Dog park rules get teeth after attacks at Hermosa — and a 70% veto clause

If you read nothing else

• The rewritten dog park rules replace guidelines with enforceable text after what staff described as a lot of dog attacks at Hermosa Park.
• Staff set a threshold on the record: if 70% or more of the community is against the rules, Parks and Rec would return to the drawing board.
• Keep Las Cruces Beautiful was awarded $35,759.50 for FY25 — but the four goal amounts printed on the slides sum to $35,760.30, eighty cents more than the stated total.
• Enforcement is not the department's: Parks and Rec will create durable signage, and it is up to Codes and Animal Control to enforce.
• Shade fabric was given a warranty of one to five years and a full lifetime of five to eight years, with staff discussing a move to tin instead of fabric.
• The November replaster of the Regional Aquatic Center takes the activity pool and warm water pool down three to four weeks, at a budgeted $120,000.

Who was in the room

7.1 Keep Las Cruces Beautiful Update — Amelia Corrales

Corrales reported KLCB was awarded a grant of $35,759.50 for FY25 through the State of New Mexico Clean and Beautiful program, tourism department, supporting four categories: End Littering, Beautifying Our Community, Empowering Youth, and Increased Program Capacity.

FY24 achievements: over 1,700 volunteers participating in over 3,500 hours of community service (the slide gives 1,754 volunteers and 3,508 hours), 34 youth presentations completed at LCPS and community youth programs, 22 community outreach events attended, graffiti abated at 963 locations, and a community mural completed with youth groups.

End Littering — $12,495.80. Prevent litter, provide access to proper waste disposal, and remove litter, via neighborhood dumpster days held once a month, two community-wide clean-ups (Great American Clean Up in spring, Toss No Mas in fall), and various other individual clean-ups, plus the Adopt-a-Spot program.

Beautify Communities — the narrative page prints the amount as "$,585.00"; the slide prints $4,585.00. Improve green spaces, prevent graffiti, and eradicate graffiti, via working with youth programs, education throughout the community, community gardens, creating and rehabilitating murals in the City, and a graffiti abatement team that goes out every day.

Empower Youth — $15,800.00. Provide service opportunities for youth groups, employ youth interns, and provide youth leadership opportunities, via stipends to youth groups to clean neighborhoods and working with NMSU to employ interns and provide leadership skills.

Increase Program Capacity — $2,879.50. Build coalitions through professional affiliations and increase knowledge through professional development, working closely with Doña Ana County, the Town of Mesilla, NMDOT and the South Central Solid Waste Authority. The slide adds that the grant also funds sending the KLCB Coordinator to the National Keep America Beautiful conference every February — a use of funds the narrative does not mention.

Other items: the program is part of Keep America Beautiful, runs Adopt a Spot, and uses a green dog mascot, LIBBY (Las Cruces is Beautiful Because of You), to educate students. The first annual Earth Day event was held this year and staff hope to continue it.

Leadership opportunities are mostly funded through the youth partnership with NMSU, giving interns the chance to lead presentations with support from City staff. Youth groups consist of people 24 and younger.

The tunnel mural is 98% complete and is not drawing any real graffiti. Staff still want to name it at the top and add a walk through New Mexico on the inside, the outside being all Las Cruces based.

On private property, permission is needed first; a neighborhood walk can cover an entire neighborhood. There is no coordination with the correction facility, though NMDOT does work with them. KLCB works with the Youth Development and Diversion Program, and with Walmart for the Great American Clean Up.

7.2 Athletic Section Fall 2024 — Phil Catanach and Judy Barela

Catanach introduced Judy Barela and described her background and time with the City. Barela reported the section is housed at the Meerscheidt Recreation Center / Hadley Complex and provides athletic programs and recreational sports for all ages and all abilities.

Youth flag football and cheer have been running four weeks and complete the following week, rolling straight into the youth basketball season — described in the narrative as one of the larger leagues with over 450 participants, running through the second week in December. The appended slide gives the basketball league as 6 divisions with 430 participants, flag football as 3 divisions with 135 participants, and cheer as 2 divisions with 30 participants.

Adult volleyball is running now with 16 games each night Monday through Friday. The slide gives a sand volleyball league of 4 divisions, 64 teams, over 600 participants. Daytime adult offerings between 8:00 and noon include pickleball, basketball, volleyball, Zumba Gold, cornhole, adaptive sport, open gym, billiards, table tennis, foosball, racquetball, and indoor/outdoor court rentals. The slide quantifies the daily sessions: pickleball 12 sessions/week averaging 200 participations/week, basketball 3 sessions/week averaging 60, volleyball 4 sessions/week averaging 60.

An adult pickleball tournament had just finished. Upcoming: indoor volleyball with Spooky Spikes, adult indoor volleyball leagues, and youth indoor soccer registration in December. The slide dates these: Adult Pickleball Tournament at East Mesa Sports & Recreation Complex September 14 & 15; Spooky Spikes registration October 15 with play October 25 & 26; Adult Indoor Volleyball League registration November 12 with play beginning in December; Youth Indoor Soccer registration December 5 & 7.

All indoor activities are at Meerscheidt. At the softball and baseball fields, leagues are required to have a field manager who patrols and calls PD as needed. Asked about out-of-control parents, staff said rec coordinators are present and in charge of the league for that evening, there is a zero tolerance policy, and all coaches are given information; if there are issues with spectators the team would have to leave and the game would end.

Pickleball costs a dollar for seniors to play, and staff said the majority of players are seniors. The recent tournament was $10 a person. Each session lasts two hours.

Staff noted the City youth basketball league is not the only league in the City, and that in the spring there are well over 1,000 players.

7.3 Dog Park Rules — Franco Granillo

Granillo said the current dog park rules are guidelines, not really rules. Staff met with Dog Park Coalition members and presented the new rules to Donna Harvath, the current president of the Dog Park Coalition, who likes them. Codes and Legal from the City approve of the rules. The current dog parks are Rinconada, Hermosa, and Burn Lake. Both the current rules and the recommended new rules were shown to the board.

The recommended rules as read into the record: use park at your own risk; owners are legally responsible for the behavior of their dogs at all times; dogs must be leashed while entering and exiting the park; dog waste must be cleaned up by owners immediately; owners must be in the dog park and supervising their dog with leash readily available; dog handlers must be at least 15 years of age; bring children at your own risk, and children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult and supervised at all times; aggressive dogs must be removed immediately; dog owners are legally and financially responsible for any injury caused by their dogs; if your dog gets in a fight, exchange contact information with the other dog owners and leave the dog park. Prohibited: human and dog food/treats, sick dogs, glass containers, aggressive dogs, dogs in heat, and puppies under four months.

The current rules shown for comparison read: owners are responsible for their dogs and children; children under 5 years old are not permitted in the park; owners must pick up their dog's waste; immediately isolate or remove any aggressive, dominating, or over-excited dog; no food or treats allowed in the park. Both the old and new signs give Las Cruces Animal Control at 575-528-4100 and dispatch at 575-526-0795; the new sign adds the hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday for Animal Control, with after-hours calls going to non-emergency dispatch.

Process: a survey will be sent out Monday within a one-to-two mile radius of each dog park. The community will have two options for input — the survey, and then again at a Parks Board meeting probably a month after receiving the data, possibly November. The appended input-process slide describes the same sequence differently: several meetings with past Dog Park Coalition members, feedback sent to Legal and Codes for review through the Community Constituent Liaison, Legal approved new verbiage, draft shared with Dog Park Coalition members, survey sent out September 2024 within a 1 mile radius of each dog park, and an update once data is collected.

Asked how the rules will be enforced, staff said Parks and Rec will create durable signage and then it is up to Codes and Animal Control to enforce. Dogs and cats are permitted in all parks but not athletic fields; dogs are always asked to be on a leash in the parks, and there is signage in all the parks to this effect.

Asked what resources or models were consulted in drafting the new rules, staff said this came up because of a lot of dog attacks at Hermosa Park. Research came from the Dog Park Coalition but was very restrictive. Staff looked at dog parks that are very successful in Colorado, in Arizona, and Central Park, New York. Members of the Dog Park Coalition, not just the president, were interested in rules that Animal Control can refer to.

On community input staff said they are looking more for buy-in, and set a threshold: should the community be 70% or more against the rules, then Parks and Rec would return to the drawing board.

A question not about dog parks was taken in the same item: the fabric shade structures in some of the parks and their length of life. Staff answered that the warranty is a year to five years depending on the vendor, that the full lifetime is between five to eight years, and that they are discussing moving to tin rather than fabric.

8. Staff Member Comments — Youth Services (Robert Nunez)

Fall break covers the next two weeks, with spaces available for up to 125 children at two locations, kindergarten through 5th grade. The teen program is hosting a life skills program in partnership with Family Ties, a nonprofit, teaching the basics of photography, DJ'ing, and dance. The Weed and Seed program is hosting fall break for up to 60-65 kids across both programs.

The case manager runs a parent workshop for parents needing support, information, or locations for services, averaging about eight parents/families per session, held every Wednesday.

The Youth Development and Diversion program recently hosted the statewide Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee board meeting — 12 members selected by the governor. Local programs are still running and are seeing an increase in referrals, at nine weeks into the school semester.

At the recent New Mexico Recreation and Parks Association state conference, the Youth Development and Diversion program was put up for an award and selected for Youth Program of the Year.

8. Staff Member Comments — Parks (Franco Granillo)

Staff are working on tree care issues at Salopek Park. A mistletoe infestation will be treated in fall/winter once the leaves are off, and staff are ready to plant new trees after removal.

Granillo said he has not heard from Steve Armstrong about practice times, field space, and the like. Staff are pushing to let others know fields are available for practice when tournaments reduce their field usage. No complaints so far.

Staff are gearing up for the Whole Enchilada softball tournament, October 4-6.

There was over a foot of sand on one of the trails at the Wetlands, which is in a flood retention area; it was recently cleaned up. Public Works will be contacted to see if the water can be caught somewhere instead of letting it erode the trail. Right-of-way, medians, and roadways are being kept clean.

8. Staff Member Comments — Recreation (Phil Catanach)

The Music in the Park series finished with 21 concerts and over 20,000 people. The Wellness Basketball Tournament for City employees finished the previous night; Las Cruces finance/LCPD beat Parks and Rec for the championship. There was a pickleball tournament that past weekend with 36 teams.

Movies in the Park finishes that Saturday with The Little Mermaid at Young Park at dusk. Swim levels 1-4 are being offered in October with registration that week, running every Thursday and Friday.

Meerscheidt will run a modified schedule September 23-October 4 to give fall break kids activities, and closes October 5 for the Whole Enchilada Tournament. October 5 also starts Pumpkin Palooza, 3:00-6:00, an early Halloween event at Frank O'Brien Papen Center with hayrides and activities. The natatorium is showing movies on Fridays all of October.

In November a replaster project at the Regional Aquatic Center takes the activity pool and the warm water pool down for three to four weeks. Staff said this was planned and the budget is here, at $120,000. After completion, NMED will come in and inspect.

8. Staff Member Comments — Capital projects (Cathy Mathews)

A ribbon cutting was held last month at the East Mesa Sports Complex. A ribbon cutting for the Skate Park Renovation is set for October 10.

Coming up: a public input meeting for the aquatic playground at Apodaca Park, a design meeting for Villa Mora Dam Park, and later Benavidez Community Center park.

In design now: Pioneer Women's Park with walkways and pergolas; Lohman Avenue/Roadrunner Parkway medians finishing up design and moving into construction fairly soon; some trails projects; and at the East Mesa Sports Complex a playground, adaptive playground, sports courts, and a new skate park.

In construction: Kline Park improvements including a shade canopy over the playground, sidewalks, and amphitheater improvements. Ongoing work: High Noon soccer field restroom improvements. Brand new construction: Highland Park on Emerald near Highland Elementary School, north of US 70.

In bidding: Chandler Tank off Sonoma Ranch Boulevard, more medians, on-call landscape design services (because of the number of projects going), and the Las Cruces Lateral trail. The Valley View playground is in the process of finalizing the contract for a replacement playground.

On the Lateral trails, one side is getting improvements to allow it to be legally accessible by the public. It will be EBID property leased by the City, and the City will monitor and police it once the improvements are complete.

Asked about reclamation water, staff said the Utilities Department reclamation plant is off Lohman east of Sonoma Ranch. The reclamation water goes to the golf course and Centennial High School. Parks with access are Veterans Park, Sage Crest Park, and the Wetlands. The East Mesa Sports Complex is set up for reclamation water but there is not enough reclamation water right now.

Asked about refilling Burn Lake, staff said the simple answer is yes, but it is difficult: the groundwater used to fill it has shrunk to below the level needed. In spring they are looking for delivery of water from the Rio Grande, and are supposed to get 1,000 acre feet of water per year, which the minutes give as 325,850,000 gallons.

Steve Bingham said the awards are not easy to get, and that an invitation will be handed out for the skate park opening.

9. Board Member Comments

Vice-Chair Haas thanked staff for the PowerPoints and passed along a satisfied customer comment about the workout activity items next to the fire station off Porter.

Chair Raish thanked everyone for the East Mesa Sports Complex grand opening.

Recorded votes

Left open at the gavel