Lockup at dog walking spot
Gate at city-owned parking area padlocked to prevent joyriding
Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, October 8, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Access to a popular dog walking area near the Folk on the Rocks site has been locked up, much to the surprise of residents who regularly take their pets there.
Stephen Woolf, with his dog Corona are outside a gate leading to his favourite dog walking spot near the Folk on the Rocks site. The city recently locked the gate to keep joyriders out. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo |
Stephen Woolf said he has been going out to walk his dog Corona in the parking lot area outside the Folk on Rocks site for the past 10 years. However, when he showed up two weeks ago, the gate to the park was padlocked shut.
"There's very few areas in Yellowknife where you can let your dog run free," he said.
Woolf said the area is an ideal spot to let a dog off leash because it's fenced in and close to the water. Unlike the city's dog park, there is plenty of open space for dogs to run.
"It's just a nice clean area," he said.
The gate to the parking lot has a large sign hanging on it reading "no trespassing" courtesy of the Minister of Transport, but the property is actually owned by the city.
City facilities manager Dave Hurley told Yellowknifer that the gate had been locked up along with the entrances to the Folk on the Rocks site - as is done every year - to prevent people from using the area to drive off-road vehicles.
'If we leave it wide open, it would be destroyed," he said.
Woolf said he often goes out to pick up garbage in the area and understands the city wanting to keep people from joyriding. He even helped fix the gate with an old dog leash and some rope after a vehicle had apparently slammed into the gate and knocked it over.
Nonetheless, he said he has found a hole in the fence and he will keep using the area regardless of whether the gate is shut.
Although the area is used as a parking lot for Folk on the Rocks and other events, Hurley emphasized it's also a public park. Based on dog-walkers' concerns over access to the area, Hurley said he would go out to visit the site to see if a compromise could be arrived at that would prevent vehicles from accessing it while allowing dog walkers to get in.
"We'll go out, I'll walk along the site and we'll make a decision (whether) it's in the best interest of the city and people to use it," he said.
"We want people to enjoy the site, but we want them to respect the site."
