Feeling lucky? You could drive away with $25. See page 25 for details September 29, 1989 News 985-2131 Classified 986-6222 Distribution 986-1337 88 puges 25¢ N. Van residents howl dog-walk recommendation LOCALS LOBBY FOR MUDFLATS-AREA SITE A RECOMMENDATION has been made for North Van- couver District Council to proceed with the controversial designation of a portion of Cates Park as a dog-walk area J ing donations Friday and Saturday j West Vancouver, fi firefighters‘ will: ‘be: ae, cars Sat ‘the: Esso’ ‘servic ‘station at ‘14th: that leashes. And a citizens committee has been formed to fobby the Van- couver Port Corporation to desig- nate the Maplewood Mudflats area as a free-run dog park. The recommendation to council follows a Sept. {3 meeting between the district’s Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) and Dollarion dog-walkers and their opponents. Bill Dobinson, who said he rep- resented 300 dog-walking residents, argued that a dirt trail through the north side of the park has been unofficially used as a year-round dog walk for decades. The park is presently designated as a leashed arca for dog use between Oct. | and April 15 only. Said AWC council repre- sentative Ald. Rick Buchels, “There is also a suggestion of put- ting up a fence along the boundary of the dog walk area so that dogs don’t go running to the beach. The fence could be put in under the trees so that you don’t have a feel- ing of walking in a pen.”* But Carol Patleson, who has liv- ed adjacent to the park for the past 22 years, collected 200 signatures in July from people living near the park who oppose the dog-waik designation. She submitted the petition to the AWC. Said Palleson of the recommen- dation: ‘‘That’s a wimpish pass- off. I’ve got an eyeball view here from Beachview Drive. I'm right across from Little Cates Park. I’m a senior and | use the park to run in. I hesitate to use the park because I’m cleaning shit off the bottom of my shoes every morn- ing. They've (dog owners) destroyed Panorama Park and now they want to destroy this park. I’ve nothing against dogs, but in a park where we have kids and picnics, we've got dogs bark- ing at our heels. | haven’t met one responsible dog owner.”’ Mickey Yada lives two blocks from the park. He uses the Cates Park trail daily to walk his three collies. “There was really no argument against us, and we basically felt very positive at the meeting. We wanted to make our points and they were well taken by the com- mittee,”’ he said. Yada said, ‘‘West Vancouver would allow year-round access fur dogs without has Ambleside. We really don’t have a place to run our dogs. We had the dump, but now there are ‘no dog’’ signs up there. The Cates doggie walk is fine, but there are still no legal open areas for North Vancouver dog owners to run their dogs.” Meanwhile a group of North Vancouver residents, who have been walking their dogs on a va- cant portion of land adjacent to the Maplewood Mudflats, has formed the People For The Free- Run Dog Park Committee to lobby the Vancouver Port Corporation to consider designating the proper- ty as a free-run dog park. The port has yet to announce how it intends to develop the land, which is a portion of an 88-acre parcel of undeveloped Maplewood land owned by the Crown corpora- tion. Environmentalists have been pushing for a nature conservation designation. But petitions have been pested at the site for the past few months urging people to sign up if they would like to see a free-run dog park in the area. Said committee chairman Kathy West, “The land we would like has a couple of broken up roads, it’s not like it’s some terrific nature reserve. The mudflats are great for the bird watchers and we don’t want to bother them at all. We would support them in = any endeavor that they would make.” So, far West said approximately 75 area dog-walkers have signed the petition, which will be submit- ted to North Vancouver District Council. Said West, ‘‘We have asked people who've signed the petition to write Mayor (Marilyn) Baker and the port and see what comes of it. Base number one is to see where the port stands."° West has been walking her chocolate Labrador and ‘ta pudgy” Golden Retriever at the Maplewood site over the past year. ‘Basically, unless you want to walk up a Hydro line, there’s no free walk area for dog owners year round in North Vancouver,’’ she said.