Sign Petition

Citizens for a Stewartville Dog Park

Maren Joyce Schroeder
Maren Joyce Schroeder Stewartville, Minnesota
94 Signatures Goal: 500

A task force has been established to draw up options for a Stewartville community dog park. Visit our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/stewdogpark


If you are interested in organizing, volunteering, or financially sponsoring this endeavor, please contact marenjoyce@gmail.com or note your interest in the "Comments" portion of your signature. Thanks!

Sponsor

Maren Schroeder

Links

http://classic.akc.org/governmentrelations/dogpark.cfm
http://www.dogpark.com/
http://www.stewartvillemn.com/
http://www.thinkstewartville.com
10

Highlights

October 7
KIMT did a feature story on our efforts in September. Check out the interview with Julie here: http://kimt.com/2015/09/22/task-force-still-working-towards-stewartville-dog-park/
September 15
The summer has been busy for the Taskforce members, as two of our members welcomed new additions to their families (with a third on the way). Contrary to what has been reported and rumored, we are still alive and well and back on track for fundraising after clearing some hurdles. Please share this petition with your friends & family, as we would like to show an increase in demand for the project. Also, stay tuned for upcoming fundraising opportunities. If you would like to make a donation or volunteer your time and talent, please contact stewdogpark@gmail.com
April 8
The Stewartville Dog Park, a community within the community, will be a fenced in area where community members can bring their dogs to run, play and make new friends. All dogs will be able to enjoy the safe and clean dog park environment by being well-behaved and abiding by all rules and regulations of the dog park. All pets will be required to be up-to-date on vaccinations and monitored by their owners at all times. The Task Force needs help from volunteers and organizations throughout the planning and building process for various projects. Our goal is to open and maintain the dog park through donations and community fundraising. On April 18, 2015, a benefit, Bark for the Park, will be held at Skip N Dales’ Sports Bar from noon until 7. This event will kick off our fundraising efforts. We will deposit all funds raised with the Stewartville Area Foundation until we have raised enough money to open the park. Bark for the Park will feature a family-friendly event with live music, silent auction items, and food from Mama D’s. If you could, we ask for your support by donating money or items for the silent auction. All donations are tax deductible through the Stewartville Area Foundation. If you are willing to donate to this cause, please contact Maren Schroeder at 507-226-3578 or stewdogpark@gmail.com. Monetary donations may be sent to the Stewartville Area Foundation. Auction items can be sent to: Stewartville Dog Park ℅ Julie Ristau 507 6th Street NE Stewartville, Minnesota 55976 The Task Force looks forward to working with the community to make the Stewartville Dog Park a fun, safe and clean environment for the community and their pets to enjoy. Thank you in advance for your support! Stewartville Dog Park Task Force Maren Schroeder, Katie Johnson, Wendy Timm, Julie Ristau and Megan Butts.
July 23
We have collected 73 of signatures and achieved the goal of the petition. Thank you for your participation! Please visit our facebook page: www.facebook.com/stewdogpark
July 22
We are on the City Council agenda tonight for a committee. There will be three open positions. If you are interested in helping with the research - please let me know: marenjoyce@gmail.com Thanks!
July 15
Dog park committee makes it through Park Board!! Good morning Maron; Last night at our Park Board meeting we agreed to recommend to the council that we move forward with a committee to look into establishing a dog park. I have been looking into budgeting and feel you will want to focus on funding both the building and maintenance of the park. With the new school coming, the City will have some big infrastructure costs over the next couple of years. Also, I'm sure you are aware that with the new DMC coming to Rochester Stewartville is expected to experience some rapid growth over the next 3 to 5 years adding even more infrastructure costs. The DMC will present both a challenge and opportunity for Stewartville. Thanks! Jeff Beyer
July 11
This was posted on Facebook yesterday: Dog folks in Rochester/ Stewartville area-- I just received this note: My mother just called and shared that a family friend was walking their dog by Bear Cave Park in Stewartville last night, and when he sat down to take a call from his brother, the dog was just in the area running around and came back limping and bleeding from the mouth. He took the dog to the emergency vet, and learned that someone had shot the dog in the mouth. The dog had to be euthanized, and the owner is heartbroken. The dog was a lab or lab mix that he had adopted from PCHS and had for 6 years, and was not an aggressive dog and would not have done anything that would have provoked someone to feel threatened by it. The owner doesn’t know who would have done this, but clearly it was someone who is cruel and sick. If you have friends or coworkers with dogs in Stewartville, let them know this so that they can be very careful with their dogs; hopefully whoever did this will be caught, but right now the dog’s owner does not know who would have done this or what their motivation would have been.
July 9
The Park Board will have an agenda item Monday to create a subcommittee to develop the dog park plan. If this passes the Park Board (it is expected to), it will be sent to City Council for a vote. This vote is the first step: creation of a committee to develop a plan. If you know someone on the Park Board or City Council encourage them to support the cause. Also, council person Wendy Timm has stepped forward and offered to be the City Council Rep for any committee. Wendy is fully supportive of the dog park and wants to make it happen.
July 9
Here is the response to the e-mail sent to Mayor King that I received from Park Board Chair, Jeff Beyer: Maren; The next Park Board meeting is scheduled for July 14th. That meeting is scheduled pretty full. I was planning to put the dog park on the meeting agenda for August and invite all who are interested. Keep in mind we work off a master plan that we have to submit to the council for approval. Also we have a budget we have to work with. As of this time we are down to less that $100.00 in our budget. We had a cost overrun on the new restrooms being built at Bear Cave and Meadow Park and we are still in the process of completing the sand volleyball courts at Bear Cave. We will not know until the end of the year what our budget will be for next year. We have received requests for not only a dog park but also an indoor hockey arena, a band shell and additional ball fields for the Brin Park area as well as additional park and play equipment for the Peterson and Schuman subdivisions. Our August meeting is scheduled for the 11th at 6:00 PM at City Hall. Please let me know if you want to make a presentation so I can put you on the schedule. As I read back through this it sounds negative. Please do not take it that way. As a dog owner myself, I understand your concern. I just want you to understand everything we have to deal with. Thanks! Jeff
July 9
Here is an e-mail I sent to Mayor King this morning (with a copy to all council members and Jeff Beyer the Park Board Chair): Mayor King: God Morning! I know I said I wasn’t going to do much research until we were moving forward, but I felt there was a positive response at last night’s meeting. So, I went ahead and did a little digging into city liability for dog parks in Minnesota to address your concern (and one of the major concerns that comes with the idea of a dog park). Here is a link to a report from Arden Hills that has a discussion about the City’s liability for a dog park and best practices to avoid city liability as they were instructed by the League of Minnesota Cities: http://cityofardenhills.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/616?fileID=1112 If this holds true, the city would not have to do anything special to have its insurance coverage in place for a dog park. Obviously, the safest bet would be to confirm with the insurance company, but in my experience previous research is usually a pretty good indicator of what we will learn. I also spoke with Frank Harreld after the meeting, and he would be interested in helping with a task force to fully explore the dog park. Again, I encourage the Council and Park Board to appoint the task force to begin work on this project - if we can have chickens, we can surely have a place for our dogs to run! Best; Maren Schroeder
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