of vehicle traffic, pe-
destrians of varying ages
and abilities, no fences and
few waste receptacles, the
beach is not an ideal place
for dogs to play off-leash.
When asked where else
citizens might take their
dogs, Andrew said, “A
fenced area,” but couldn’t
name any such areas that are
available to the public.
Andrew said he would
support the council if they
decided to revive the proj-
ect.
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