To the editor:
I’ll admit that until the renovated Gellatly Bay linear park opened this past weekend, it was hard for me to believe it would be such a stunning improvement.
But today, my enthusiasm tumbled.
I watched in shocked dismay as the fencing closed the dog beach into a penned-in strip along the water, with no benches for owners to sit—really no anything.
Surely, some small part of the taxes we, like other residents pay, could support a better considered plan.
Dogs need space to run, not just a long strip along the water.
They love to run up, down and around, just like kids do.
The exercise, we dog owners know, makes our dogs happier, more contented and healthier.
The Gellatly Bay linear park provides a walk all the way from the nut farm to the end of Rotary Park.
Along the dog beach, if it must be fenced in now, all that is needed is for the fence to have a slight incline at the “south” end, so the fence is near the top of the hill.
The pathway can, as it always has, continue along its present course.
Never that I know of has that ever been a problem.
For the few people who are that uncomfortable with a dog off-leash, they can follow along the fence for that portion of the walk.
I hope lots of your readers will support the “vision” that the walkway designers had some years ago, and support the need to keep the dog park the way it is. Not only for we taxpayers, but also for our many tourists, some of whom have made a point of complimenting our community for its consideration of pets and owners with this glorious off-leash dog park on the water.
Sheila Taylor,
West Kelowna
