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Summary of Sept. 29 MeetingUpdate on the Packman Committee
Summary of Sept. 15 meeting
- We have decided to continue working, under the banner of TCDOG, which we want to develop as a membership organization to create the political and economic force necessary to preserve the park.
- A small group (from those at the meeting) is creating a brochure that will solicit membership and outline the purpose and benefits of the organization and the park.
- We are researching the legal status of TCDOG and will do what is needed to reconstitute it.
- We will try to coordinate, or at least initiate, a grass roots campaign (letters, anecdotes, events) that creates pressure for the preservation of the park.
- We will follow-up the contacts that were cultivated several years ago and begin talking to political figures.
- We will research the growth that has occurred in dog park-friendly resources since the last legalization effort.
- We will focus our efforts on trying to legalize the park with the presently utilized boundaries: from the leash sign at the marina through the loop along the lake.
- We may consider trying to establish other off-leash areas (SW Park, Town of Ithaca, Near Bostwick Rd.)
- We will update the tcdog web site
- We will establish a clear, specific message as a group to communicate with officials
- We will determine which officials to contact and appropriate strategies
- We will try to build coalitions with environmentalists, birders and boaters.
- We will continue to distribute the courtesy rules for use of the park
- We will establish relations with the business community, using positive messages about dog-tourism/spending, perhaps joining the Chamber of Commerce
- We would like to continue our efforts by using the established tcdog group.
- Advantages of doing this are that:
- tcdog is a state-recognized not-for-profit
- tcdog did quite a bit of leg work several years ago, establishing strong working relationships with many of the important political figures involved in the process
- there is an existing institutional memory of tcdog’s work
- tcdog has some resources (some money and printed t-shirts)
- Primary disadvantage:
- some people feel that tcdog attempted a compromise with the Parks Dept on the size of the park and may feel that revitalizing the organization will revive that compromise.
- So, to answer the question of whether we should continue our work organized as TCDOG, we are surveying everyone interested. Please let me know (don’t clutter the list-serve) your feelings: Kpackman@ithacanhs.org