An off-duty West Valley animal control officer shot a dog in Millrace park on Saturday. News video can be viewed at http://connect2utah.com/news/features/local/stories/vid_533.shtml.
If you’d like to discuss this story, please visit the Millrace Dog Park group on Facebook.
Salt Lake City Mayoral and Council elections are coming up quickly and FIDOS will be hosting a CANDIDATE FORUM. Here is your chance to learn how the candidates feel about open space where we can exercise “off leash” with our dogs.
WHEN: MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26th – 7:00 PM
WHERE: SPRAGUE (SUGAR HOUSE) BRANCH LIBRARY (Basement Meeting Room) – 2131 S 1100 E
WHY: Mayor Becker’s management plan has seriously restricted the space that we can use in PARLEYS (TANNER) PARK. Councilmembers Van Turner and JT Martin voted for the restrictions. We finally have a chance to ask WHY??? WHY was there such little communication with our user group? WHY don’t you consider “off leash” users as an important user group? WHY is the huge need for more space not considered?
AND HOW DO THE OTHER CANDIDATES FEEL ABOUT IT? IT IS IMPORTANT THAT THE INCUMBENTS AND CANDIDATES REALIZE HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS TO US. BE SURE TO ATTEND, BRING YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND PASS THE WORD!
SEE YOU THERE!!
Your Friends at FIDOS
Please be very careful to keep your children and dogs under control and watch them closely near and around any local streams. The water is running extremely fast and deep. It is also very cold.
If your dog is a water dog, please stay completely away from the streams or keep them leashed. Even shallow wading in eddies for a drink can be unsafe!
Don’t even try going into the water to save your dog if it does fall in. The currents are simply too strong, and the strongest person is simply no match for them. Go downstream and try to find spots where your dog could have got out, and ask others for help. But stay away from the water.
Please pass the word: There have already been way too many dogs put in peril, and way too many people mourning the loss of their canine family member.
It looks like the battle over Mayor Becker’s plan to reduce off-leash areas within Tanner Park is over.
Dear FIDOS -
Thanks to everyone for all of their help with writing letters, attending meetings and letting Salt Lake City officials know that there is a huge need for areas where their citizens can go to get exercise with their dogs “off leash”. Unfortunately, last Tuesday’s decision by the Salt Lake City Council to adopt Mayor Becker’s management plan places severe restrictions on available off leash space in Parleys Park (Tanner) without providing additional space to replace what has been taken away.
We are very disappointed in the outcome of this long and exhausting process. We thank Councilmembers Soren Simonsen and Luke Garrott for their unwavering support and understanding. Councilmembers Jill Remington-Love and Stan Penfold were willing to spend time with us and listen to our concerns.
Now that we have experienced this major set-back we need to set our sights to the future and how we as a group can best advocate for our needs. Unfortunately, our collective voices have been dismissed as just so much “public clamor” and has been turned against us. The few who spoke out too loudly or rudely have become the hallmark of the entire group. FIDOS has become a group to be dismissed as a bunch of activists, we must return to being the advocacy group for our cause.
We are a group of people who deeply care for the environment, we ask for the ability to recreate with our family members in open areas. We have shown that we are willing to work to improve an off leash space and to partner with government if given the chance. We need to continue to work toward that goal.
In the meantime, we now have specific sections of Parleys that are designated “off leash” with the possibility of additional “on leash” trails in the future. We understand that these restrictions will cause increased congestion in the allowed area and will magnify the impact. We ask that everyone please abide by the new rules and encourage others to do so as well. Please continue to pick up any dog waste you encounter and carry it out to the garbage cans in the parking lot. This is huge, one of the main reasons that Councilmembers Van Turner and Carlton Christensen voted against us is because water sampling showed problems with water quality on one day during the last year. Even though it was a single day and counts throughout the remainder of the year stayed well before allowable levels, we as a group care deeply about water quality. Our main message has been consistent, clean up after your dog.
Implementation of the new plan will be gradual as funding becomes available but you should see signs very soon.
The County Sheriff will be continuing his “Care and Share” program and will be enforcing posted rules. The data thus far has been good, people are obeying the rules. Keep up the good work!!
Thanks again to eveyone who helped out and watch for future messages. We will keep you informed.
Your Friends at Millcreek FIDOS (Friends Interested in Dogs and Open Spaces)
To me, it was clear early on that the Mayor was bent on this change no matter what anyone else said. I can understand that the Mayor must try and balance the interests of different groups. But the off-leash community has seen the losing end of that balance.
There are so few areas where dogs can go off leash in our valley. Out of all the canyons, Mill Creek is really the only one that allows dogs off leash, and that’s only on odd-numbered days, and it seems like every couple of years, dog owners’ rights in this canyon are challenged as well. Each passing year seems to bring fewer and fewer places where dogs can run free.
On the other hand, cyclists can go pretty much any place in the valley they want.
So when we do have an off-leash area such as Tanner Park, it makes no sense to come in and try and impose”balance” here by restricting the off-leash areas and allowing other groups such as cyclists equal access. This is equal to going to “bike parks” and restricting where bikes can go to allow for an off-leash area.
Some dog owners understand that dogs need to socialize freely and many need more exercise than that provided by walking on leash or within a small fenced area. Unfortunately, it appears most people don’t understand that, or just don’t care.
We hope that all of you will let Mayor Becker know that you are disappointed by his veto of the City Council’s well balanced approach to the Parleys Historic Nature Park management plan. If you have sent a message to the Mayor in the past, you may have received his “canned” response in which he states that his plan would provide 30 acres of off-leash space, down from the 80 acres that FIDOS has worked so hard to take care of over the past few years.
In the Mayor’s message today to the City Council he once again changes his proposal–this time to 15 acres.
As there has been no response to our requests for meetings or information over the course of this process, we once again are in the dark about his proposal. Is it 30 acres or is it 15 acres? Does the plan still propose to put our user group into fenced in “pens” or on “off leash trails” and what is the definition of an “off leash trail”?
If environmental protection is of the utmost importance, why have all requests from FIDOS to complete improvement projects at no cost to the city been rejected for years? Who are the other user groups who will step in when we are kicked out and what have they done in the past to prove their good faith?
The mayor’s office has been willing to refuse the assistance of a very interested user group and not taken any steps to fulfill the City’s own responsibility to maintain the park. He also made an executive decision to move the PRATT trail onto the main road, thereby forcing all traffic onto their only alternative trail along the stream during construction for two years. All of these causing increased impacts. This appears to us to be a strategy aimed at causing environmental degredation with the express intent of revisiting the question and placing the blame exclusively on dog owners.
Special consideration has been given to the BMX bikers and the tube shooters. The vandals and graffiti artists are barely mentioned. The damage caused by bicycles riding off trail or in muddy conditions has not even been mentioned. The damage obviously caused by kids at the rope swing has been unjustly blamed on dogs.
There is nothing about sledding on steep erosion channels causing further erosion. Where are the additional areas that will be opened? Why is space being taken away before this additional space is designated? Literally everything in this plan is aimed at YOU–the dog owner. The Mayor’s answer to the crying need for off leash space is to take away what is already there and working. Every other user group is being placed above you.
Let the Mayor know that you are unhappy with his decision. Ask him to at least include FIDOS in the discussion. His message states “Contrary to some of the information you might have received, in the course of the Plan development I’ve had dozens of meetings and interactions with FIDOS supporters and others who want Parleys Historic Nature Park completely off-leash”–ask him about these meetings. The truth is that in the course of the last three years while his office has been preparing this plan repeated requests for meetings have been completely ignored without even the courtesy of a response.
With the exception of one meeting over a year ago, there have been ABSOLUTELY NO meetings with individual FIDOS representatives. If you were in attendance at the one public hearing that the mayor attended in the park you will remember that he spent the time chatting with other administrative personnel during the public comment session, showing very little interest in what his constituents had come to say to him.
Send your message to ralph.becker@slcgov.com. Remind him that you are not interested in the destruction of the environment, that the FIDOS group has done more to improve the park than any other group. Tell him that his inaction and refusal to accept FIDOS repeated offers of improvement projects as a strategy toward removing our user group from this valued space is inappropriate and counter-productive. That his actions are not in keeping with his loudly proclaimed environmental stand, it is apparent that his office has worked hard to create problems in the park with one goal in mind–get rid of the dogs! He has shown himself willing to promote environmental damage in order to remove our user group and in the case of the PRATT trail, replace it with another user group–bicycles.
It is interesting to note that at the same time Mayor Becker is undermining our efforts, he is in the process of hiring his THIRD full time bicycle issues staffer and has given at least a half million dollars to a volunteer group to promote cycling in SLC. We realize the high value of cycling, many of us are avid cyclists, we are simply asking why so much money and effort is put towards promoting one group while an equal amount seems to be used to undermine another. We are simply asking for some consideration.
Please also send messages to the three City Councilmembers who voted against FIDOS–JT Martin, Van Turner and Carlton Christensen at council.comments@slcgov.com. And remember to thank Soren Simonsen, Luke Garrett, Jill Remington-Love, and Stan Penfold for their willingness to listen and consider the needs of our user group. It takes five votes to overturn the mayor’s veto, if there is any chance of this happening it has to be soon, by January 4, 2011. Send your messages right away, especially if are constituents of JT Martin, Van Turner or Carlton Christensen.
“Bark Now or Forever Hold Your Leash”
Your Friends at FIDOS
Since first creating this website, activity in the discussion forum has died down considerably. In response, I’ve decided to move the discussion forum to Facebook. Please visit the Millrace Dog Park group on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=367324556173.
Discussing the dog park on Facebook offers a number of advantages. Facebook has a rich, easy-to-use interface and allows users to post comments, discussions, pictures, videos, events, and more. In addition, it is easy for Facebook users to keep current on discussions because they are notified of new posts on their wall if they “Like” the group.
If you are already a Facebook user, you also have the advantage of not needed separate log-in information to post comments on this site. If you haven’t used Facebook, this might be an opportunity to try it out.
The discussion forum portion of this website will be removed in the near future. The main portion of this website will stay intact and will be used to post news about the park. If you have information about the park, please use the Contact tab at the top of this page to let me know.
