A new dog park will be built on South Chestnut Street in Iola.
In a fitting illustration of just how divided opinions are of the dog park, city councilmen were themselves evenly split 4-4 on whether to build the park along Chestnut, or to find another site.
The deadlock gave the decisive vote to Mayor Bill Shirley, who voted in the affirmative with councilmen Kendall Callahan, Beverly Franklin, Steve French and Scott Stewart to put the park on Chestnut, beween Rock and Irwin streets. Opposed were Don Becker, Jim Kilby, Ken Rowe and Joel Wicoff.
The vote was preceded by a lengthy debate coming from all angles.
City Administrator Carl Slaugh told councilmen a committee studying dog park locales looked at six sites in all before coming up with three finalists, two a block apart on South Chestnut and a third at the far southern end of Washington Avenue, near Elm Creek. The one favored by the committee was on South Chestnut between Rock and Vine streets. The council, however, went with the site one block north.
All three sites, but especially the one on South Washington, stuck in the craw of Iolans Howard Ross and Vernon “Red” Garner, both of whom urged the council to keep looking.
Ross provided the council with a petition signed by 44 residents, noting their opposition to having the park built along South Washington Avenue, or anywhere in south Iola, for that matter.
Ross talked about noise and smell issues, or the propensity for dogs to get loose or fight with each other. He also expressed concern about more traffic creating safety hazards for pedestrians in south Iola, and the potential for people to dump their animals in the dog park because it costs $60 to take dogs to the Allen County Animal Rescue Facility.
“The former city commission voted this area down 2 1/2 years ago,” Ross said. “We thought the issue was dead, and you’re bringing it up again.”
Ross suggested the council look at putting the dog park in an existing park, such as Cofachique, which would have ample parking, large trees for shade and easy access to water lines, all of which are necessities.
He pointed to other communities in the state with dog parks, noting none were in residential areas.
Callahan encapsulated the ensuing debate among the councilmen by pointing out that regardless of which site was chosen, it would make some in Iola angry.
“There may be people who are against the dog park in south Iola, just like I was opposed to the skateboard park,” Callahan said. “But it seemed almost every time I drove over the dike (into Riverside Park) somebody was using the skateboard park.”
Callahan also noted dog park advocates already met their criteria for having a dog park built, by raising $10,000 privately, which will be matched by up to $10,000 by the city for the park’s construction.
Construction, in this case, will consist of adding chain-link fencing and water facilities.
