Letter: Money for dog park could be better spent

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To the editor,

Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess has purposed an idea on a new project. The goal is to open up a new pet-friendly attraction. It has been said that a dog park will not be cutting into the budget, however why don’t we put this money towards something else? I think instead of opening up a new park for pets, we should enhance the parks we already have. Our parks are becoming lousy and need some serious up-keeping.

Don’t get me wrong, the agenda of this dog park is based off of good intentions. A lot of residents of Naugatuck complain that there is just not enough do to in our small town, and the dog park could be an attraction that brings people together. Planners believe that the making of this pet-friendly park will actually get more people to move to this suburban area. Well that’s where I disagree. Let us be honest, when looking for a house who actually looks for a park that is suitable for their dog? If anything more of a focus would be to look at parks and recs that are suitable for their family. By the way existing parks are looking lately, I don’t think they would be appealing enough to get buyers to migrate here.

With my experience as a Naugatuck resident for almost a decade, I’ve never noticed any issue with pets. Owners bring their dogs everywhere they go. Including the parks we already have. An additional pet-friendly park would be a waste of time and money. Let’s put this money towards parks that need work instead creating another one. There are already beautiful trails and parks that are located here, where I’ve seen pets on many occasions. It has already been years without a pet-friendly park and people like to stick to their original routines, so the reasoning behind it isn’t valid. Instead of making a full blown dog park, we can come to terms and have a dedicated section for pets in the existing parks we have. That way we could do something more useful with the land they intended to use for the dog park. We would also be saving tons of money with up-keeping of yet another Naugatuck park.

The proposal of a dog park in Naugatuck was good idea, but not well thought out. More is not always better, quality over quantity. We need to be sure that we can already maintain the parks we have instead of supplying additional ones.

Over time, when we already do a good job at keeping up our rusty parks then we have a better chance of adding another one. So let us put a pause to “operation paws.”  It would work to our advantage if we just learn to take care of what we already have. A pet-friendly park will only be adding more chores that the borough cannot keep up with.

Chanel Morales

Naugatuck

2 COMMENTS

  1. If this park costs 1 dime of taxpayers money it’s too much. We already have a park we can take dogs to in Naugatuck. It’s called the Naugatuck State Forest. All 4153 acres. Use it …its free!!!!

  2. If this park costs 1 dime of taxpayers money it’s too much. We already have a park we can take dogs to in Naugatuck. It’s called the Naugstuck State Forest. All 4153 acres. Use it …its free!!!!