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Dogs are cause for contention at Central Point park By BUFFY POLLOCK CENTRAL POINT - Some canines and their masters are causing a stink at Flanagan Park. The park, signed "No Dogs Allowed" in six places, has become a favorite hangout for neighborhood dog walkers and their four-legged pals. Four-legged pals, park neighbor George Young claims, that are defecating on property they shouldn't be on to begin with. "And some of these are big dogs. One person had their Great Dane on the playground material and those dogs have huge droppings," he said. Young wrote a letter of complaint to the city last month regarding what he felt was a lack of ordinance enforcement. He claims that more than a dozen dog walkers daily use Flanagan Park, bordered by Tiffany Avenue and Beall Lane, but don't clean up after their dogs. "I'm not opposed to animals. If these people were cleaning up after their dogs, no one would ever hear from people like me," he said. Police Chief Michael Sweeny assured council members last week that patrols had been increased to help alleviate the problem, but a long-term solution had yet to present itself. Dogs are banned from all seven of the city's parks, code enforcement officer Ron Barnett said. But dog-walkers are still causing problems, especially at Van Horn on Rose Valley Drive, at Mae Richardson near the school and at Flanagan. "Even though there are signs up saying no dogs allowed, people seem to think if they have a pooper-scooper or promise their dogs won't do bad things that they can go ahead and still use the park ... it doesn't work that way," Barnett said. "I've heard every excuse in the book." While Barnett admitted he doesn't issue many citations - two or three a year - he sends 12 to 15 letters monthly to offenders reported by park neighbors. "I like to warn people first. I only issue citations to the real hard-core people that do it again," he said. Violation of the park ordinance carries a $77 fine. But the problem doesn't stop at the park. Evidence of what Flanagan Park neighbor Bill Alexander calls "lack of common respect" is left on sidewalks, roadways and private property. "We have to either step in it, step around it or clean it up, and that's nasty," he said. "We're not going around doing our trick on their sidewalks and they should do the same for us." Even more seriously, said Young, is the toxicity of the matter. "Everything that goes into streets gets washed into storm drains and goes into Jackson and Griffin creeks and accordingly into Bear Creek and into the Rogue River. The Jackson Creek culvert has about 15 dog piles on top of it. As soon as it rains, that's all going into the creek and dog waste is more toxic than human waste." That problem, explained Barnett, falls under the city's Accumulation of Junk Ordinance and won't be tolerated, either. "There's no specific law requiring them to carry a pooper-scooper, but if they don't pick it up, they can be cited," he explained. "It kind of ruins if for everybody else when a few people won't clean up after their dogs." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.