We communicated with the St Louis City Parks Commissioner a few days ago to inquire about the Willmore Park (and City dog parks) re-opening plans. A Willmore Park re-opening date had not yet been determined and she is looking into what facts and guidelines will be applied to City dog parks.
We don’t yet know this as fact but have reason to believe dog parks might be considered in same or similar category as playgrounds and/or high contact sports. This may or may not influence how the City determines a dog park re-opening date. We are awaiting an update on both questions.
Our dog park re-opening will be a two pronged decision process. First, approval from the City since it is their property. Second, approval from SWCDP leadership team since we are tasked with all dog park operations and management responsibilities.
Regarding our turf:
The grass is coming in fine albeit a little bare in some places and we have the usual heavy weed component that we see every year. This will not change until we get our new program underway. We have had an enormous amount of rain and this has delayed some of the turf tasks on our treatment schedule – so in addition to Covid-19 issues, we are also scrambling to play catch up with our turf renovation.
We really need the support of our members as we work our way through this challenging time. Although we are temporarily closed – the dog park still has operating expenses. Most of our largest expenses come due between April-July (turf renovation, repairs, annual insurance premium, final payment for computer upgrades). And, since we have not held a special fundraiser in several years – we rely solely on our membership fees for operating expenses.
If you have already renewed – thank you. We hope all of our members will renew their memberships now – in good faith – that Southwest City Dog Park will open our new season just as soon as conditions are right.
Please watch for future emails. We are all more than ready to see our friends and enjoy our park. Hang in there – a season opening date is coming!