To: PamLex5@aol.com From: dogadmin@clarkdogpaw.org Reply-To: PamLex5@aol.com Subject: [DOGPAW] Pacific Park update Pacific Park users, The spraying that was scheduled to begin on Monday July 9th has been postponed due to the concerns that have been raised over the safety of the process. We will keep you posted. Dogpaw has recently learned that the Parks department plans to open the new skate park in Pacific sometime in the next few weeks. We are very concerned because of the very limited parking surrounding Pacific and have voiced those concerns. In the planning process for Pacific, Dogpaw had requested that the new off leash space be developed first and we were told that no part of the park could be opened until the entire park was completed. The reason that Vancouver Parks department is giving now for opening the skate park early is that there have been so many folks breaking in to access the skate park, they feel it is safer to just open it up. Interesting logic!! We have voiced our frustration to the Clark County Comissioners office who is looking into how things have been handled by the Parks department. One other frustrating piece of news is that despite the considerable efforts by Dogpaw to get off leash space in the upcoming Hockinson/China Ditch park that is slated for development late 2008-2009, we have learned that the Parks department elected not to fund the off leash area in phase 1 of the development, which means that it will be years down the road before phase 2 would be done. The County commissioners approved having off leash in Hockinson based on surveys, petitions, etc that showed the community wants off leash space and they seemed suprised when I contacted them regarding off leash not being funded in phase 1. The Dogpaw board is in the process of reevaluating our strategy and our relationship with Vancouver Parks Department. We are working closely with Troy Rayburn , a senior policy anaylst for land use, from the County commissioners office to help us navigate through the very muddy political waters in our community. Please let me know if you have some constructive ideas that can aid Dogpaw is developing more off leash areas. The board will be setting up a strategy session and if any of you are interested in being involved in that, please contact Pam Goe @ _pamlex5@aol.com_ (mailto:pamlex5@aol.com) ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.