There are two letters in the Somerville Journal today from residents who attended the community meeting about safe and legal recrecreational options on the Community Path for park users with dogs. Seven residents—from Highland Road, Morrison Avenue, Willow Avenue and Winter Street—wrote a letter thanking neighbors and elected officials for the opportunity to come together to discuss open space options that serve the many and diverse needs of all residents (Letter: Thank you for being part of solution). A Pinkney Street resident commended the community efforts that resulted in the successful designation of a fenced-in off-leash recreational area at Nunziato Field and that continue to seek appropriate locations for similar areas in other parts of the City (Letter: Private fund raising key at dog park).

Letter: Thank you for being part of solution
Thursday, June 1, 2006

To the editor:

We are writing to express our appreciation to all the members of the community who came to the public meeting, Monday, May 16, to speak about safe and legal solutions for people to enjoy the Community Path with dogs. At the community meeting, Carlene Campbell, community outreach director for the Mayor's Office for Strategic Planning and Community Development, presented three possible locations for fenced-in off-leash recreational areas along the Community Path. The proposal was prepared in response to an order from the Board of Aldermen, submitted by Alderman Sean O'Donovan, "that the director of SPCD evaluate the placement of a dog run in the bike path area of Ward 5."

Campbell's presentation detailed the pros and the cons of the three proposed sites, and the greater part of the meeting was dedicated to questions and comments from the community. She is to be commended both for ensuring that everyone who wished to speak had the opportunity to do so as well as for the equanimity with which she attended to everyone's questions and concerns.

At the meeting, it was also noted that the current administration is re-evaluating open spaces in the city to ensure that the restrictions against leashed dogs more accurately reflects the realities of the way residents use open space and the ways that the current dog ordinance is enforced. Specifically, at the community meeting on May 16, Carlene Campbell told the community that the city has ordered new signs to replace the "No Dogs Allowed" signs on the path. The new signs will advise path users that dogs are welcome, but must be leashed and handlers must clean up after their dogs.

Everyone is eager to correct a situation that is potentially dangerous for all path users. Fenced-in areas where path users may socialize and exercise our dogs off-leash is the solution. When path users have fenced-in areas where we may safely and legally enjoy recreation with our dogs off-leash, the path will be clear of unleashed dogs.

In closing, we also thank Carlene Campbell, Joseph Curtatone, Sean O'Donovan, and Rebekah Gewirtz for the opportunity for Community Path users and neighbors to come together to discuss open space options that serve the many and diverse needs of all residents.

Tom Holland
Willow Avenue

Aun Sukanich
Willow Avenue

Jim McCombe
Highland Road

Lauren Bree
Highland Road

Pat Dains
Morrison Avenue

Yaron Davor Colon
Morrison Avenue

Bob Adams
Winter Street

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Letter: Private fund raising key at dog park
Thursday, June 1, 2006

To the editor:

The May 25 letter by Tom Lynch of Morrison Avenue correctly points out that the city has spent $5,000 on the new off-leash dog park at Nunziato Field. The letter fails to mention that the greater part of the funding for the $10,500 project was raised privately through donations and fund-raisers organized by the city's dog owners. The off-leash area at Nunziato Field is enjoyed daily by scores of Somerville residents and taxpayers.

Mayor Curtatone commissioned the Dog Owners' Task Force, whose meetings are public and held at City Hall, in response to the overwhelming demand for off-leash recreational areas for the city's dog owners. The very proposals Mr. Lynch asks the city to abandon were requested by the alderman for Ward 5 in response to constituents' concerns and needs. The Office for Strategic Planning and Community Development prepared the proposals in cooperation with the Dog Owners' Task Force. The mayor, in consultation with the aldermen for both Ward 5 and Ward 6, then arranged for OSPCD to present the proposals to the community. The city plans to hold additional community meetings to discuss the viability of the task force proposals for off-leash areas on the Community Path, and similar meetings were held prior to the creation of the Nunziato Field off-leash area.

As a taxpayer and a dog owner, I would like to commend the city of Somerville for initiating the public process that led to the creation of the Nunziato Field off-leash area. The benefits of these areas to the community are innumerable, not the least of which is the obvious public safety advantages of having people using the public space year round, long after most warm-weather activities have ceased. Anyone thinking of using a public space for nefarious activity will look elsewhere if it's a place where law-abiding residents and their dogs are socializing.

I think it's important that the city establish more of these areas, both to give families in other neighborhoods the same opportunity afforded to residents who live near Nunziato Field, and to prevent that area itself from being overused. Proposals for off-leash areas near the Community Path and anywhere else will be publicly vetted at community meetings, where any and all residents are invited to voice their concerns, suggestions or objections. It is my sincere hope that through this process we can come together as a community, listen to each other's concerns, and make decisions based on fairness and honesty, rather than be divided by misinformation and miscommunication.

Steve Roix
Pinckney Street