A small group of residents who perpetually object to just about every IVGID initiative to improve the lives and recreational opportunities of residents in the Incline Village / Crystal Bay community has set out to kill the proposal for a new dedicated dog park across from Incline High School.

This proposed dog park has the full support of the IVGID Board of Trustees and, in a survey of residents, was identified by close to 70% of respondents as a high priority for initiatives in the Community Plan. IVGID has submitted a request to the US Forest Service for a Special Use Permit to develop a fenced-in dog park with amenities and wooded walking trails on this property; yet this small but vocal group of malcontents is doing everything it can to dissuade the Forest Service from approving the Permit.

Conflicts between dog owners and the parents of children who play organized sports and other activities on the Village Green, and concerns about disruption of lake fish spawning in adjacent creeks, may eventually force the elimination of off-leash dog use on the Green. The Village Green was only intended to serve as a ‘temporary’ dog park from the get-go nearly twenty years ago

The cadre of curmudgeons who oppose a dedicated dog park on this property seem to oppose nearly every initiative to improve existing and develop new facilities for the benefit of IV/CB residents, such as improvements to the Recreation Center that would provide much needed recreational and social opportunities for young and old. They insist on making life difficult for IVGID employees; and on engaging the IVGID Board and staff in endless time and money wasting disputes.

Despite the fact that several potential donors have already privately expressed their willingness to help finance the project; these perpetual objectors insist that IVGID should not invest in a dog park in Incline Village . Others argue that better sites for the dog park should be considered, even though IVGID Staff and the Board have done their homework and determined that no other site is as suitable, and of sufficient size, to serve as a dog park, without eliminating existing facilities.

In order to save the potential for our new dog park, we must make it clear to the Forest Service that this small but vocal group is NOT representative of the sentiments of the community at large. If you are tired of digging dog poop out of your kid’s soccer cleats; concerned about impacts on the creeks at the Village Green; frustrated that conflicting events close the Green to off-leash dogs for several weeks during the summer; or tired of a small minority of nay-sayers standing in the way of improvements to our community: please email Karen Kuentz at the US Forest Service at karen.kuentz@usda.gov and let her know you stand with the great majority of residents that support IVGID’s Special Use Permit for a dog park in Incline.