The dog park planned for Library Square Park may be scrapped, as the city councilwoman who initially proposed it now says she will move to rescind the resolution authorizing the park at the next council meeting.
“At the last council meeting, some different people got up and expressed their concerns in a very reasonable and calm way,” said councilwoman Susan Henderson.
“They’re around the park. They live by the park,” she said. “And I heard them loud and clear.”
Library Square Park [shown above] is located between Grand Avenue and Heck Street, just north of the central business district. The dog park was proposed for the easternmost quadrant of land there. Last month, the council approved a one year pilot project for the dog park.
Henderson said she’ll move to rescind the authorization for the dog park at the Aug. 1 council meeting.
The councilwoman also noted that some objectors were unhappy that they weren’t notified ahead of time before the dog park was approved. The councilwoman said that even though the city was not required to do so, the process would have been better if that had been done.
“We should have lettered everyone around the park as a common courtesy,” she said.
Henderson said that by the Aug. 1 council meeting, she’ll have selected a date for a community-wide meeting for everyone to attend to discuss siting a new dog park, and all possible locations for it in the city. Asked whether she thought it still could be located in Library Square Park, the councilwoman responded, “Probably not”.
As for the opposition that changed her mind at the last council meeting, Henderson cited the concerns of Asbury Park Historical Society members, as well as the comments by the Rev. Sony Augustin who leads the First United Methodist Church, located across the street from the park. Click here for a prior story on the dog park opposition at the last meeting, including the comments by Rev. Augustin. Click here for a prior story on the concerns of historical society members.
Proponents of the dog park said the presence of dog owners with their pets would make Library Square Park safer and reduce vandalism. Henderson said she remains sympathetic to those arguments and that the dog park issue made people think more about how to improve the park.
