Meeting on the first Saturday of each month to make improvements and do cleanup, they also held a meeting last Friday to consider a longterm plan for a dog park, according to Mary Amodio, one of the group's members.
In February of 2007, the Lakeport City Council voted to allow a city-owned parcel at 1402 Westside Park Road to be used as a dog park on a temporary basis. The park was completed last October.
Another area of the park had been set to be the dog park location, but the city made some concessions to Schellinger Brothers for its Parkside Subdivision, Doug Grider, the city's Public Works director, told Lake County News in a recent interview. Some of the area was used for a bioswale, a stormwater filtering system, which cut into the area, making it too small.
“It was not really an adequate location for a dog park,” Grider said.
A new dog park location is expected to be determined during a future phase of the park's development. Grider said there is enough land in phase three that they could find a new spot there.
The city land is commercially zoned and is meant to be developed at some point in the future, he explained.
Grider said that the city still considers the park's current location a temporary one.
However, he added, “I don't see them doing anything with that ground in my tenure.”
Meanwhile, the current park location is getting plenty of use from many local dog lovers.
Amodio said some nights there are more than a dozen dogs and their people out enjoying some exercise and play.
Grider said he went out on a recent morning and found two groups of dogs and their owners at play. “I was really surprised,” he said.
Amodio, who has a “big ol' friendly dog” who is a golden retriever mix, enjoys time out at the park, as do many others. She said she's met a lot of fun and interesting people and dogs of all sorts, from boxers and puppies to a Pomeranian named Harry.
How the group got active started with a complaint. She said one day the dog owners began complaining about the starthistle, so they decided to go out one Saturday morning and start chopping down the weeds.
“It's been nice to see this group of people step up to do stuff,” she said.
The weed chopping has turned into a monthly gathering to do cleanup which, in turn, has them thinking about other ways to improve the facility. “We have ideas,” she said.
The park has water, but Amodio said the group would like to see irrigation installed, some grading done for drainage, shade trees planted and a small pond dug for the dogs.
“I think we convinced them that putting sod in really isn't the answer,” said Amodio.
They also would like to set aside a part of the park for older and smaller dogs, she said.
It's still early in the group's development, but Amodio said they're already beginning to talk about possibly starting a nonprofit to raise funds to assist in making the park upgrades.
“The core group of committee members understand this is going to be a longterm project,” said Amodio.
Grider said his staff mows, empties trash, cleans the doggie dump station and maintains faucets.
He said the city doesn't have the funds to install the irrigation, so he's encouraging the group to become a nonprofit to assist with raising funds.
The group also has helped draw attention to the park, which Amodio said some people didn't know existed.
Over the winter, Amodio said they may not be able to do much other than make plans for the park, all of which they're coordinating with Grider, who said the city isn't trying to curtail any of the group's plans as long as they're following city rules.
“They're a very energetic group” – one of the most energetic volunteer groups the city's got, Grider said.
To get involved, call Mary Amodio at 707-263-5759 or e-mail the group at
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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