Dog park lovers sign petition

By Jeremy Appel on July 31, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

A petition protesting the city’s plan to restrict off-leash dog walking at Kin Coulee Park has already garnered 2,595 signatures, while the manager of parks says it must limit pets roaming to preserve the historical site.

The park has been designated as an archeological area since 1984.

Torri Zimmerman, who launched the petition, says she felt the need to speak up as the owner of three dogs who frequently uses the off-leash area of the park.

“Our dogs love going there and to see it become smaller is really sad,” she said.

Although Zimmerman hasn’t contacted city administrators to discuss the policy yet, she does intend to do so.

She said she started the petition as soon as she found out last week about the changes.

Randy Taves, the city’s manager of parks, says the city doesn’t want to drive dogs away from the park, but needs to confine them to certain spaces to maintain the archeological site.

“We have a legal responsibility to preserve and protect it,” he said.

Kin Coulee Park was not intended specifically as a dog park, but council directed administration in the past to make all environmental reserve areas in the city off-leash zones, which included Kin Coulee, Taves explained, adding that there are “tons of artifacts just underneath the surface.”

With dogs running around the site, many of these artifacts have been degraded over the years, he said.

“We want to get to a point where people and their dogs can still enjoy that area, but there are some limitations,” said Taves.

“You don’t take your dog to the museum and let them run all over the place. The idea of museums and historic sites (is) to preserve and protect your heritage.”

Allison Chiliak takes her two dogs, Dragon and Jax, to Kin Coulee Park every other day.

She says drastically shrinking the off-leash area will be very restrictive for the dogs.

“This is where we come to play fetch, because you can’t really throw a ball a long way in your backyard,” said Chiliak. “It’s good training (for) socialization to be with other dogs.”

She said she’ll still walk her dogs at Kin Coulee even with a small off-leash area, but may not do so as frequently if she finds another large off-leash area nearby.

Shawn Nelson says taking his dog Nina to swim in the creek at Kin Coulee is a great way for her to cool down.

He says although he understands the importance of preventing the erosion of the archeological site, he thinks it’s unfair that Desert Blume Golf Course next door doesn’t face any similar restrictions.

“I don’t agree with (only) shutting down part of it,” he said.

Taves says that Desert Blume doesn’t have the same restrictions because it’s not classified as a provincial heritage site.

Nelson suggested that if the city limits off-leash access to the creek, they should have a swimming pool for the pets to cool off.

City council will discuss the proposal at its Aug. 20 meeting.

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