BY CHRISS WILLIAMS | Dog lovers are begging City Park officials to help repair the popular Washington Square Park dog run. Two sinkholes have appeared inside the pooch park — officially known as George’s Dog Run — over the past six months. What’s more, users say the run has been in a state of rapid decline since its renovation three years ago.
“It’s not just three years later that it is in this condition, but it was in this condition six months after it opened,” said Pat Gross, a member of the run’s board of directors.
On a hazy midweek afternoon last week, the run was filled with a dozen dogs in various states of summer play.
The maintenance issues are not immediately apparent to casual visitors, but they are at the forefront of the minds of the park’s everyday visitors.
A professional dog walker who gave her name as Susan was sitting near the run’s sprinkler area where three dogs were trying to escape the heat.
“Dog illness is the main thing,” she noted. “The drain does not work, so it’s standing still dirty water and the dogs drink it and can get Giardia.”
Complaints to the Parks Department and Community Board 2 have been an almost daily task.
“We started discussing this three years ago. There’s probably 2,000 e-mails.” Gross told The Villager in a phone interview.
What falls under the responsibility of the city as opposed to the dog run’s board remains a gray area. A city Parks spokesperson said, “The board is responsible for daily maintenance, cleaning up after dogs, hosing down areas, raking gravel. New York City Parks handles major repairs and capital projects.”
However, community members continue to pay out of pocket for private-contractor estimates and supplies.
“That’s the Park Department’s job,” said Newelle McDonald, as she pointed to an area of the run cordoned off from use by a wooden fence, while also throwing her energetic 12-year-old pet a ball. “Three months ago this whole area collapsed, and I’ve heard it’s a drainage pipe for the park building that needs to be repaired. The sinkhole in the middle has shown up for six or seven months now, and it just gets worse every time it rains because it collects water.”
In addition to the drainage issues, the perimeter fencing is also problem plagued and causing unnecessary expenses.
“Before this new dog run, we would buy gravel every two years and it would cost us around $4,500,” Gross said. “We’ve had estimates now from anywhere between $10,000 to $18,000 to replace the gravel.”
Due to gaps between the fence and ground, the gravel escapes easily, causing a need to resupply it.
“We were asked to supply a contractor, which we did,” Gross continued. “He came and gave a very expensive bid. The cost was around $25,000” to install a plastic lumber siding. “The Parks Department asked if they would pay for part and we would pay for part. We agreed we would pay. Parks came back and said ‘no.’ We can’t spend any money, but we will have our workmen install it.”
Through private donations, the dog run’s board paid for the plastic lumber, but as of press time, it had yet to be installed.
“I find it very unfair that we spent $1,800 of our hard-earned money for this lining,” Gross said.
However, Parks may finally be throwing a bone to run users. The department spokesperson said Parks anticipates the perimeter plastic-lumber installation “to begin by the end of the month.” Once that is completed, Parks can provide proper “backfill” to close up the sinkhole area.
“We love the park and our expectation was that we would do the things we do to maintain the run — like buy the garbage bags, things of that nature,” Gross said. “We hoped that part of the money we raised could support the run as a whole. That’s what we thought our role was. Instead we are being given the runaround.”
