Recreation officials are urging Irwin Park dog owners to pick up after their pets, as several complaints have come in about waste left near and even directly on the walking paths there.
One idea for a sign or flyer encouraging dog owners to be responsible in New Canaan. Contributed
With the main parking lot at Irwin cordoned off and full of snow, many of the offenders appear to be neighborhood residents who walk to the Weed Street park, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko.
“We have a carry in and carry out policy, and people understand that,” Benko said.
“A lot of people are walking out the gate down by Bayberry and Wahackme or Weed and Wahackme, and they don’t want to go back home with a pet’s waste bag. We’re asking people to pick up their pet’s waste and either find a garbage can at the park or throw it out at home.”
It’s been a problem in the past and it persists, officials say, though offenders risk a fine of $92 per instance.
One frequenter of Irwin Park, Katie Stewart, said she has seen used pet waste bags “dropped on the lawn and in all sorts of places.”
“Even trees, hung up in the trees,” said Stewart, who is an active member of the New Canaan Garden Club’s Irwin Park Committee.
Stewart suggested one way to resolve the problem is banning dogs for a period of time (one month, say) or else installing additional garbage cans—a move that would create more work for the town.
Asked what she would tell people who walk their dogs at Irwin, Stewart said: “It would help if you kindly pick up after your dog.”
Benko said he plans to buy more signs instructing Irwin visitors with dogs to clean up after their pets.
The Park and Recreation Commission on Wednesday night brought up the matter and decided to form a committee to focus on the problem, possibly partnering with the Garden Club and others.
“People are very upset about it, because these are our parks and they can’t believe people would let their dogs go in there and deposit and not pick it up—particularly when [Recreation Director] Steve and [Parks Superintendent] John [Howe] are making sure there are bags there,” Chairman Sally Campbell said.
She recommended an “education campaign” that would put the problem squarely in front of potential offenders “without being vigilantes.”
Commissioner Joan Guzzetti noted that police will accept a report from witnesses who snap photos of offending dog owners and issue tickets based on the strength of those reports—a method that came into play last year when the owners of Lakeview Cemetery banned dogs outright because of a similar problem.
Benko said at the meeting that New Canaan used to have more garbage cans placed around its parks, but when the town switched to a “carry in, carry out” policy several years ago, a smaller number of large dumpsters took their place in the parks.
Commissioner Jason Milligan said offenders likely won’t be swayed by signs because they know they’re in the wrong already, and asked how many tickets were issued on a regular basis for not picking up after a dog. The most effective method, he said, may be to ask local news outlets willing to publish the names of those incurring infraction summonses to do so in these cases.
It’s not only Irwin Park, unfortunately. I was cross-country skiing on the Waveny Park trails this week, and I had to avoid many piles of dog waste in my travels.
I walked my dog at the Nature Center today and it is just as bad there- literally could not risk taking eyes off ground. Kids from the preschool are playing on those paths all the time. We are lucky to have these beautiful places to walk our dogs and need to be respectful.