Coffey Park off-leash dog rules, excerpted from Amy Haimerl’s community email:

from    Amy Haimerl

[comments: Adam Pollock, approved by Amy Haimerl]

date    Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 1:37 PM

John [who maintains Red Hook’s parks] has requested that we rotate lawns so that our main lawn can get a break and let the seed grow. So, please move to the lawn directly to the east (toward Columbia) during the evening hours [and the morning hours, until the grass has recovered].

Remember, while we technically have the entire park, our agreement with the neighborhood says we’ll stay in the quadrant at Verona and Richards (our normal lawn). The neighborhood agreed not to restrict us to just this lawn so that we could legally move when there were conflicts with other events/BBQs/etc. Everyone wanted it to be flexible. In exchange, we agreed to keep ourselves on our lawn, mostly, so that people who are afraid of dogs always know where to expect us and can plan their routes accordingly.

In that vein, we can move our location, but please try to keep everyone together during off-leash hours. While we do have a right to be in the park before 9 a.m. and after 9 p.m., everyone else does too. So we all need to work together and not act as if we own the park. I only bring this up because I’ve heard some complaints about dog owners telling others that if they don’t like the dogs being off leash, they should get out of the park.

I’ve pasted the agreed-up rules at the bottom of this email as a refresher to anyone who is curious. (I know you’re all fantastic, but any help you can provide with other dog owners would be helpful. This is really a community effort.)

1. All dogs must be vaccinated and registered with the city
2. All dogs must be under voice command, meaning they will come when the owner calls
3. No aggression toward humans or other dogs will be tolerated
4. If a police officer or parks representative requests that the dogs be put on leash, owners must comply
5. Dogs are *not* allowed to harass other park users
6. Dogs are *not* allowed in the basketball courts or the playground areas. They are only to be in the grassy area of the park
7. Generally, the dogs are to be off-leash only in the quadrant located at Richards and Verona Streets. This is not an official rule, as we want flexibility to move during barbecuing season or for other events. But dog owners have agreed to keep their group activities generally within this location so that other users can plan their activities
8. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., there are to be no dogs off the leash. Police officers will be ticketing heavily if they see dogs off leash during the day
9. Dogs are not to dig in the flower beds or otherwise disturb the flora of the park
10. Owners *must* clean up after their dogs.