Officials are urging humans who use Spencer’s Run to renew their keycode passes ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline, as the town prepares to re-set access codes to the popular Waveny dog park.
Spencer’s Run on Oct. 8, 2015. Credit: Michael Dinan
New Canaan likely will offer a short grace period so that dog owners have time to apply in person at Waveny House for new passes, Recreation Director Steve Benko said. After that time—say, Nov. 1—anyone who hasn’t renewed will not be able to enter the dog run.
The Animal Control section of the New Canaan Police Department will bolster its regular patrols of Spencer’s Run in order to make sure that users with keycodes are not letting in others who skirted the application process, Officer Allyson Halm said. That has happened sporadically, Benko said, though the people who use Spencer’s Run general self-police.
“They feel that they’ve paid their money and so other should, as well,” Benko said.
Halm intends to post a sign in Spencer’s Run notifying its users of the renewal date and informing them of Animal Control’s intention to come by and request to see both town licenses and Spencer’s Run tags.
More than 700 individuals hold passes to Spencer’s Run, and about 65 percent of those are nonresidents. An application form (see PDF below) calls for proof of licensing, vaccination dates and a liability waiver. New Canaanites pay $25 for the first dog and $15 for up to two additional dogs, while nonresidents pay $40 for the first dog and $15 for each additional dog.
According to Benko, the run physically is in good shape, though it takes a beating from Thanksgiving through March, with cold and wet weather and no grass growing.
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Getting into Spencer’s Run is fast becoming more complex than getting through a TSA security line at JFK on a holiday weekend.
Given that the majority of users are non- residents maybe the non -resident fee should be raised to offset the cost of increased security.