News

Kingsman Dog Park Maintenance Volunteers Still Needed

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 13:52:05 +0000

A HUGE thank you to Hill Hounds member Erica Wilkins for volunteering to be the Kingsman Dog Park Maintenance Coordinator. And also a big thank you to the folks who have stepped up to be Maintenance Volunteers! Unfortunately, only four people have volunteered to help out with maintenance so far. So we're asking for your help.

If you've been using and enjoying Kingsman Dog Park, please consider volunteering. It's a volunteer commitment of only about 2 hours a month but will be a huge help.

Email Erica at maintenance@hillhounds.com if you can help.

If we get five more maintenance volunteers, each person will be responsible for:
--hosing down the surface of the park with sanitary spray or raking it once a month between May and October and every other month between November and April. This takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
-checking on day to day items when you're visiting the park, like making sure there are bags in the poop bag dispenser and making sure any fliers posted on the community bulletin board (which will be installed soon) are appropriate
-participating in the park clean up days that will happen every 3 months (when you're available)

Background on Why Hill Hounds is Responsible for Park Maintenance:
While Kingsman Dog Park is a city park, dog park partner groups are expected to take on a lot of responsibility. This culture may change in the future, but when leaders in the DC dog owner community were negotiating the terms of the laws and budget to create official DC dog parks in 2007, they were willing to agree to a lot of responsibility for the parks in order to get the rules passed. That was because it took many years of advocacy by DC dog owners to even get to the point of the city government considering laws and a budget for official dog parks. And when members of the Hill Hounds Steering Committee applied for Kingsman Dog Park in early 2008, we knew that once the park was built, the awesome dog owners of the neighborhood (that's you!) would step up to help out.

Again, please email Erica at maintenance@hillhounds.com if you can help out.

Begging for a Volunteer to Coordinate Dog Park Maintenance

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:43:30 +0000

If you are using Kingsman Dog Park, PLEASE consider volunteering. If you are one of the volunteers locking and unlocking the park, PLEASE consider getting further involved. The Hill Hounds Steering Committee (once 7 people, currently 5) has spent hours upon hours upon hours getting Kingsman Dog Park approved, raising money for park amenities and supplies and working with the Department of Parks and Recreation to make sure it was designed well for our community. Now that the park is open, there are even more responsibilities and we need others to step up.

See the information below, which we posted a couple of weeks ago. Three people signed up as maintenance volunteers (thanks!) but that won't cut it. We need more people to get more involved. The most important volunteer position to fill is Dog Park Maintenance Coordinator.

While Kingsman Dog Park is a city park, dog park partner groups are expected to take on a lot of responsibility. This culture may change in the future, but when leaders in the DC dog owner community were negotiating the terms of the laws and budget to create official DC dog parks in 2007, they were willing to agree to a lot of responsibility for the parks in order to get the rules passed. That was because it took many years of advocacy by DC dog owners to even get to the point of the city government considering laws and a budget for official dog parks. And when members of the Hill Hounds Steering Committee applied for Kingsman Dog Park in early 2008, we knew that once the park was built, the awesome dog owners of the neighborhood (that's you!) would step up to help out.

If you can volunteer for any of these roles, please email beth@hillhounds.com.

Park Maintenance Volunteers and Park Maintenance Coordinator- While the Department of Parks and Recreation picks up the trash from the park and will do major repairs like resurfacing, Hill Hounds is responsible for the rest of the day-to-day park maintenance. The maintenance supplies are kept in the locked plastic chest at the park.

The Coordinator will:

order supplies, such as dog poop bags, trash bags and sanitary spray, and be reimbursed with Hill Hounds funds in a timely manner
coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to hose down the surface of the dog park with sanitary spray once a week between October and May and twice a week between June and September
coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to rake the surface of the park at least once a month
coordinate a dog park clean up day every three months where the greater Hill Hounds membership will help do larger clean up & maintenance tasks, like painting over graffiti or planting shrubs

The Volunteers will:

check on day to day items when they visit the park, like making sure there are bags in the poop bag dispenser and making sure any fliers posted on the community bulletin board (which DPR will be getting installed soon) are appropriate
participate in hosing down and raking the surface as scheduled by the Coordinator (see above)

Hill Hounds Secretary- The Hill Hounds Steering Committee needs an organized individual to join as Secretary. The Secretary's main duty will be fulfilling our reporting requirements to DPR.

Hill Hounds must send DPR notes from our Annual Meeting, which the Secretary will take and send.
Hill Hounds must also send DPR quarterly reports on activities at the park and our fundraising that quarter. Therefore the Secretary will keep track of the dates and details of anything significant that happens at the park, such as our quarterly clean ups, and compile that info with fundraising info (provided by the Hill Hounds Treasurer) into DPR's quarterly report form every three months and send it to them.

Park Repairs to Start Next Week

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:23:21 +0000

Good news! We've heard back from the Department of Parks and Recreation that, weather permitting, the construction company will be back at Kingsman Dog Park next week finishing the surface and fixing other issues.

Apparently the delay was that the supplier from which the construction company purchases asphalt needs a certain amount to be ordered before it goes into production.

The repairs/continued construction will include:

Finishing the surface of the basketball court
Fixing the "mud pit" area
Closing the small gap in the fence in the northeast corner
Installing the community bulletin board

Additional Kingsman Dog Park Volunteers Needed

Sun, 03 Apr 2011 20:24:02 +0000

Thank you to all of the volunteers who have been locking and unlocking Kingsman Dog Park, especially Brittany Kramer and Allie Hagan, who are coordinating the schedule. Hill Hounds has additional roles for which we need park users to volunteer.

The Coordinator will:

order supplies, such as dog poop bags, trash bags and sanitary spray, and be reimbursed with Hill Hounds funds in a timely manner
coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to hose down the surface of the dog park with sanitary spray once a week between October and May and twice a week between June and September
coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to rake the surface of the park at least once a month
coordinate a dog park clean up day every three months where the greater Hill Hounds membership will help do larger clean up & maintenance tasks, like painting over graffiti or planting shrubs

The Volunteers will:

check on day to day items when they visit the park, like making sure there are bags in the poop bag dispenser and making sure any fliers posted on the community bulletin board (which DPR will be getting installed soon) are appropriate
participate in hosing down and raking the surface as scheduled by the Coordinator (see above)

Hill Hounds Secretary- The Hill Hounds Steering Committee needs an organized individual to join as Secretary. The Secretary's main duty will be fulfilling our reporting requirements to DPR.

Hill Hounds must send DPR notes from our Annual Meeting, which the Secretary will take and send.
Hill Hounds must also send DPR quarterly reports on activities at the park and our fundraising that quarter. Therefore the Secretary will keep track of the dates and details of anything significant that happens at the park, such as our quarterly clean ups, and compile that info with fundraising info (provided by the Hill Hounds Treasurer) into DPR's quarterly report form every three months and send it to them.

Tips for Using Kingsman Dog Park

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:01:39 +0000

Now that Kingsman Dog Park is open, we want to give you some tips and reminders for its use.

1. With the double-gated entry, please NEVER open the main gate when there is an unleashed dog in the entry area. Please wait until the owner of the dog in the entry area has had a chance to re-leash him or her.

2. Please try to keep your dogs from forming a "welcome committee" to those entering the park. There have been a few incidences of aggression between those inside and those trying to enter. Things are calmer once everyone is inside and not feeling cornered or intruded upon.

3. We have a small dog area (gate on the right of the entry area) and a main play area (gate on the left of the entry area). All dogs are welcome in the main play area, regardless of size. But if your dog is small enough to get picked on by larger dogs, is older and needs a more tame play environment, etc, the small dog area is there for your use.

4. Be sure all dogs remain on-leash until inside the double-gated area. The walkway from the D Street sidewalk is an entrance to the dog park, the playing field and the basketball court. Therefore, we need to be curteous to the users of these other resources and keep our dogs on-leash when we're not in the park.

5. Please make sure to comply with the Department of Parks and Recreation Dog Park Rules.

If you've noticed other things that we should give tips on, feel free to contact the steering committee at info@hillhounds.com.

Kingsman Dog Park Opening Friday!

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:22:00 +0000

Kingsman Dog Park will open to the public at 5:00 pm this Friday, March 25th. To celebrate, please join us for an informal get-together from 5-7 pm at the new park. We invite everyone to come by, take a look around, play a little fetch and make some new friends from the neighborhood. Members of the Hill Hounds Steering Committee will be there to answer questions about the park and to hand out free treats to your very patient pooches.

Sometime in the next few weeks, we will have a larger event to celebrate the park's opening. At this event we are planning to have representatives from the Department of Health on hand to help people obtain dog licenses and dog park tags. You can also get this information at http://app.doh.dc.gov/form/animal_license.asp.

The park will be open until 10:00 pm on Friday. Starting on Saturday, March 26th, the park will be open from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm every day of the year.

Kingsman Dog Park- Volunteer Update

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:05:05 +0000

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered to help with locking and unlocking the park! We now have enough volunteers for those duties. But we still need someone to serve as the Dog Park Maintenance Coordinator. Please check out the description below and email beth@hillhounds.com if you're interested.

Park Maintenance Coordinator- While the Department of Parks and Recreation will pick up the trash from the park, we will be responsible for the rest of the regular park maintenance. All of the maintenance supplies will be kept in a shed at the park. The Park Maintenance Coordinator will oversee a team of volunteers conducting maintenance activities, including ordering supplies and passing out keys to the supply shed as necessary. Our maintenance responsibilities will include:

monitor the community bulletin board daily
buy and replace trash bags for the dog poop trash can(s) and dog poop bags
hose down the surface of the dog park with sanitary spray at least once a week between October and May and twice per week between June and September
rake the surface of the park at least once a month
hold a dog park clean up day every three months

Kingsman Dog Park- Good & Bad News

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:45:35 +0000

The good news is that Kingsman Dog Park is finished and ready to open to the public. The bad news is that one last DPR-related obstacle must be cleared before the city will cut the ribbon and let us all in to play. The short version is that Hill Hounds signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the city in 2009 making it an official park partner for Kingsman, something that is required by law for the park to open. But, DPR lost the signed agreement. Now, DPR is asking Hill Hounds to sign a new agreement.

The new agreement that DPR has proposed is mostly the same - but is just different enough that we have to go through another round of negotiations with them before we feel comfortable signing it, especially since some of the new clauses ask Hill Hounds to take on additional financial responsibiities. We are working as fast as we can to resolve these questions and are hoping to have a signed agreement by sometime next week.

Dog Park Opening Soon- Volunteers REALLY Needed

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:40:36 +0000

Hill Hounds Members-

Kingsman Dog Park is almost complete and could open as early as later this week. However, we REALLY need some of you to sign up to volunteer to help run the park.

The park will only be open 7 AM to 10 PM each day and the Department of Parks and Recreation wants it to be locked at night, which means that Hill Hounds members will be responsible for unlocking the gate each morning and locking it each night.

Awesome Hill Hounds members Brittany Kramer and Allie Hagan have volunteered to coordinate the volunteers who will lock and unlock the park but they only have a few volunteers on their team so far. If you would be available to go to the park at 7 AM or 10 PM a few days a week, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE email Brittany and Allie at locking@hillhounds.com. Looking forward to seeing you at the park soon!

Reminder: No Dogs Allowed on Playing Fields

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 14:02:00 +0000

The DC Department of Health has asked Hill Hounds to remind our members that dogs are not allowed on the playing field at Kingsman Field or any other DPR facility. DOH officers have observed people taking their dogs onto the Kingsman Playing Field. There is no way to know if these folks were Hill Hounds members but we want to remind everyone that this is not allowed and people who break the law can be fined.

Kingsman Field Dog Park is almost complete so we will have a fenced park for our dogs to play in very soon! We'll let you know as soon as we have a date for the grand opening.