Newton Girls Soccer and Newton Youth Soccer are organizing an effort in opposition to a plan to add off-leash dog hours at Weeks and Forte fields in Newton. Their concerns are outlined on this site and in an email distributed to families. Here’s an excerpt:
Newton Girls Soccer and Newton Youth Soccer are strongly urging all soccer families to support our efforts to have these plans withdrawn and to work with off-leash dog advocates to find more appropriate areas for their pets. NGS and NYS wholeheartedly support the creation off-leash dog areas in Newton, but as organizations we strongly believe off-leash dog areas should be fenced off as separate zones from athletic fields for reasons of health, safety and fair access to public facilities.
Every fall and spring, almost 3,000 kids participate in soccer programs offered by NGS and NYS, the email adds.
Newton Parks & Recreation Commission will hold a public hearing on the off-leash proposals on Monday, May 21 at 7 pm, in the War Memorial Auditorium at Newton City Hall.
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I saw a sign at Weeks this week telling about the Meeting. I thought the same thing the Newton Soccer states – you have a field with hundreds of kids playing and it is a Health Hazard to have off leash dogs. Would you want your kid playing soccer on that field? I certainly dont. And safety is another concern – I see people now letting their dogs off leash while games or practices are going on and there is many a time that the dogs will fight – how sure can we be that they wont bite someone. Arent their other fields in Newton that are not heavily used for kids sports that could be used for this? What about Nahanton Park??
Couldn’t agree more. Keep dogs from urinating and defecating where our children play. Even when you pick it up, it’s still there.
I’m not fully up on this proposal but I’ve been assuming that the proposal is to only allow off-leash dogs at hours other than when there are scheduled activities.
Can someone confirm?
From the FAQ published by NGS – I hadn’t realized that this proposal would make these fields off-leash dog parks ALL DAY from mid-December to mid-March.
Thanks Kim- My sentiments exactly. Maybe our health dept should do some testing of the fields that have an off leash park in case the supporters doubt that claim.
Every single time I drive past the Cabot school I see dogs running around off leash -not in the dog park area but near the school. It really makes me wonder, what is the point of having a designated off leash park if people are still going to just let their dogs off leash whenever and wherever they wish? I like animals – I’m a huge fan and I’m friends with practically every dog in my neighborhood but I really resent when people let their dogs toilet on my front lawn. It’s dirty, it’s disgusting and even though I don’t have a “Scott’s lawn” I still don’t care for all of the big yellow splotches everywhere thanks to all the dogs who “water” my grass.
Restricting the hours to the off season and weekday mornings during the season does make it a little more palpable but only a little, thanks Tricia for calling attention to that.
I just came back from a meeting of the Newton Highlands Area Council where this was discussed, two points came up that I hadn’t thought about:
1. Dogs don’t just leave stuff behind, they also like to dig holes. Not good for a playing field.
2. The soccer leagues contribute financially to maintaining these fields each year.
All that said, I know there are dog advocates out there who likely have a different perspective. I hope they would join the conversation too.
A couple of years ago at Weeks field, I was part of a gathering crowd waiting for a youth soccer game to begin. The teams had warmed up and were gathered around their coaches, the referees were standing on the field about to blow the whistle to start the game, and the fans were staring out at the field in expectation. A player’s mother had her large dog on the sidelines without a leash. While the mother was busy talking the LARGE (it’s a factor) dog sauntered out into the middle of the field and squatted, producing a prodigious pile of steaming dogproduct.
The mother walked out and without a hint of embarrassment tried to put most of it in a plastic bag. A futile effort.
The refs blew the whistle, the game started, the ball rolled all over the field, including that spot, and we parents hounded our children to wash their hands.
Unleashed dogs and play areas should not mix in a first world (or any world) country.
@Terry: Wash hands? Do they allow head balls in that league?
Greg, the proposal is for limited hours during ‘in-season’ months where heavily programmed P&R permitted use occurs. The off-leash use is proposed for the entire park footprint in both locations with the exception of the tot lot and Forte Memorial area. Beyond the health factors of feces and urine supercharging of turf, the strongest opposing factor is the unmitigated negligence component attributable to the’ attractive nuisance’ doctrine. Should an OL permitted dog inadvertently injure, for sake of example, a fee-paying soccer youth, the city would be hard pressed to claim immunity from liability under the RUS (recreational use statute). As chance would have it, the City is currently engaged as a co-defendant before the State Supreme Judicial Court in just such a related case.
“P&R”?
Lisap, the Cabot OLA is currently closed due to soil excavation and reseeding, so the permit holders are temporarily congregating back in the previous defacto locale. Cabot has, in my opinion, become the most successful heavily used fenced OLA in the city – a model for how a fence controlled OLA should work. The fence serves to not just keep fido contained but to prevent undesirable outside interference from creating an incident within. Other determinant OLA’s are possible for small dogs, neighborhood pocket parks, and biodiverse shared uses for the cultured stand around coffee crowd and the aerobic-minded wilderness experience.
P&R= parks and rec
Ha, I thought my earlier post was funny. Censorship sucks! [Hmmm, can I say that?]
Replacement line for my original post…
This is a BAD idea!
Schlock – thank you for the update. That does explain some of my observations but unfortunately not all, because I have observed a consistent presence of dog owners in the de facto area. I hope that when the work is completed that all of the park users will take advantage of the OLA facilities that are being provided. Perhaps this will be a nice opportunity for the law abiding owners to convert some of the owners who prefer the de facto locale to join the coffee crowd – a win-win for all.
Off leash is now nothing more than a free-for-all at almost every park in the City. Every morning, I watch a group of parents standing in the middle of Franklin School field as their dogs run freely through the park. And every day, I watch a group standing in the park on River St also letting their dogs run freely. Both of these parks have unfenced play areas for kids and Franklin has an unfenced baseball field. These parks are NOT approved as off leash areas yet it clearly does not matter. It does not matter to the people who ignore the rules and it does not matter to the Animal Control Officer who is supposed to enforce them. I just love how the entitled adults in the City ignore the rules and laws just because they can.
It’s quite simple. Kids and dog poop don’t mix.
BTW. The old yankees in our neighborhood used to refer to this as “dog dirt”. A bit less formal than Terry’s “dog product”, but the effect on shoes is essentially the same.
At this past Friday’s OLDAWG (off leash dog area working group) meeting, soccer league representatives were in attendance as were the P&R Commissioner DeRubeis and Chair of the Commission Magni. The meeting was cordial with a constructive tone toward compromise and assistance by all parties involved. With that in mind, the May 21 P&R Commission is placing the Weeks and Forte OLA’s on hold, pending further development of an improved proposal; one which will better meet the groups’ 13 criteria rating.
Schlock – that’s great to hear that the competing groups are cordially working towards a compromise that everyone can live with. We can always use more of that attitude.