Residents lobby officials for accessible parks
Having a physical disability is a challenge. Having a physical disability, owning a dog and finding an accessible park presents an even greater challenge.
Cali Gorevic, 80, who lives in Philipstown, has difficulty walking. She has two “country dogs” — a golden retriever and a German shepherd — that would benefit from running free and meeting other canines at the town’s North Highlands Park on Route 9 at Glassbury Court.
The problem, she said, is that the dog park is located more than 100 yards from the parking area.
Fabiola Gomez, 62, a New Hamburg resident who suffers from post-polio syndrome, would also like to exercise her giant schnauzer at North Highlands Park. In addition to the distance from parking, she said the gravel and grass path leading to the park is unsuitable for the devices she uses to improve her mobility, such as forearm crutches or a wheelchair.
Gomez and Gorevic each complained to the Town of Philipstown but said they were not satisfied by the response. Gorevic wrote Supervisor John Van Tassel in August to suggest two handicapped spaces adjacent to the dog park. Van Tassel responded that a lot isn’t possible at that location because Glassbury Court’s septic field lies beneath it.
Van Tassel expanded on his response in an email to The Current on Wednesday (Oct. 2), writing that “due to terrain and other physical boundaries we cannot make the dog park fully accessible” and that the town had problems in the past when visitors were able to drive closer to the park and added a gate to prevent it.
“I’m sympathetic to her wishes to be able to utilize the dog park; it’s just not feasible for that area of the park to be handicap-accessible,” Van Tassel wrote.
Gomez said she contacted the town in June and also reached out to Disability Rights New York, a nonprofit that provides free legal and advocacy services to people with disabilities. In response, DRNY wrote to the Philipstown Recreation Department stating that the federal Americans with Disabilities Act “requires that services and programs provided by local governments be readily accessible to individuals with disabilities,” although the ADA qualifies that requirement, saying that when full compliance is impractical because of terrain, “the service must be made accessible to the greatest extent that is structurally feasible.”
DRNY also noted that the ADA requires public facilities, including dog parks, to provide accessible parking and a “stable, firm, level and slip-resistant” path that is the shortest accessible route to the dog park.
Van Tassel said he would ask the town attorney for a legal opinion.
Marilynn Glasser, the president of Dog Park Concept and Consulting in Patterson and author of Dog Park Design, Development and Operation, has worked with dozens of communities across the U.S. She said the ADA “absolutely” applies to municipal dog parks but municipalities, especially in the Northeast, often create parks with little or no thought to making them accessible. She noted that while “a disabled person needs to be able to get inside a dog park,” they don’t necessarily need access to the entire area where dogs are free to run.
She said a path to a park should be wheelchair-friendly and that long paths are also more difficult for people on crutches. Shorter, easier paths also benefit people with heart conditions and other health issues, she said.
The lack of accessibility at North Highlands Park is not unusual. A survey of local municipalities found no ADA-compliant dog parks in Peekskill, Kent, Fishkill, Putnam Valley or Nelsonville. County parks in Westchester and Dutchess also lack facilities.
In Putnam County, Chris Ruthven, the director of parks and recreation, said a dog park being developed with Guardian Revival at Veterans Memorial Park in Carmel will be ADA-compliant.
In Beacon, Friends of Beacon Dog Park operates its facility at Memorial Park. While parking is nearby, the site is not fully ADA-compliant. Dog owners pay a $55 annual fee toward maintenance.
In Cold Spring, the Recreation Commission is planning a dog park at Mayor’s Park on Fair Street but a grant application to AARP to help cover the cost of making the facility accessible was turned down.
Supervisor Van Tassel contends that the lack of handicap access to the dog park at Glassbury Court is largely based on the existence of a septic field. I am not an expert on septic field design, location or management, but I learned on the internet that in New York state a septic field must be 50 feet away from a lake or pond. Why is there no room for two parked cars within the boundary that protects the lake? There is sufficient space between the road and the trees across from the dog park. The supervisor also contends that the terrain does not permit a parking area. I also learned on the internet that slopes are limited to control septic runoff into a lake. There are no obstacles to a small parking area based on terrain. I have noticed lately that the delivery of gravel to the minimal gravel road that encircles the lake has been apparently discontinued, which is to say that the gravel road is being erased. I do not know why. The bottom line is that elderly, handicapped taxpayers are being denied access to this, as well as other public parks that belong to everyone. I can’t know how many others there are who grapple with this issue. With luck, we hope all younger citizens will grow old here, and it may be that some, less fortunate, will be handicapped. Unfairness upsets me. I hope that the supervisor and Town Board will reconsider their negative attitude on… Read more »
With all due respect, if you are disabled, please take care of yourself. Why do you have a big dog that needs to be walked and requires a lot of care? If you are a dog lover, get a small one that can run inside the home. [via Instagram]