Nazareth Goes to the Dogs

Nazareth's bark park, located in the borough park, is now officially open for business.

I missed all the speeches at Saturday's rainy grand opening, but would like to know just where that black dog has his nose. Bad doggie!

Funds for Nazareth's dog park 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.

Without Borough Councilman Jack Herbst, who also sponsored the skate park, this would never have happened.

Is a Dog Park Possible in Bethlehem Township?

In response to yesterday's post about Nazareth's dog park, someone had this remark: "I'd love to see Bethlehem Township do this. Is it possible they have no funds from impact fees available? Otherwise they wouldn't want to raise taxes to pay for new soccer field, I guess."

Bethlehem Township Manager Jon Hammer told me "nothing is off the table." The township does receive a $1,500 impact fee for every residence built, although in some cases, developers donate green space. "We're pretty built out," he conceded, acknowledging there won't be much in the way of impact fees. But Hammer noted hopefully that the township has recently received a fifty-seven acre tract of land, devised by the Housenick estate. How that land is used is up to Bethlehem Township residents.

Located off Christian Spring Road, the Housenick parcel includes the mansion of Archibald Johnson, Bethlehem's first mayor. In 1919, as Bethlehem Steel prepared for a strike, Johnson armed mounted police with nightsticks and barred assembly by more than three persons.

Ahhh, the good 'ol days. Instead of dog parks, Johnson seemed more intent on creating pens for people.

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.

Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan Goes to the Dogs

I've heard the ladies are always throwing themselves at Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan. And now I know it's true. I saw it myself on Saturday. He was just standing there, yet all these females were still jumping on him, licking him and even smelling his butt.

Mayor John was at Bethlehem's busy dog park, which was packed in spite of the cold weather. My grandson's maniac dog, Suki, forced us to take her there. She's a Jack Russell-poodle mix, and is one of the tramps who threw herself, literally, at Callahan. She's officially called a Jackapoo, but is really just a mutt.

Don't tell her that. Her personality is 110% Jack Russell. She's only ten pounds, but seems to think she's a Bull Mastiff or Great Dane, and loves chasing big dogs or stealing their balls and then running off, even though any one of them could swallow her whole. At Lehigh, she once broke off my leash, dashed into the middle of a lacrosse game, and stole the ball. She leaped across a small stream as players and refs yelled and chased after her. At Jacobsburg, this ten pound furball has gone after three deer, and nearly caught them, too! Last summer, it took me two hours to get her out of a ground hog's hole. She's no foo-foo dog. She's the Captain Danger of designer dogs, and Saturday was no exception.

I was a little surprised to see Bethlehem's mayor go to the dogs. No trumpets announced his presence, dogs can't vote, and for at least forty minutes, no one seemed to know him. I think he enjoyed being just another dog owner.

Until Saturday, I'd only seen him in formal settings. In the dog park, he was quiet and unassuming, yet very congenial to those who spoke with him. He was even nice to me. He seems to know quite a few dogs, including Suki, by name. I listened as he described a few nearby swimming holes to one lady with a black lab. He commiserated with others who were complaining about the cold. And Suki, slut that she is, would have left with him.

He must be a regular. He knows all about Max, a German Shepherd who always enters the dog park by leaping over its six foot fence. As much as the ladies like Callahan, they like Max a little more.

When he found out I was actually a trespasser from Nazareth, he had some good questions about our skatepark. I won't quote him because he had no idea he was talking to that crazy blogger and I wasn't taking notes. But skating enthusiasts would like what he said. He told me Bethlehem is working on one, too. I told him we're working on a dogpark, too.

Eventually, someone blew the mayor's cover. It was kind of sad, really. I think he enjoyed being able to be himself for a few minutes. Those dogs don't know he's the mayor, and they like him anyway.