Dog park should 'stay' in town plan

Dog owners, it may be time to storm town hall.

After planning efforts indicated that a dog park was one of the most popular ideas for Mount Pleasant's future 22-acre waterfront park and after the town had designated, in preliminary plans, 5 acres on the end farthest from the water, Mayor Harry Hallman and Councilman Kruger Smith say they think the land is "too valuable" for a dog park.

Too valuable?

The S.C. Department of Transportation is giving the land to the town as a result of Councilman Gary Santos asking for it as a passive park long before the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge was finished.

Hallman and Smith now suggest putting a performing arts center on the dog park site instead, which seems far from passive or in keeping with the implied open, green space of a park.

For those who may not know about dog parks, they are simply fenced-in areas where dogs can be unleashed to run and play with other dogs without the risk of getting run over by an SUV, tractor-trailer or school bus. Dog owners from all walks of life also get a chance to meet and share a laugh or two.

In that way, dog parks help build community. That's increasingly difficult in a world dominated by computers, cell phones and MP3 players, especially in sprawling suburban communities cut up by subdivisions, shopping centers and office parks. Suburban governments should feel the need to work harder to keep its residents connected.

Don't get me wrong. Mount Pleasant is great place to live. I know because I've lived there for nearly two decades and covered the East Cooper area, including its five governments, as a reporter for a large chunk of my career.

The town brings its residents together with events such as weekly farmers markets from April to October, several festivals and the Cooper River Bridge Run and Walk, not to mention the best Christmas holiday parade in the area. While most of its parks are "active" (ballfields and recreation complexes), its passive jewels include the Otis Pickett Bridge Recreation Area (aka Pitt Street bridge), James B. Edwards Park (Old Village) and Dorothy Kearns Park (Belle Hall).

Officials take great pride in having one of the top-ranked recreation departments in the state, but in a town with about 60,000 people and a land mass of 42 square miles, guess how many dog parks they have? None. (The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission provides one at Palmetto Islands County Park.) Guess how many other dog parks, besides the one designated at the waterfront park, are in the works? None.

Unlike some recreation facilities, they can't blame the expense. A dog park costs almost nothing. The basics are a fence, a dog-friendly drinking water fountain, a dispenser for bags to clean up messes and a covered trash can. Ideally, a few trees and benches are nice, too. A dog park would be the least expensive of all the major features of the waterfront park, which includes a 1,200-foot-long pier, visitor center, sweetgrass pavilion, war memorial, children's playground and outdoor amphitheater.

I know, personally, that residents have been asking officials for a dog park for nearly five years. In 2003, resident Kathleen Fox provided a petition with more than 200 names seeking one. Cities across America, including neighbors Charleston and Isle of Palms, have installed dog parks.

Admittedly, Mount Pleasant residents often head to Sullivan's Island to let their dogs romp on the beach during a limited off-leash time in the morning, as well as to Edwards Park and the grounds of Alhambra Hall. But a beach trip often takes a lot longer and is limited in time. If dogs run off-leash at Edwards or Alhambra, it's at a risk. Some dogs tend to turn a deaf ear to owners at the sight of a squirrel, cat or another dog.

Using fenced-in ballfields is strictly verboten by the town. Dog owners have been scolded for using them, in part, because some owners have not cleaned up messes, and little Johnny stepped in it once while running down a fly ball. That's something you don't have to worry about at a dog park, where owners tend to scoop either because it's in the interest of everyone to have a clean park or because of real or perceived peer pressure.

Mount Pleasant's waterfront park is slated to open on Memorial Day weekend of 2009. Almost all of it but the dog park will be in that "phase one." If the town doesn't include a dog park in that phase, it should at least commit to it now and, hopefully, other ones in other parts of town as well.

It's time to fulfill a need and deliver on a promise. It's long overdue.

Reach David Quick at 937-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.