There is a place in Gilroy where canines roam free, there are no leashes, the fire hydrant is fair game and rear-end sniffing is an acceptable form of social etiquette.
The only problem? Gilroy’s dog park is lacking in dogs.
Of the 600 participants who responded to the question, “How often do you visit the dog park?” in a recent survey initiated by the City of Gilroy, 1 percent answered “daily,” 5 percent answered “weekly,” 8 percent answered “monthly” and 85 percent answered “rarely.”
Launched Dec. 14 and ending Jan. 31, the online assessment had a three-pronged aim at tourists, local business owners and residents. It was designed to aid the Garlic Capital in becoming all that it can be – right down to the quality of its dog park.
The $170,000, one-acre doggie destination inside Las Animas Veterans Park at 400 Mantelli Drive has been around since January 2009, but even after an additional $50,000 in upgrades, the spot remains something of an obscurity.
“My guess is many folks don’t know we have a dog park,” said Katherine Filice, owner of downtown business Articulate Solutions that was hired to create the survey.
She could be right.
Of the handful of pet owners utilizing the facility last week, many said it’s wonderful to have a pooch-friendly sanctuary where owners can mingle and dogs can be dogs – but they dually resonated with Filice’s speculation.
“I’ve talked to some people who don’t even know it exists,” said Jan Avila, who’s lived in Gilroy for 20 years and visits the dog park once a week.
Her companion, a spunky beagle named Daisy, barked expectantly from inside a separate enclosure designated for smaller dogs.
“They’ll say, ‘Gilroy? They’ve got a dog park?’ ” she laughed.
Like Betty Kinkel, who was exiting her car in the parking lot and getting ready to take a pint-sized Chihuahua, also named Daisy, for a walk around Las Animas.
As Daisy expectantly pulled toward the direction of grass, Kinkel said she hadn’t considered the dog park since “Daisy hates big dogs.”
Once she learned the facility had a special enclosure for smaller breeds such as the petite and spindly Daisy, however, Kinkel said she’d check it out.
“The complaint is that unless you’re in the park, you don’t know it’s there,” said Donna Pray, executive director of the Gilroy Foundation and the project’s ongoing overseer.
She feels a major setback is lack of signage.
“You can’t see it from Mantelli Drive or Church Street,” she said. “Then there’s also the new people who’ve just moved to town.”
The space is a former lake that had been filled in. It lies nestled in the sunken middle of the park’s inner radius, barely visible from surrounding roads.
Pray sat on a bench beneath the shade structure – a newer feature made possible by the $50,000 donation – and patted her yellow Labrador retriever Reggie, one of two dogs in the park at 3:30 p.m. on a beautiful Friday afternoon.
She looked around at the virtually empty park and shrugged her shoulders with a hint of exasperation.
“I have an open checkbook,” she said, referring to the $7,800 in funds still leftover and ready to spend on signs. “And still the city isn’t getting things done in a timely manner.”
Pray explained erecting signs has been on the city’s to-do list for dog park upgrades for about a year now. She said it usually takes three weeks to get a referral for proposal, or RFP – a public contracting bid for the best deal – “but I don’t know why it hasn’t been completed,” she said.
The $50,000 came from Craig and Jacqui Merriman, who have been contributing to the betterment of Gilroy with money from a civil suit after their son, a Caltrans employee, was killed in an accident several years ago.
“My son loved animals,” said Jacqui. “We gave Donna the money and said, ‘do what you have to do.’ ”
Pray, who’s visited and compared notes with numerous other dog parks, took the $50,000 donated by the Merrimans in Spring 2009 and used it to make Gilroy’s facility more visitor-friendly.
“She started with more trees,” said Jacqui, giggling over the phone. “Because there were pretty much none.”
Pray facilitated the addition of benches that face each other, a covered shade structure, community bulletin board, more trees and name placards from donors with amusing messages such as “In memory of Donovan … you taught us to be dog people.”
“It does play a vital role for the community … it’s becoming a true amenity,” said Nicholas Mitt, 60, who brings his dogs, a husky named Kisa and a yellow Labrador retriever/Saint Bernard mix named Rio to the park every day.
He said on average, there could be four to five dog “parents” present when he visits.
Gazing around, Mitt said a pond would be nice, but he liked the fact the park was enclosed. He said it allows dogs to become socialized, and enjoy quality recreation time immune to the city’s leash ordinance.
“They’re like little NASCAR dogs,” laughed Joan Enright, who had come with Mitt.
She watched two dogs rapidly chase each other in a circle, causing a thick ring of dust to rise into the air.
“I think it needs more trees though,” she said. “It’s still not enough.”
Enright suggested evergreens, but Pray explained deciduous trees don’t block the sun’s rays in the middle of winter.
It was the park’s crushed gravel surface, though, that seem to generate the most comments. Several said it can be unappealing in 90-degree summer weather.
Pray pointed out parks with grass, such as the one in Morgan Hill, cost more money in terms of upkeep and manpower. Crushed gravel, she said – which is what all the parks in New York City have – is more sanitary and easier to clean.
“I would like to see grass, but I understand the upkeep is difficult,” said Avila, who pointed out Morgan Hill’s dog park turns in to “pure mud” after it rains.
Pray said some folks have gotten into the habit of writing on the message board and scheduling play dates for their dogs; a glimmer of activity indicating the area is slowly garnering more regular users.
“People need to use it,” she said. “It has a lot of potential … it just needs some publicity.”
