Dog Park Dedication Saturday Caps Year Of Effort - Patch.com
Sabrina Almazan and her dog, Butterscotch, have been waiting for a safe, off-leash site in town. On Saturday at 11 am their wait will end when city officials dedicate a new dog park at the San Leandro Marina.
Located beyond the footbridge past the Marina's southernmost parking lot, the 1.25 acre facility is already in use. The park includes two separately fenced areas, one each for large and small dogs.
Metal gazebos give owners a place to sit out the rain. Otherwise the site is pretty bare bones -- a simple fenced area where dogs can run.
Almazan has spent about seven years pushing the project with a core team of a dozen volunteers and plenty of sporadic support channeled through the Four Paws Society, a non-profit she helped organize.
She is the group's president. Brett Finberg serves as Four Paws' vice president.
A dog-walker by trade, Almazan started the project after she joined the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce in 2003 and took a leadership training program the next year.
Chamber friends helped raise $10,000 that she used to get the Four Paws Society off the ground and by 2006, the non-profit had a web site, business cards and the ability to raise more money through events like the Pawathon, a gathering that featured vendor displays and competitions.
Persistence was necessary.
"We got so frustrated with all the red tape that was thrown at us," Almazan said.
Trying to get the park built in a time of budget cutbacks didn't make things easier.
In the end, Almazan said Four Paws identified money in the city coffers that could only be spent on new construction and got about $400,000 approved to create the dog park that will be dedicated Saturday..
Her chief regret heading into Saturday's dedication is that the process took so long that her former pet, a black Labrador named Dana, died before the dream could be realized.
Now she said Four Paws would try to help other neighborhood groups create dog parks around the region.
"Another of our goals is to promote responsible pet ownership," she said.
24 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNECFTmckmb10_1YQ0sJrSPeHhjIaQ&url=http://sanleandro.patch.com/articles/dog-park-dedication-saturday-caps-year-of-effort
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