CPP News Reprint

The News & Observer

The Chapel Hill News

June 11, 2003

Funds to pay for fencing dogs in

Author: Dave Hart; Staff Writer

CARRBORO -- With nary a word of comment -- if your attention had wandered for just a moment, you would have missed it -- the Board of Aldermen recently approved a $3,500 allocation in contingency funds to go toward building a fence around the Anderson Community Park leash-free dog park.

The allocation bolsters funds raised privately by dog owners and members of the nonprofit Carrboro Parks Project, which for the past year has been conducting a fund-raising campaign for the fence.

The twist is that the fund-raising campaign just a month ago reached its goal of $5,000, two weeks before the town made its contribution. The approximately $8,500 will allow the Parks Project to purchase a more complete fence than it had originally planned and perhaps to add another amenity or two.

"We had set our target at the lowest possible level we calculated could pay for a minimal installation," said Rob Morris, who has spearheaded the dog park fund-raising campaign. "No lights, no benches, no water fountains. Just a chain-link fence around part of the dog park.

"Now we can make it a really awesome place. We can fence almost the whole area, except for the entrance where you come in from the parking lot. We'll get that us up as fast as possible."

The 4-acre leash-free dog park is a popular destination for dogs and their owners, but it is situated perilously close to N.C. 54, a busy highway with high-speed traffic. The park is buffered from the road only by a narrow strip of trees. There's no physical barrier to prevent dogs from running into or across the road, and even well-trained dogs may ignore voice commands if they pick up the scent of a deer or a squirrel.

On more than one occasion, said members of the Carrboro Parks Project, dogs distracted by other dogs or deer have dashed into the road, and their owners have followed in pursuit.

Users of the park asked the town several years ago to put a fence up around it, but the budget was tight and the aldermen suggested the dog owners try to raise the money privately.

The then-fledgling Carrboro Parks Project -- a group of residents with an interest in improving the town's park facilities -- took up the cause as its first project. The town's Recreation and Parks Department gave its thumbs-up to the effort, and the Parks Project began soliciting funds from dog owners and others.

Several months ago, Alderman Mark Dorosin suggested that the town contribute some funds to the project, not only because the cause was worthy but as a way of rewarding and encouraging the kind of private fund-raising effort the Parks Project was engaged in.

The $3,500 allocation meets that suggestion. It came just two weeks after a big donation by Kirk Korley, owner of the Doggie Spa and Day Care, put the group at its target.

"The way fund-raising seems to go is you go along and go along, and then at some point an angel drops out of the sky and says, 'Here's something you can use,'" Morris said. "The town's allocation is the second one of those angels. Kirk was the first. He called and said, 'How short are you?' I said 'About $2,500.' He said, 'I can do that.' He more or less single-handedly put us over the top."

The town's funds will allow for an additional feature or two at the dog park, Morris said.

"One idea is a dog-washing station, essentially just a little slab of asphalt and a spigot," Morris said. "There's a sort of mudflat in one part of the park that dogs love to wallow in, and after that, you're not so crazy about putting them back into the Subaru. It would be nice to be able to hose them off. Another idea would be a light of some kind for mornings and evenings. We'll have to figure out what would be most beneficial."

Now that funds are in-hand for the dog park fence, the Carrboro Parks Project is turning to its next endeavor: planting trees in the Town Commons and erecting a shade structure over the toddler playground there.

"The commons is kind of barren, and that playground becomes a roaster in the sun," Morris said. "We'd like to spruce that up a little."

The Carrboro Parks Project will hold a fund-raising dinner Thursday evening on the lawn at Weaver Street Market, starting at 5 p.m. In the meantime, Morris and the rest of the park people will move forward with getting the fence purchased and up.

"We're looking at the town's contribution as a way of saying, 'Job well done,' or 'Attaboy,'" Morris said. "We're very grateful. It's been a lot of fun being involved in this. I had never done fund raising before. There's going to be a lot of satisfaction when that fence goes up."