Is it time for Wellsville to build a dog park ?
By Kathryn Ross
As the weather gets warmer, you see more and more people out walking. More and more of those people are holding on to long leashes with happy dogs at the other end. The dogs come in all sizes and are all different breeds. You see dogs hanging out of car windows and in the back of pickup trucks. You see small dogs pushed in strollers. You see larger dogs on leads sniffing around light posts and parking meters. Sometimes the leashes are so long that the dogs get tangled up or endanger others walking on the sidewalk.
Back in the 50s and 60s when I was growing up, my special friend was my dog Bucky. I’d spent months luring Bucky to follow me home after school, making my parents or his owners pick him up from my house and return him to his house. My chicanery worked. After a couple of months of transporting the dog, Bucky’s owners gave him to my mother for her birthday in February. That was pretty much giving the dog to me. Bucky and I were meant to be together, even if I did have to work at it.
Bucky traveled everywhere with me, to the swimming pool, to the park, to the corner store and the ice cream parlor, to the neighborhood baseball lot, to school and each night to my bedroom where he slept on my bed. He was with me from the time I was seven years old until I was 20 years old. I grieved for weeks after he passed away.
I’ve always resented the popular notion in literature and movies that only boys have relationships with dogs, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Old Yeller, Savage Sam, etcetera. And that when girls do have dogs, “Legally Blonde” the animals are yappy, or puffy little things that they dress up. Bucky was a Boxer mix. The smallest dogs I’ve ever had are Cocker Spaniels.
So, I clicked on the newspaper story I saw, reporting that the city of Salamanca had decided to build a dog park. For the last few years I’ve thought that Wellsville needed a dog park, but I always poopooed the idea. After all we live in the country, dogs have plenty of freedom, right?
They did when I grew up. I don’t know when the leash law was put into effect, but Bucky was never on a leash. Today you don’t see a lot of loose dogs in the streets. When you do, they are quickly ratted out on Facebook or other social media, or by word of mouth, and they’re picked up and returned to their owners. Today’s dogs don’t have a lot of freedom to run loose. They’re kept in fenced yards or pens or kept in the house away from the public and other dogs.
The newspaper article described Salamanca’s idea for the dog park came after the board heard from multiple community members that they had been traveling to Ellicottville, Olean and Jamestown for their pets to exercise and play in dog parks. The goals for the dog park project are to create outdoor activities that can support a healthier community by encouraging exercise, togetherness and responsibility; to construct the park using city resources and community volunteers; and have it connected to local assets such as trails and other parks.
The perfect place for a Wellsville dog park might be one of the farthest athletic fields at Lagoon Field. One of the already existing fields could be used because it is already fenced, or a new one could be fenced. There should be landscaping with trees and shrubs (all dogs like shrubs) and benches for people to sit on. There could be a water feature where dogs could drink or swim. There should also be a bag dispensary and a place for disposal to keep the park clean. Salamanca is also looking at a way of segregating small dogs from large dogs to keep the peace.
Salamanca is getting help from local community groups and the Village Board. The park is expected to cost $6897. The planners are looking at getting a subscription to See My Legacy a community engagement fundraising platform.
Wellsville is much the same size as Salamanca and has the ability to raise funds for a dog park and has the available space to put it. It’s time the village goes to the dogs and builds a dog park.
