Appalled at the state of the town dog park, Tisbury selectman Tristan Israel asked for increased attention toposted regulations at the Tisbury selectmen’s meeting Tuesday night.
With a new dog, Mr. Israel has been spending an increased amount of time at the John Rogers off-leash dog park off State Road, he said at Tuesday night’s selectmen meeting, and has continually noticed violations of the dog park rules which are posted on a sign at the park entrance along with waste bags and a trash can.
Problems he cited include dog feces dotting the trails, cigarette butts, dirt bikes digging up the trail and non-compliance with the three dogs per family limit.
“I’m just going to ask [animal control officer Laurie Clements], the police and everybody in the community to just have a little bit more love and care when they’re using that area so we don’t have to get more draconian,” he said.
Mr. Israel pointed out the accessibility of waste bags at the dog park and the convenient placement of the trash can.
“I don’t want to single people out. I know people make a living walking dogs,” he said. “Again, they should be carrying poop bag if you have more than three large dogs...It’s a health issue with that, not only for people but also for spreading diseases to other dogs.”
Selectman Melinda Loberg pointed out no rule was posted against use of dirt bikes or four wheelers on the trails, and said selectmen should consider adding that to the posted regulations.
She added that similar problems are often attributed to summer vacationers, but this time that is not the case.
“This is happening now, so this is us,” she said. “We have to be the first to show respect to our own community.”
In other business, board chairman Mr. Israel addressed an issue of misuse of the town letterhead.
John (Jay) Wilbur, the town harbor master, used town letterhead when writing a personal letter asking Congress to name the channel under the Lagoon Pond bridge after his family, Mr. Israel said.
“We don’t condone this. I just want to be clear to the public, we didn’t know about it,” Mr. Israel said. “It had nothing to do with us and we were very surprised and somewhat chagrined about the use of town letterhead for that request. The personnel aspect of that issue will be pursued by the town.”
Mrs. Loberg suggested creating a limited term town parking committee to address parking availability, use, and enforcement in the Island’s most built-out town.
“It has been awhile since we took a look at parking as a whole idea,” she said.
The committee would consider parking regulations and how and where they are applied and come up with a strategy or plan for adjustments for the town to consider. The committee would be made up of representatives from the selectmen, planning board, police, Department of Public Works, the business association and at large members.
Mrs. Loberg was appointed as the selectmen’s representative to the committee.
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