Restoring Bugsy's Dog Run - The Story and the plan..... We all know the dog run needs to be made safer and nicer. Here is what some of you dont know, here are the facts so far. 1. Tex is a man who created the dog run over 15 years ago and has since maintained it. Supplies were donated to him from nearby buildings. Tex believes, and has stated that he owns the land based on squatting laws. Many lawyers have chimed in and agree that squatting laws dont apply to DEP owned land with sewer systems running under them. 2. The DEP has jurisdiction over the land that we call Bugsy's. They say that they dont care if we restore the dog run but they will NOT put this in writing because if they need the land they will reclaim it for other purposes and or tear things down at any point. 3. Val has taken steps to prepare for the restoration and volunteered his weekends to weeding the surrounding area. 4. Tex's wife and another man tell Val he must stop or they will call the officials. They argue, and tell him he needs to speak at the community board meeting where a vote will take place. 5. Val secures himself a spot at the meeting and asks the community to join him. Only a few people were willing to come (less than 5). 6. The Secretary of the board calls Val and tells him he can not speak at the community board meeting on this subject. There is chatter about officials not wanting to get TEX all excited because its a "hot" political time right now. Tex is a constant at these meetings for many years and is known to stir things up. 7. We go back to Tex and try to reason with him. He again says no to any and all of following ideas -- New gate, double gated entrance, proper dog gravel, he even says no to fixing small areas that are dangersous (broken fencing, rocks sticking out of the ground) 8. We tell our story to whoever asks, and some of them take it on themselves to talk to Tex. Tex has called the police to try to get someone thrown out of the dog run just for having this conversation with him. Tex's arguments why we should leave the dog run alone: 1. If we make it nicer too many dogs will come, therefore causing more noise in the area and risking the nearby buildings calling officials to have it shut down. 2. Drawing attention to something that has been running under the radar for so long, and getting shut down. ........ please understand that we get how ridiculous this sounds -- he can argue this statement regardless of any and all rational arguments against his views ALL DAY LONG! ..... Many people say that we should restore Bugsy's without permission because we have the "blessing" of the DEP 1. If we do that, Tex can come out of his house and undo anything we do. Supplies that we raise money for can disappear and we cant do anything about it because we have no legal rights to be working there in the first place. 2. Tex can cause such a stir that the entire project gets shut down and we lose the dog run altogether. 3. We may get away with it and get a great safe dog run. The question is this .... who is donating the money, time and resources? How much of this are YOU willing to donate. Not in theory, in truth? We are not going to collect money and be held accountable for the money because we are not a 'not for profit' organization. So who is willing to come to meetings and make this happen as a community, in which we all partake in this project?