Dog owners furious over greenway ban

MATTHEW HIGBEE
The Connecticut Post
Jan. 31, 2007

DERBY - On an early Saturday morning last month, Bonnie Chuka was returning from a walk along the Derby Greenway with Miss Abby, her 7-year-old wheaten terrier, when the pair came upon a police car. Two officers got out and asked for identification. It was shortly after the Board of Aldermen had passed a resolution banning dogs from the greenway. Chuka, it appeared, had been caught in a stakeout. "I wasn't too happy. I was nervous," Chuka said. "I enjoy walking with her [Miss Abby]. She loves to walk."

Chuka said she was detained for about 20 minutes and was issued a ticket. Chuka's ticket ended up being thrown out because the city has not passed an ordinance establishing fines for violating the dog ban. But the resolution still gave police the right to kick her and any other dog walker off the greenway.

Chuka's experience was highlighted last week at a Board of Aldermen meeting by a vocal opponent of the policy.

Scott O'Brien, who collected the signatures of more than 50 dog owners protesting the ban, reminded the aldermen that before the ban was enacted, Police Chief Eugene Mascolo had told them that the department lacked the manpower to catch people neglecting to clean up after their dogs on the greenway.

"Here they detained a woman for a half-hour," O'Brien said, as Mascolo sat two rows behind him. "There were four officers stationed on the greenway," O'Brien continued. "Who was patrolling the rest of the city? All of this to enforce a resolution, not a law."

Mascolo declined to respond to O'Brien's comments at the meeting. Board of Aldermen President Ken Hughes said that the morning Chuka was stopped came after a public meeting when angry dog owners threatened to protest the ban. "The police expected 30 people to show up with their dogs," Hughes said. The aldermen instituted the ban after receiving several complaints about feces on the trail and dogs running without a leash. But the officials tabled action on an ordinance establishing fines after hearing the complaints from dog owners. The issue was sent to the Greenway Committee, where O'Brien and others were invited to come up with ideas for a compromise. Citizen patrols, designated days when dogs would be allowed and plastic bag dispensers are some of the proposals on the table. With the meeting coming up today, Hughes said that he was surprised that O'Brien was aggressively complaining.

"We listened and we offered to help them," Hughes said. "This is not the way to get someone on your side."

The Greenway Committee meets today Monday at 7 p.m. at City Hall.