Next meeting: Third Tuesday of the Month at 7 pm
Iowa City Public Library
Meeting of the Board February 20, 2010
In attendance - Andy Dudler, Karla Tonella, Teresa Ruggle, Diane Downing, Lisa Allen. Guest Ann Dudler, two reporters from the Daily Iowan.
President Dudler's Report: After recently discovering that the 2008 IRS forms had not been filed Andy and Lisa met with a Tax expert who is preparing necessary papers for both 2008 and 2009. There could be a $6,000 fine for not filing but the tax advisor said a letter explaining that the new board was completely unaware that taxes had not been filed and that measures were being put in place to insure the delinquency would not be repeated might reduce the fine. The tax advisor recommended "brevity, sincerity and remorse."
A City Council member has proposed some far reaching changes to Naming Rights in City Parks that would severely impact donations to the dog parks. Andy urged all board members to draft ideas for a letter from the board opposing this measure.
Andy had a productive meeting with Terry Robinson, City Parks Superintendent. Mr. Robinson explained his irrigation plan for the Thornberry park. He is concerned that a "normal" summer without watering will kill much of the grass. Andy got a chance to see the sign for Rita's Ranch that is all framed and ready to be installed when weather permits. The new Poop bag dispensers will be installed soon.
VP Tonella's Report: Online forms are ready for donations, and Emma's Run reservations, only waiting for PayPal and/or other credit card processing arrangements. The Wiki now has several pages. It is the JCdogPAC encyclopedia of processes and information and a place to store and share among board members documents and images.
Co-President Allen said she has been examining the bylaws and comparing them to other organizations. She thinks they could be shortened and simplified.
Diane was very pleased with the meeting board members had with Misha Goodman out at the Animal Shelter. She will be setting up a training session for board members with shelter personnel so we may sell park tags. The most likely plan will be for the board to purchase tags and resell them avoiding some of the issues with bonding and money handling.
Teresa will be designing a banner for display on our table at the Grant Wood Elementary Educational Event. Karla will update the brochure. Ann volunteered to make a photo display and to bring some animated dogs to draw attention.
Andy suggested having business cards to pass out with some basic park information: the web address, phone numbers for problems with dogs and park maintenance problems like broken gates. Everyone agreed that was a great idea.
January 16, 2010 Meeting of the Board
In attendance – Andy Dudler, Karla Tonella, Teresa Ruggle, Kim Kirchner, Diane Downing, Maura Channon. Minutes from last meeting were read and approved.
President's Report: Andy was invited to speak to a group in Palo who are ready to start a dog park. Andy has made several attempts to meet with Parks & Rec people but they are undergoing leadership changes and budget matters. They will meet when the dust settles. Andy delivered very detailed budget documents
VP Report: New website host, and addition of .com domain name. Setting up online forms for donations, volunteers and Emma's Run reservations.
Financial reports discussed. Concerns about spending to income ratio for donations. General agreement that centrally-located plaques to recognize contributers instead of small ones scattered throughout the parks. Central board will need agreement from city.
Tag Sales: Diane Downing met with Misha Goodman who is viewing board tag sales favorably but needed to check with city. One possibility she proposed would be selling a certain number to the board who would then resell tags. We would need simple training for checking proof of rabies vaccination. Misha has suggested a training film for the city TV to help people understand dog behavior and communication at the dog park. Misha said that the survey board members did last spring to check for tags drove sales way up for a time and recommended more awareness raising efforts.
Park clean up days will be moved to the 2nd Sundays of each month so that the combination of board meeting and park cleanup won't take up an entire weekend. Moved, seconded and approved. Suggested reusable signs posted around the park to make people aware of cleanup day to get more than just board members involved. General agreement.
Merchandise: Boxes of towels left over from 2009 Dog Paddle with the date on them so they cannot be reused. Unanimous vote to donate to the Animal Shelter. More details here (pdf).
New Board Orientation Meeting, Thursday, December 17, 2009
In attendance: Liz Dodge, Diane Downing, Andy Dudler, Kim Kirchner, Teresa Ruggle & Karla Tonella.
First order of business was to change the regular Board Meeting day and time to the 3rd Saturdays of each month from 2-4 p.m. Cold weather meetings will be held in the IC Public Library, Meeting Room E, when available. The the Library rooms have wireless and better acoustics. The mid-day weekend meetings will enable the board to reserve Emma's Run for meetings when weather permits. Meetings at the parks should encourage other park users to attend and give more people a chance to become familiar with the board.
Lisa Allen, who had resigned from the board when meeting times conflicted with obligations at work requested reinstatement. Her reinstatement was unanimously approved.
Board members liked the idea of cooperative shared responsibilities and decided on a number of co-positions. Andy Dudler and Lisa Allen will be co-presidents. Karla Tonella will be vice president and share secretary responsibilities with Liz Dodge. Teresa Ruggle and Andy Dudler will manage the finances together as co-treasurers. Diane Downing and Kim Kirchner will be the liaisons to the IC Animal Center, while Andy and Lisa will be liaison to the City, especially the Parks and Recreation Division.
Kim contacted Misha Goodman at the Animal Center about helping to sell Dog Park Tags. Misha agreed on condition that board members involved attend a training session at the Shelter. Several board members said they would like to be trained. Kim and Diane will try to arrange a weekend training session. Everyone agreed that the most important job the board needs to tackle immediately is reducing the number of dogs at the park without tags and increasing tag sales. (Tag sales are a major source of money to pay for improvements like fencing and asphalt paths.)
Teresa Ruggle offered to put her professional skills to work designing a banner for each of the parks to remind people that it is time to renew dog park tags. (the design is done!)
The board also agreed to renegotiate Poop Bag Dispenser sponsorship with the city. We have indications that the city would be amenable to the board taking back the job of solicitation. The board would, under this agreement, turn all the proceeds over to the city to purchase and distribute bags. The board will also take care of mounting the plaques recognizing dispenser sponsors.
Maura Channon had suggested distributing dog park information at dog-friendly hotels. Everyone thought it would be a good idea to distribute maps to the parks, brochures, and Day Pass envelopes to these businesses. Liz Dodge volunteered to research dog-friendly hotels & motels in the area.
Meeting, Thursday, December 10, 2009 - BOARD ELECTION
For more detailed minutes click here
In attendance: Outgoing board members Diana Harris (president), Pete Brokaw (treasurer) and Ann Bartels. Continuing board member Karla Tonella. Former and originating board members Anne Burnside (Rita's Ranch is named for her Golden/Retriever), Jean Walker (Emma's Run is named for Jean's rescued Cocker Spaniel), Barb Meredith, Ann Dudler and Kelly Neppl. And Ryan O'Leary, retiring member of the Parks and Recreation Commission. The meeting was well attended with many people in the audience to vote for new board members.
Also attending were the following who were elected unanimously as new board members.
- Maura Channon
- Liz Dodge
- Diane Downing
- Andy Dudler
- Lydia Fine (has since reevaluated her priorities and decided to withdraw to continue working for a North Liberty off leash park.)
- Kim Kirchner
- Teresa Ruggle
The former board members all spoke in appreciation for the efforts of the outgoing members on behalf of the dog parks. Kelly Neppl presented flowers to Diana Harris in special appreciation for her nearly five year service. Former board members emphasized the importance of the partnership the JCdogPAC has with the City, most particularly with the Parks and Recreation Division. The one holdover member and temporary chair of the election, Karla Tonella, assured everyone that the new board would attempt to build a solid working relationship.
There were comments and discussions about a third dog park and some history of the dog parks and of the board. Karla Tonella stated that she would like to see that the history of the board and the development of the parks more formally captured while it's still available in the living memory of the people who made it all happen. Several heads nodded in agreement.
Each self-nominated person running for the board introduced themselves and gave a short summary of why they wanted to be on the board. The entire slate was elected unanimously with no objections.
The new board members met during the second half of the meeting to schedule a special meeting to choose officers and to figure out how to proceed with the transition. Stacks and stacks of stuff will need to be transferred. This special meeting will be held in the Iowa City Public Library on Thursday, December 17, 6-8 pm in Meeting Room C.
The first decision of the new board was to choose Andy Dudler as the special liaison officer to the Parks and Rec staff. Andy has served on the City Council and feels comfortable navigating city politics and can act as an effective translator between the two bodies.
Monthly meetings have been the second Thursday of each month, usually in meeting room B of the Iowa City Recreation Center. The new members will be considering a change of location to have access to wireless. This should be decided at the December 17 meeting and will be announced that evening on this website and on the JCdogPAc Yahoo list. (see Contact Us to join the mailing list) --KT 12/11/2009
Meeting, Thursday,
November 12, 2009,
The first item on the agenda was a discussion about where to create an area for small dogs in the nw corner of Rita's Ranch. The proposed area is about 1/10 of the entire park, roughly equivalent proportion of the entire yard that the Linder Small Dog yard uses in Thornberry.
The November meeting was well attended by people from Rita's Ranch (RR), small dog people from Thornberry (there for a different issue), Terry Robinson, superintendent of parks and Mike Moran the acting director of Parks and Recreation, and four of the six board members.
Terry explained the environmental concerns for the area and his department's responsibilities in that regard. Grass is vital for that water retention area to prevent flooding downstream. Part of how the park has to be laid out is determined by the need to protect the grass. Grass is already damaged in the gate area. The park is divided into two areas specifically so that one area can be closed for maintenance and repairs and people and dogs moved to the other area. In addition to the double-entry gates there are two gates in the east- west fence separating the two areas. These gates permit the circulation of dogs so they can use the entire park whenever possible.
Rita's Ranch users have also found the two areas to be very useful for separating dogs that are not getting along. They specifically requested (I hope I'm remembering correctly) that the gates remain unlocked so they could break up dog conflicts without denying either dog use of the park.
The plan proposed by the city involved carving out a 13,000-15,000 sq ft rectangular area (90x160 ft.) out of the northwest corner of the northern side of the park. Terry came with a birdseye view of the park (use Bing.com, search for 41.651857,-91.480724 and choose Aerial/ Birdseye), He had two paper shapes he could move around on the map to represent his 13k and 15k areas for small dogs. Either area were, he said, roughly equivalent 1/3rd portions of the whole like the Linder and Emma's Run yards. In other words, Linder yard is 1/3rd the size of Lucky Pawz and he was proposing a shape equal to 1/3rd the size of Rita's Ranch.
The area Terry proposes is a similar shape, oriented in the same
direction that would take out roughly half the shade for the small dog
area. New fencing would go east from the front fence to somewhere
near the middle of the park then turn north to join the fence along
the tree line.
Terry's plan leaves large dogs a substantial amount of land but the
shape doesn't take into account the way dogs use space. Cutting out a
chunk of the north yard, the larger of the two current areas, would
leave an reversed L-shape, with a narrow corridor on the east.
I understood Terry to say the RR plan would hinder maintenance, close
off one of the two gates and making it necessary to take problem dogs
through the main area to get to the southern yard. The southern yard
would also be left in an L-shape and significantly reducing the useful
area in that yard.
The three proposals are marked out on a Google Map. Turn on SATELLITE for the best view. The green shape is what the City Parks Superintendent proposes. The red shape is an alternate proposal made by some Rita's Ranch denizens. The pink triangle is a third possibility that hasn't really been discussed yet.
There are other ways to provide shade, spread throughout the park. Those possibilities have yet to be discussed. --KT
Meeting, September 10, 2009
Dog Paddle 2009 is over. The weather was great for both days. We have towels left to sell. Adrienne will write up a handbook for organizing this event. Several suggestions based on this year's experience will be added.
Meeting, August 13, 2009
The day pass envelopes have been redesigned so that the user tears off the pass and keeps that while in the park. The new design means that we don't have to print and stuff those envelopes. Hooray.
More on a possible small dog area at Rita's Ranch: the proposed area is about 1/6 acre and would require its own gate as well as additional fencing. JC DogPAC agreed to pay for this expense, but try to find a sponsor to pay for the materials. The city has ordered the park rules sign and will post it when it has been created.
At TOP, we need to put shelves in the shed and evaluate what sort of repairs to do to the agility equipment. The city has not sodded or planted the muddy areas in the Linder Yard. DogPAC would also like the city to sod around the shed in Emma's Run; there is a mud and water hole now that was created when the shed was built.
Dog Paddle plans continue. Board members should contact sponsors ASAP. Send times when you can work to Adrienne.
Meeting July 9, 2009
Preparation for opening of Rita's Ranch on Saturday, July 25. Animal Control has agreed to sell park permit tags for an hour at that event.
Because the first several comments received by people using Rita's Ranch before its official opening, JC DogPAC discussed creating an area for small dogs.
Asphalt work at Thornberry has been completed. The new path in the Lucky Pawz Playground is great. Installing the new path in the Linder Tire Service Small Dog Yard resulted in lots of mud and patron unhappiness. JC DogPAC will put up signs to direct users of the Linder Yard to use Emma's Run, as available, until grass has grown in the Linder Yard.
Animal Control has agreed to selling park permit tags for 1, 2, or 3 years. The fee will remain at $25/year. JC DogPAC decided to suggest to Parks and Recreation Commission that the $5 discount for microchipping be dropped as that is of no real benefit in the off-leash parks. Spayed and neutered dogs are desirable as they cause fewer problems for other dogs.
Six new park benches have been received. Two will go to Rita's Ranch and the other 4 to TOP (3 in the Lucky Pawz Playground, and 1 in the Linder Yard.)
Meeting July 10, 2008
The board voted to expand membership
from 7 to no more than 9.
Board members have been conducting
surveys at TOP. Of course, more
surveys would give us more information.
Existing survey information will
be compiled soon.
Landscaping at the entryway mostly
survived the first months of its
planting. We still need to add
some river rock to one bed. In
the future we will likely want
to put a fence around the beds
closest to the parking area to
keep dogs out and rocks in.
Dog Paddle 2008 is coming up.
Kelly Neppl is coordinating that
event and need volunteers.
Meeting Info
