This spring the city begins construction on Kennedy park to fill it with 5 baseball and softball fields, pathways, and other structures. This is aiming to benefit the community by bringing in people to some to see these games, and the money that they bring. 

While updates on the park would be awesome for the community, by filling the park with the fields, which are off limits to all pets, as they currently plan to, they are driving out a huge portion of us that use this park all year long, the pet/dog owning community. 

So many of us come to this park to escape the concrete jungle and give our pets exercise. Reactive dog owners who struggle with walks in close proximity to others, depend on this park. Apartment dog owners, who don’t have regular access to a yard, depend on this park. Dog owners whose dogs are not dog friendly and cannot make use of the off leash dog park, depend on this park. Many use this park for training drills as well. The nearest parks we would have access to that are similar to Kennedy are Sunnyvale or Oak Island. They are driving us out with the way this project is currently laid out.

I propose that 1-2 acres be either left untouched, or a private fenced in field be created. With the private field, they could create a system where anyone with dogs that are up to date on state required vaccines, can rent a time slot in the field for a small fee. Said fees, can then go towards the maintenance of the park and field. Promoting responsible dog ownership, and including all in the new Kennedy park project.

Help me urge the city to revise the project to include the community that needs it most! The pet owning community.