The Village of Burns Lake just had a lot of pet poop dropped in its lap - figuratively speaking.
The Lakes Animal Friendship Society (LAFS) has looked after much of the care and upkeep of the MacEwen Dog Park. It was a group of volunteers and LAFS that led the creation of it in the first place.
But the Village owns the land (there is a current lease agreement with CN Rail), and has an operation deal with LAFS that expires in June. In an email sent to the Village from the volunteer-run society, LAFS informed them of their intention to discontinue.
The situation came before mayor and council for debate because choices had to be made as to how to proceed, or if to proceed. One of the choices, albeit not a likely one, was for the Village to also discontinue the operation of the dog park.
“I know my dog would not appreciate the dog park going away,” said councillor Darrell Hill, to a titter of agreeable chuckles.
“At the end of the day, this is an asset that is well used, and not probably in our best interests to let go,” said Sheryl Worthing, the chief administrative officer for the Village.
Calculations were made as to the cost. The LAFS model had an attendant clean up the poop three times per week, only requiring an hour each time, at a rate of $20 per hour.
A LAFS donor also provided the free-use poop bags always available at the park. That cost would now fall to the Village and was estimated to be about $2,000 per year.
The municipality is already responsible for lawn mowing and other maintenance. As suggested by mayor Henry Wiebe, a high school student may be a possible option for doing the pooper-scooper work, but the discussion pointed out it may not be a lucrative enough proposition.
In any case, said Worthing, the Village workers’ union would necessarily be part of the discussion.
The cost of the scooping of the pooping, and other maintenance costs, will be taken from reserve funds for the rest of this year and built into the Parks & Recreation budget going forward from 2024.
These expenditures can also be offset by the unique advertising feature of the park. Ad signs have been sold there in the past, and more could be.
As a final thought on the matter, councillor Charlie Rensby saluted LAFS for what they have done to establish MacEwen Dog Park in the first place.
“There’re a lot of things in this town that got started with volunteer sweat equity and now they are some of our best assets.”
Mayor and council voted in favour of this arrangement.