Dog Ownership and the FY2009 Municipal Budget

The Somerville Dog Owners Group (som|dog) encourages residents who own dogs to attend the public hearing for the City's Budget for the 2009 fiscal year (July 2009 - June 2010). The Public Hearing will be held at City Hall in the Aldermanic Chambers at 93 Highland Avenue, Monday evening, June 23, at 6:30.

This is an excellent opportunity for residents to address our concerns about the livability of our City to the Mayor and the Aldermen.

In recent years, there have been only two budget items directly regarding dog ownership in the City:

• the City Clerk's proposed revenue from dog license and dog kennel fees and


• the line item in the Police Department salaries for the Animal Control Officer

In the 2009 Fiscal Year Budget, no fewer than five departments address matters of dog ownership including:

• City Clerk (dog licenses, dog-license database, and dog-kennel licenses)


• Executive Administration (soliciting public feedback on policies regarding off-leash dogs; facilitate problem-solving meetings on dog issues in Lincoln Park)


• Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (off-leash recreational areas)


• Department of Public Works (maintenance of the off-leash recreational area and parks that allow dogs)


• Police Department (Animal Control)

The Proposed Fiscal Year 2009 Municipal Budget can be downloaded from the City Of Somerville's website.

Parkland along the Mystic River and at Assembly Square

Two important meetings next week will address open space along the Mystic River and at Assembly Square. Please make other arrangements for your canine companions.

Monday, June 16 - Mystic River Reservation Master Plan Meeting
6 to 8 pm
Tufts Boat House, 300 River’s Edge Drive (177 Corporation Way), Medford, MA

Tuesday, June 17 - Assembly Square Land Swap Discussion
6:30 pm
Assembly Square Marketplace
Meet on the DCR pathway by the waterfront, across from the Christmas Tree Shops. Parking available at the Marketplace -- look for a white tent.

A great deal of open space in Somerville is part of the Mystic River Reservation and the property at Assembly Square. Somerville dog owners should be included among the many and diverse people who are able to enjoy this parkland! We need to attend these meetings to be included.

Mystic River Reservation

At a previous meeting about the Master Plan (November 2007), several people spoke of the needs of park users with dogs. Designated off-leash recreational areas will attract usage to lawn areas, an explicit goal of the Master Plan. Indeed, no other suggestion was proffered at the meeting to attract usage to underused lawn areas.

Senator Jehlen has secured $250,000 for the Mystic River Master Plan in the FY2007 budget: Come to the meeting and share with the Senator your ideas for improving recreational opportunities on the Mystic River parkland!

You may also contact the Senator directly:

Senator Patricia Jehlen
Room 513
State House
Boston 02133
617-722-1578
patricia.jehlen@state.ma.us

The official notice about the Mystic River Reservation Master Plan Meeting is available from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Assembly Square

For every one thousand Somerville residents, there is just about two-and-a-quarter acres of open space. The Assembly Square development will increases the residential capacity of our City. For every additional 1000 residents that Assembly Square will accommodate, the developers must create an additional 2.25 acres of open space. Otherwise we are losing ground!

For everyone who will live, work, and play at Assembly Square, and for the livability of our City, people must be welcome to enjoy the parkland at Assembly Square and the nearby DCR parkland with our pets. We need both

• designated areas where people can enjoy the benefits of socializing and exercising our dogs
• off-leash areas to accommodate uses that are incompatible or unsafe for unrestrained dogs where dogs must remain on leash.

East Somerville Main Streets distributed a flyer for the Assembly Square Landswap Discussion.

Memorial Day Parade

Twenty Somerville dog owners walked with eighteen dogs in the City's Memorial Day Parade on Sunday.

Spring finally arrived this year, just in time for the parade. It was a beautiful day—bright and sunny and warm.

The people who were out watching the parade were every bit the equal of the warm and beautiful day. The Memorial Day Parade reveals Somerville at it's finest. The whole town comes out to watch the parade; everyone is friendly and smiling.

Without a cloud in the sky, the asphalt along the parade route got pretty hot under our pups' paws, but we made new friends who helped our dogs beat the heat. At Pinball Plus (370 Highland Avenue), a very nice gentleman brought out his garden hose and let us hose down our dogs.

A couple of doors down, Kickass Cupcakes (378 Highland Avenue), put out buckets of water for the dogs. Kickass Cupcakes also donated mini pupcakes and mini cupcakes for the dogs and their owners who walked with som|dog in the Parade. The dogs wolfed down the carob and peanut-butter pupcakes after the parade.

Extra water for the dogs was donated by Dogma and Catma, too (321-325 Somerville Avenue).

Thanks to everyone who walked with som|dog, to Dogma (and Catma, too), to Kickass Cupcakes and to Pinball Plus. Thanks Bill (with Suki) for sharing your photos. Thanks Somerville, especially Frank Senesi, Director of Veterans' Services, for another great parade!

Arliss the Pug and Friends

[via the somdog-discussion group]

Loren, who owns Arliss the Pug, has started a blog to post pictures taken at Nunziato Field. If you have taken pictures at Nunziato Field, you can send them to Loren (lorenbryand * AT * gmail.com).

Walk Your Dog in the Memorial Day Parade!

For the fourth year, the Somerville Dog Owners Group (som|dog) is walking our dogs in the City's Memorial Day Parade, Sunday, May 25.

Dogs that enjoy the company of other dogs, that are licensed and up-to-date on vaccinations, that walk well on a loose leash and that are in good physical condition are welcome!

The parade begins at City Hall. The parade route is 2.25 miles proceeding up Highland Avenue to Davis Square, then along Holland Street to Teele Square and continuing on Broadway to Veterans Memorial Cemetery in West Somerville.

Not everyone and not every dog can walk the whole route, especially if it is a warm day. If you and your dog cannot walk the whole route, you may join a group of reinforcements who will file in with som|dog when we get to Davis Square.

som|dog thanks dogma (and catma, too) who will be helping to carry our banner and pull the waggin' wagon with extra water for our dogs in the Memorial Day Parade. Dogma (and Catma, too) has Cool Pooch sport water bottles: you and your dog can drink from the same bottle without backwash!

For more information and to walk your dog in the Memorial Day Parade with the Somerville Dog Owners Group, please contact Michele at somdog * AT * somervilledog.com; 617-290-9107.