New LI-DOG Board Elected and President Urges Dog Owner Commitment to Cause

Nassau County Legislator Norma Gonsalves surprised the LI-DOG Annual Meeting on May 18th in East Meadow with news about a site for the long-promised Eisenhower Dog Park. According to Leg. Gonsalves, who represents the East Meadow area, she and Nassau County Parks Commissioner Carnell Foskey recently checked out a little used field near the golf course as the potential site for a new Eisenhower Dog Park. Leg. Gonsalves said she thought the field would make a great place for a dog park and she urged LI-DOG supporters to work with the Nassau Parks Dept. to make the dog park a reality. Leg. Gonsalves' visit to LI-DOG’s Annual Meeting was a first for the group--no legislator has attended LI-DOG’s Annual Membership meeting until now!

The next day, LI-DOG organizers Rich Infield and Chris Laubis checked out the field themselves and agreed with Leg. Gonsalves. The site is terrific. The field is a good size, it’s covered with grass and has some large trees on it. To see photos of the site, go to https://picasaweb.google.com/richinfield/EisenhowerPark

In an email to Rich and Chris, Deputy Commissioner Bob Dwyer cautioned there’s still much work to be done on the dog park. But, the identification of a great site by the Parks Dept. is an important step forward.

We are now asking dog owners to please email Parks Commissioner Carnell Foskey at cfoskey@nassaucountyny.gov and Deputy Parks Commissioner Bob Dwyer at BDwyer1@nassaucountyny.gov to remind them that we dog owners have been eagerly waiting for the dog park to open and to ask them (politely but forcefully) to make this a priority this summer.

Also, please send Leg. Gonsalves an email and let her know how much you appreciate her help in finding such a great site for the Eisenhower Dog Park! Her email address is ngonsalves@nassaucountyny.gov.

Also at the Annual Meeting…

There was lots of discussion of our campaigns for a dog park in the Town of Oyster Bay, a proposal to privately finance a new dog park at Gardiner Park in Bay Shore, the badly needed fence improvements at Robinson Dog Park, the imminent opening of a new dog park in W. Sayville, the move and reopening of the dog runs in Bay Park, and Valley Stream’s progress in opening a dog park there,. We also talked about the need to focus our future efforts on on-leash access to Nassau County parks as well as many Long Island Town Parks where dog owners are not allowed to walk their dogs, even on-leash!

In addition, LI-DOG members approved a new 10-member LI-DOG Board of Directors. To vote for the Board, members needed to attend a majority of regular monthly meetings or committee meetings or volunteer a minimum of 8 hours on behalf of LI-DOG over the previous year. To be elected, Board nominees needed a simple majority of votes cast. All 10 nominees were easily approved. To see the LI-DOG Board of Directors, go here.

LI-DOG President Ginny Munger Kahn thanked all the members of the Board for their great work over the past year and made special mention of two new Board members—Peggy Heijman and Chris Laubis. “Both Peggy and Chris are great organizers and passionate and articulate spokespeople for LI-DOG’s cause,” said Ginny. “We are so excited about their joining our Board.” Peggy has been leading the group’s campaign in the Town of Oyster Bay and Chris initiated and now leads the campaign for a dog park in Eisenhower Park with Rich Infield.

Ginny also presented a report on LI-DOG’s work and progress made over the past year. Among the highlights:

• A new dog park in W. Sayville. The dog park will be the third opened as a result of Suffolk County’s Five New Dog Parks Initiative, which LI-DOG championed in 2007.
• The progress made on a dog park in Eisenhower Park
• A commitment by Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto to designate a dog park site by July 4, 2010. This is still being pursued.
• Continued growth at LI-DOG in terms of people joining LI-DOG—over 1,600 dog owners; visitors to the website—26,800 people in 2010; and funds raised—over $4,000—a first for the group.
• One key to the group’s fundraising efforts—organizing 10 fun, successful events for people and dogs at Mary Carroll’s in Huntington Village and Eleanor Rigby’s in Mineola.
• Ginny also thanked CanineFence for sponsoring LI-DOG’s Meetup.com site—a key tool for the group’s organizing efforts; Viewpoint Photography of Huntington Village for sponsoring the group’s single biggest fundraiser of the year; and Pam Schmidlin of Smithtown who raised more than $300 for LI-DOG last year by running the NYC Marathon.

To read the complete President’s Report, go here.

“There are many good things going on with LI-DOG,” said Ginny, “but we still have a lot of work to do. We’ve made important advances toward making Long Island more dog-friendly, but we need dog owner support and commitment to our cause,” she said. “Please volunteer and help us reach our goals!”

Thank you for your support!

As always, keep in touch by e-mailing us at lidog_news@yahoo.com.