Frankin Square residents split on dog park proposal

About 77 percent of those who responded to the Franklin Square Civic Association’s survey to gauge resident’s interest in creating a dog park in the area said they would support the measure, but only 30 percent said they would be willing to pay increased taxes to fund it, according to the results the Civic Association released last Friday.

Some wrote in the survey that they were concerned about the proposed park’s maintenance. One person, for example, said, “There are lots of concerns about maintenance of existing park facilities at Rath Park, so we do not need another area needing daily cleaning and maintenance,” and another respondent wrote that, “Too much maintenance would be required for its up-keep.”

Others also expressed concerns about a raise in taxes, with one person noting, “We should be more focused on helping people survive this economy during this time of the virus … Spending any time, resources and/or tax money on a Dog Park now seems unnecessary.”

Yet some still showed their support for the proposal. One respondent wrote that they are OK with a dog park anywhere that there is shade, and another said, “I do not have strong views on the specific location, but strongly feel Franklin Square should have a dog park.”

No names were included in the survey results.

The Civic Association sent out the survey to its members in mid-July, and planned to send the results to the Town of Hempstead’s Parks and Recreation Department. 

Additionally, members of the Community League of Garden City South reached out to the town’s Parks Department last month to see if it would be viable to create a dog park in the area, after a Franklin Square resident asked the group to help her create one. Town officials said at the time that they would review the request.