{"id":1312796,"date":"2019-07-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=984743"},"modified":"2019-07-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T06:00:00","slug":"basalt-council-supports-stricter-dog-leash-law-enforcement-with-designation-of-off-leash-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/basalt-council-supports-stricter-dog-leash-law-enforcement-with-designation-of-off-leash-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Basalt council supports stricter dog leash law enforcement with designation of off-leash areas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A woman walks her dog near the Roaring Fork River in Basalt in June. The town is preparing to designate some places where dogs can be off leash and start stricter enforcement of the leash law elsewhere.<\/strong>
Aspen Times file<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A plan to enforce a leash law and designate some parks for off-leash play is advancing in Basalt despite a few residents saying, \u201cDoggone it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Town Council voted 6-0 Tuesday night to direct its staff to make changes in the town code that will allow establishment of designated off-leash areas for dogs in parks. When those off-leash spaces are created, dogs will have to be on restraints of no more than 10 feet everywhere else within town boundaries.<\/p>\n

Mahoney said the police department would ease into enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would try to do education first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The town has a leash law on the books but it isn\u2019t strictly enforced. The issue was revisited after a \u201cfew\u201d residents encouraged stronger enforcement recently, Mahoney said.<\/p>\n

The Basalt Police Department researched dog calls and determined there were 27 dog bites between June 30, 2016, and March 21, 2019. Of those, there were 21 cases of dogs being off leash and six when they were on leash.<\/p>\n

There were another 20 dog attacks on people and seven attacks of dogs on dogs.<\/p>\n

Police Chief Greg Knott said his staff has been talking to citizens who have expressed opinions on both sides of the issue and came up with a compromise position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is an extremely good example of community policing,\u201d Knott told the council.<\/p>\n

Four people who attended Tuesday night\u2019s hearing spoke on the issue, with three against greater enforcement of the leash law and one saying dogs need to be kept away from small children in the playgrounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess my opinion overall is that we don\u2019t need a change,\u201d said a man who has lived in the Elk Run neighborhood since 2006. He said people walking their dogs do a good job of policing themselves whenever there is an issue with aggressive behavior in dogs or owners not picking up waste.<\/p>\n

Councilwoman Jennifer Riffle said dogs are a big part of Basalt\u2019s \u201csocial fabric\u201d and she agreed that most dog owners are responsible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have really good community policing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t oppose greater enforcement of the leash law but proposed expanding the list of off-leash play areas.<\/p>\n

Town officials previously identified \u201cthe large field\u201d at Arbaney Park, Southside Park and the western portion of the Linear Park at Willits as off-leash areas.<\/p>\n

Riffle suggested adding the swimming hole at the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Fryingpan rivers, the Basalt River Park until it gets developed, the Swinging Bridge path along the Fryingpan River and Ponderosa Park along the Roaring Fork River. She said she would like to hear from Willits residents if they want additional off-leash areas.<\/p>\n

She said all her suggested additional areas experience dog traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere already are poop boxes in all these locations,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

The staff will return at a later date with a finalized list of off-leash sites.<\/p>\n

All members of council present at the meeting supported the altered policy. Councilman Gary Tennenbaum is traveling and couldn\u2019t attend.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman walks her dog near the Roaring Fork River in Basalt in June. The town is preparing to designate some places where dogs can be off leash and start stricter enforcement of the leash law elsewhere.Aspen Times file A plan to enforce a leash law and designate some parks for off-leash play is advancing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1312796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 07:39:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}