City of Waldport asks dog owners to be more responsible on local fields — or face a $50 citation

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

WALDPORT – Enough is enough, the city of Waldport is telling dog owners.

The city has announced it will begin enforcing a municipal ordinance that requires dog owners to leash their pets while on city property – and pick up after their dog if it poops on city-owned fields.

The enforcement comes following complaints from the Waldport Junior Sports Association that its youth football teams were stepping in dog poop when they practice on the large grass field at Louis Southworth Park. The same issue occurs in the spring when youth teams practice or play at Kendall Memorial Field, which the city now owns.

It’s been a longtime issue but one the city has looked the other way for years as too hard to enforce. But cleaning up after dog owners who don’t clean up after their pets is coming up again as the city begins plans to develop Southworth Park, using a recently-received $750,000 grant from the state.

“It’s starting to become a real problem using the sports fields,” Waldport city manager Dann Cutter told YachatsNews. “The ordinance already exists. It’s not as though we’re changing it. What we’re doing is enforcing it.”

The fine for unleashed dogs or not picking up after them is $50. People will be cited into Waldport municipal court for a hearing and possible fine.

The city’s announcement said it would ask the two Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputies assigned to Waldport to help issue citations, if necessary. But Cutter said citations will more likely be driven by complaints to the city.

“We don’t need or expect perfect compliance – just better compliance,” he said.

The city also has some work to do.

It has just one small sign at Southworth Park and none at Kendall Field, which it acquired from the Lincoln County School District in July. It has new, larger signs on order for both fields and will add dispensers with poop bags for owners who don’t bring their own, Cutter said.

The city will also put trash cans at both fields as well. There are none now.

The city’s enforcement announcement on the Waldport community Facebook page last week received mostly positive support, with many commentators and a local veterinarian applauding the city and calling on dog owners to be more responsible.

But it also resurfaced public comments for the city to build a fenced dog park somewhere. That idea was also brought up when the city announced the grant to develop Southworth Park – which does not have a dog park in its current plan.

The idea of a small area for dogs was rejected in city meetings on the park years ago, said Cutter.

Cutter said “multiple councils, multiple times” have rejected the idea of building a dog park because the city does not have the staff to clean and oversee it, and if not kept clean the parks can become a health issue.

“What some people are asking for is a place created and cared for by the city, which we cannot afford to do,” Cutter said.

Instead, he said, the city just wants a few people to be more responsible when they have their dogs on city fields.

“The city has not created a new rule, but is acting on an existing rule that some people have decided to ignore,” Cutter said. “We don’t have to have kids playing in dog crap.”