Nazareth Follows Bethlehem With Dog Park: Is Allentown Next?

Bethlehem may be the only LV municipality with its very own dog park, but that's about to change. During a brief meeting last night, Nazareth Borough Council decided to go to the dogs, too, unanimously approving $5,385 to erect a fence for a dog park in the borough park. It did so without discussion. It even approved another $19,000 for a "mini pipe," whatever that is, at the skate park.

The funds for both dog and skate parks come from impact fees assessed to developers, not taxes. This must be spent on recreation or returned to the developer. None of it may be spent to maintain existing recreation, even a sports league.

At last night's soiree, only council member Bill Matz was absent. Fourteen residents were in the peanut gallery, a larger attendance than at many county council meetings. Express Times veteran reporter Tony Nauroth chronicled the event, but The Morning Call sent no one to cover the meeting, providing proof of its continuing decline.

I sat in the back with the babes.

Allentown is considering a "bark park" too, but residents are foaming at the mouth at the notion. The ever so gentle MC reader forum includes sensitive comments like this: "Provide for your own dog AND provide for your own poor children. The taxpayer has run out of money."

Just about every municipality in the entire world already has cat houses, so what's wrong with a dog park? Is it decadent? Can't we just walk our damn dogs with this invention called the "leash?" That's what I used to think until I visited Bethlehem's dog park. It was a great experience for me, my grandson and a little dog.

A park socializes dogs. In fact, it socializes the people who accompany those dogs. It's a meeting place, something any town can use. It's also a great learning experience for kids. My grandson was actually afraid of dogs. But now, he's met greyhounds and whippets, and sees firsthand why they are rated the fastest dogs in the world. He's watched lumbering English mastiffs, the world's largest dogs, and chihuahuas, the world's smallest. He can tell you about an intelligent German Shepherd named Max, who can leap the fence at will. He's watched a gigantic Bernese Mountain Dog playing gently with a three pound jack-a-poo pup. The real police dogs? Basset hounds , who perpetually patrol and bark at dogs who step out of line.

Nazareth people are cheap and would never agree to use tax money to fund a dog park. I have no idea whether Allentown has identified a funding source, but that seems to be the most important question.

Nazareth's dog park will be operational by Fall.