In a 3-1 vote the Hollister City Council on Feb. 16 approved a supplemental appropriation of $25,000, from the park improvements fund, for the construction of a dog park facility at Frank Klauer Memorial Park on the eastern side of town in Sunnyslope Village. Councilman Ray Friend voted against funding the dog park, stating that work needs to be completed on other park projects before moving on to yet another one. Councilman Karson Klauer was not at the meeting.
The resolution, which was among several others in the consent agenda, was pulled for further council and public discussion.
Councilwoman Mickie Luna said she appreciated the fact that the city has dog parks and reminded those present that the council is still working on parks and that there is still a need for them on the west side of town.
“As much as I support this, I still want to bring up the fact that we still have work to do and I’m concerned about the west side and achieving the goals,” she said, adding that she would like to see a progress report at the next council meeting.
Councilman Victor Gomez, in whose district the new dog park is located, voiced his support and said, “Over the years, it’s been a tremendous concern in my district. Folks thought it was a (dog) park, then it wasn’t, then it was, then it wasn’t. I think these investments are a good signal to our investment into our local parks.”
Friend, the lone dissenter, said he wanted people to know that he does support dog parks, but said he didn’t think it was appropriate to spend $25,000 at this time when, “Park Hill doesn’t even have restroom facilities.”
“We haven’t finished the job we started up there,” he said. “You want to take $25,000, put it in the bathrooms up there. It just doesn’t seem to make sense to move on to another project when we haven’t finished the other one.”
Mayor Ignacio Velazquez interjected that the city is looking at improving all of the parks. He said the bathrooms Friend referred to are closer to a $100,000 project.
“We all focused on making sure every park in the city has improvements because the public deserves them,” Velazquez said. “This has been a conversation for a few years and, hopefully, by the end of this year we’ll have all those parks completed. Councilman Friend is correct. The bathroom situation up there is not in the best condition, but we have a good start with the improvements out there.”
Friend remained adamant in his opposition.
“This is like building a dog park and two months later come back and saying, ‘now we need a fence,’ or ‘now we need a gate so we can get in there.’ Let’s finish something before we move on,” he said.
Gomez said, “I think this will give us enough to complete an existing facility. The park is already developed. It’s not like this park is going through a full-on overhaul. The mayor and I have had this discussion off-line and we need to continue to invest in our parks. In no way are we spending $25,000 and somehow punting other projects out there. And I’m pretty sure staff can work on more than one project at a time.”
Velazquez added, “Councilman Friend and I brought back some from the League of Cities about the bathrooms can be put very reasonably priced and very quick to get done. We brought this back a year ago and we need to see progress and get these parks done this year. We’re all committed to wrapping up this park program, so the public can enjoy them.”
Luna added, “We’ve got spring and summer coming up and we have children all over this community and we need to make sure those parks are there for the community to enjoy.”
City staff and council members did not respond to phone or email requests for clarification on what improvements the $25,000 would pay for were not returned by press time.
Presently, there are two dog parks around Hollister: at Brigantino Park, 2037 San Juan Road, and Hollister Airport Bark Park, 2100 San Felipe Road.
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