ST. MICHAELS — A group of St. Michaels residents want a dog park in what they call an “underutilized park,” but the town administrator and some commissioners seemed reluctant to commit to it at a Wednesday night meeting.
The Commissioners of St. Michaels did not vote on the issue, and the item was moved to the next meeting in September.
Mitch Ettinger, founder of Friends of the Dog Park, came dressed for the occasion — a shirt decorated with dog drawing and a folder covered with dogs wearing sunglasses.
For over three years, Friends of the Dog Park, a group of St. Michaels residents and dog owners, have been advocating for a park to bring their dogs and create community.
Now in front of a new commission, Ettinger recommended Bradley Park for the dog park. According to Ettinger, the one-acre park is underutilized; there are few residential homes located nearby. Bradley Park is also already unkempt by the town, and it would not require additional acquisition funds.
Ettinger said the overall cost of the park would be approximately half a million dollars to remove the old playground equipment, create a fence and renovate the park to better fit a dog park. The Friends of the Dog Park has filed to become a nonprofit and will plan to raise the funds through donations and grants so the cost would not fall on St. Michaels residents.
Ettinger asked commissioners to tentatively approve Bradley Park as the future St. Michaels dog park and to direct town staff to retain an engineering firm to prepare a site plan that will be submitted to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Planning Commission.
The group asked for about $7,000 for the site survey because all efforts up until now have been completed and paid for by residents.
“[Friends of the Dog Park] might feel that the town has skin in the game,” Ettinger said. “That we don’t have to go out and raise $7,000 in our pockets to have a site plan that ultimately could be shut down.”
Rob Straebel, town administrator, raised concerns he had with the park, stating a need for more public comment from residents before moving forward.
“I know that this community, they take their parks very seriously,” Straebel said. “And unfortunately, this is going to be a fair amount of people that are opposed to it, and there’s probably going to be a fair amount of people that would love to see a dog park there.”
Commissioner Katrina Whittington raised questions over the town’s prioritizes when it comes to supporting projects. According to Whittington, the town was deciding whether to pay over $200,000 for a small plan for a dog park and yet there is concerns over funding a site plan for Bradley Park.
Straebel said the $200,000 would have been a “policy decision” by commissioners for a different property.
More questions and potential ideas were raised by commissioners. Some suggesting bifurcating Bradley Park and updating the playground equipment, others sharing concern for the price of the park and public opinion of the park.
Ettinger reminded commissioners that he had offered to do a survey the last time he was in front of the council and he was told not to.
Additionally, he said, when the town hired an architect to come up with a master plan for the seven acres at San Domingo Park, a survey of the entire town was done and from the residents who participated, their No. 1 request was a dog park.
A few resident commented that there is a responsibility from the new commissioners to work toward a dog park since during the commission election last spring they had said they would approve it.
Whittington suggested the commissioners move the subject to the next meeting but noted that the idea of a dog park has not seen much progress in years.
“This seems like Groundhog Day all over again,” Whittington said. “... This is ridiculous just to get a dog park here at St. Michaels.”
After a bit of back and forth from commissioners and town residents, the council decided to delay further discussion on the park until the September meeting.
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