Nearly 9 out of 10 Harrison Hot Springs residents are in favour of an off-leash dog park in the village.
During its Oct. 4 meeting, the Harrison Hot Springs Village Council listened to a summary of the findings of an off-leash dog park survey conducted this summer. The survey was open from July 27 to Aug. 31, receiving 207 responses on the website and 14 paper copies.
87 per cent of respondents were in favour of an off-leash dog park. 40 per cent of those surveyed selected Firehall park as the preferred location. McCombs Drive adjacent to Chestnut Avenue was second with 20 per cent and the parkland south of the water treatment plant was third with 12 per cent.
RELATED: Village of Harrison sniffs out public input for potential off-leash dog park
A majority of respondents were in favour of an expendetrure between $50,000 and $75,000 for the off-leash dog park (36 per cent). The second most common response was to rely on donations and grants (25 per cent). Most of those surveyed said between $5,000 and $10,000 shoudl be sent per year for maintenance and asset replacement.
95 per cent of the respondents lived in Harrison Hot Springs.
Having officially received the survey results, Mayor Leo Facio said the matter will now be referred to a Committee of the Whole meeting in the near future
In other council business, councillors voted to allocate $62,000 from the Resort Municipality Initiative to Tourism Harrison River Valley to cover events held in 2021. This includes Canada Day, Bands on the BEach, LIghts by the Lake, the Harrison Festival of the Arts and a new event called Season of the Wild. The current Resort Development Strategy budgeted for $90,000 annually to Tourism Harrison River Valley to host tourism-related events. The remaining $28,000 could be used for pre-approved tourism-related proejcts or put in an RMI reserve account to carry over.
RELATED: Letter: Is Harrison really dog-friendly?
The next regular council meeting will be Monday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. at Memorial Hall. Live broadcasts of each council meeting are still available via Zoom with a link available online at www.harrisonhotsprings.ca. Video of each meeting will be available on the village’s YouTube page.
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