Despite an online petition requesting Templeton secondary field remain open during the summer to accommodate dog owners and their pooches, not everyone in the neighbourhood agrees with the sentiment.
As published in the Courier last month, an online petition led by neighbour Kat Cortes to keep the field open during the off-season has sparked a debate in the community.
One of Cortes’s concerns was the lack of field maintenance last summer, although as some readers pointed out last year’s teachers strike prevented members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which includes groundskeepers, from crossing picket lines and continuing their work. According to one neighbour, however, dog owners broke into the field anyway, through a barrier that was erected.
“I live in the neighbourhood and every time I walked by that field I saw the fences had been knocked down and that people were out there with their dogs doing whatever they wanted,” said David Smythe. “The fact of the matter is [Kat Cortes] has never, in all these years, had the right to take that park over as a dog park.”
Smythe said other neighbours he’s talked to aren’t pleased the field has become so popular among dog owners either.
“I know of people in the community as well who are soccer players who would love that field for their youth program, but every time they talk about it they say, ‘No it’s not worth it.’ All the dog people there have just sort of taken over.”
Smythe maintains that he not anti-dog but suggests the field’s actual purpose has been forgotten and that the neighbourhood’s top priority should be for the students and having the field in proper condition for September.
“I think the people that will read this article will say, ‘Why are they closing a dog park?’ when really it’s a sports facility and it’s a classroom, essentially for Templeton high school.”
Off-leash dog parks nearby include Strathcona Park and Dusty Greenwell Park, both roughly two to three kilometres away from Templeton secondary and a six- to eight- minute drive or 24- to 30-minute walk, according to Google Maps.
betty_lu2@hotmail.com
@bettylu_2
