July 19, 2008
Hi everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying your summer! There are some things going on at the dog park that we’d like to let you know about.
Obviously you have seen the signboard that is being built. Bart Hoskins designed it and has been putting A LOT of work into building it. Someone who has spent many, many, many hours helping to build the sign is Tom, the brown Lucky’s dad. Another person who has helped to build the sign is Henry, the black and white Lucky’s dad. Thank you to everyone who has spent time on this project! The park is NOT city owned or maintained so everything that is done in the park is done by volunteers. This park couldn’t run without them!
This morning we had a community service team from the Salem and Lynn courts come down and spend two hours weedwacking and trimming trees. They will be providing us with monthly maintenance!You may have noticed that the whole park was mowed this past week. A huge thank you to Jimmy, Charlie and Maddie beagles’ dad for spending his day off on Tuesday doing that. It looks SO much better!
There are some things going on behind the scene as well that you should know about.
We have a board meeting coming up Monday night where we will be putting together a proposal for City Council to get some money for more projects. In case you aren’t aware of how we access the Pooch Pass money let me take a moment to explain it. Every cent of the money you have paid for your Pooch Passes has gone into a special account monitored by the city. The money can NOT be used for anything other than the park, but the account is held by the city. So, in order to access the money we need to go before City Council with a plan and bids and ask them to approve it. If they approve it they then write a check to cover the costs. Monday night we are putting together a list of things we want to get done. Our immediate priorities are a water fountain and benches. We want to make sure the fountain is strategically placed so that when we put in the small dog enclosure we will be able to just add a spigot to the other side of the existing one so that both sides of the fence (both enclosures) have a spigot they can access. Once we decide on placement we want to install patio stones around it to prevent a mud pit. We also want to get some benches built around the willow trees to preserve them and we want a couple of benches near the sign. We’re also working directly with a man who builds playgrounds for a living and he is helping us decide on the best surface material for a huge resurfacing project. Depending on the cost of that and how much money we have we may be able to get that done this year as well.
So, Monday night we will put all of that together and we will then go to at least three different contractors to get bids on the project. We will go with the lowest bid and present that to city council. Once we have their approval and the check is cut we can get those projects started.
The things you see going on at the park now are all being paid for with the money in the SPACE account. That is the account that was set up when the park was still just an idea. All of the money we got from the fund raising went into that account. We’re using the money we had left after installing the fence to build the signboard. The nice thing about SPACE money is that we can use it at our discretion without having to get it approved by city council. So if there is something specific you would like to see done sooner rather than later that I haven’t already mentioned as part of our plans you might consider making a tax deductible donation to SPACE and designate it specifically for what you want it used for. Donations can be dropped off at the All Creatures Vet Hospital behind the park or can be mailed to the PO box listed on our website WWW.SalemSpace.org.
Speaking of the website, Alex has been doing a great job of keeping it updated and he’s added a couple of new features that you might like. We now have a Dog of the Month and we have a suggestion box. If you’d like to nominate your dog for the Dog of the Month drop us a line in our suggestion box! At the very least, check out the new and improved site!
We have a few people who have expressed an interest in doing a fundraiser to replenish the SPACE money. If you are interested in helping with a fundraiser please let me know and I can put you in touch with those people.
Your continued patience as we get things going is greatly appreciated. We are all new to this and we’re working out the glitches as we go. We do hope you are enjoying the park and we hope you like the changes that are happening and the improvements that we have planned to make the park a more pleasant place to visit.
See you at the park!
- Michele
