A HUGE thank you to Hill Hounds member Erica Wilkins for volunteering to be the Kingsman Dog Park Maintenance Coordinator. And also a big thank you to the folks who have stepped up to be Maintenance Volunteers! Unfortunately, only four people have volunteered to help out with maintenance so far. So we're asking for your help.

If you've been using and enjoying Kingsman Dog Park, please consider volunteering. It's a volunteer commitment of only about 2 hours a month but will be a huge help.

Email Erica at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you can help.

If we get five more maintenance volunteers, each person will be responsible for:
--hosing down the surface of the park with sanitary spray or raking it once a month between May and October and every other month between November and April. This takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
-checking on day to day items when you're visiting the park, like making sure there are bags in the poop bag dispenser and making sure any fliers posted on the community bulletin board (which will be installed soon) are appropriate
-participating in the park clean up days that will happen every 3 months (when you're available)

Background on Why Hill Hounds is Responsible for Park Maintenance:
While Kingsman Dog Park is a city park, dog park partner groups are expected to take on a lot of responsibility. This culture may change in the future, but when leaders in the DC dog owner community were negotiating the terms of the laws and budget to create official DC dog parks in 2007, they were willing to agree to a lot of responsibility for the parks in order to get the rules passed. That was because it took many years of advocacy by DC dog owners to even get to the point of the city government considering laws and a budget for official dog parks. And when members of the Hill Hounds Steering Committee applied for Kingsman Dog Park in early 2008, we knew that once the park was built, the awesome dog owners of the neighborhood (that's you!) would step up to help out.

Again, please email Erica at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you can help out.

If you are using Kingsman Dog Park, PLEASE consider volunteering. If you are one of the volunteers locking and unlocking the park, PLEASE consider getting further involved. The Hill Hounds Steering Committee (once 7 people, currently 5) has spent hours upon hours upon hours getting Kingsman Dog Park approved, raising money for park amenities and supplies and working with the Department of Parks and Recreation to make sure it was designed well for our community. Now that the park is open, there are even more responsibilities and we need others to step up.  

See the information below, which we posted a couple of weeks ago. Three people signed up as maintenance volunteers (thanks!) but that won't cut it. We need more people to get more involved. The most important volunteer position to fill is Dog Park Maintenance Coordinator. 
 

While Kingsman Dog Park is a city park, dog park partner groups are expected to take on a lot of responsibility. This culture may change in the future, but when leaders in the DC dog owner community were negotiating the terms of the laws and budget to create official DC dog parks in 2007, they were willing to agree to a lot of responsibility for the parks in order to get the rules passed. That was because it took many years of advocacy by DC dog owners to even get to the point of the city government considering laws and a budget for official dog parks. And when members of the Hill Hounds Steering Committee applied for Kingsman Dog Park in early 2008, we knew that once the park was built, the awesome dog owners of the neighborhood (that's you!) would step up to help out. 

If you can volunteer for any of these roles, please email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Park Maintenance Volunteers and Park Maintenance Coordinator- While the Department of Parks and Recreation picks up the trash from the park and will do major repairs like resurfacing, Hill Hounds is responsible for the rest of the day-to-day park maintenance. The maintenance supplies are kept in the locked plastic chest at the park.

The Coordinator will:

• order supplies, such as dog poop bags, trash bags and sanitary spray, and be reimbursed with Hill Hounds funds in a timely manner
• coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to hose down the surface of the dog park with sanitary spray once a week between October and May and twice a week between June and September
• coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to rake the surface of the park at least once a month
• coordinate a dog park clean up day every three months where the greater Hill Hounds membership will help do larger clean up & maintenance tasks, like painting over graffiti or planting shrubs

The Volunteers will:

• check on day to day items when they visit the park, like making sure there are bags in the poop bag dispenser and making sure any fliers posted on the community bulletin board (which DPR will be getting installed soon) are appropriate
• participate in hosing down and raking the surface as scheduled by the Coordinator (see above)

Hill Hounds Secretary- The Hill Hounds Steering Committee needs an organized individual to join as Secretary. The Secretary's main duty will be fulfilling our reporting requirements to DPR.

• Hill Hounds must send DPR notes from our Annual Meeting, which the Secretary will take and send.
• Hill Hounds must also send DPR quarterly reports on activities at the park and our fundraising that quarter. Therefore the Secretary will keep track of the dates and details of anything significant that happens at the park, such as our quarterly clean ups, and compile that info with fundraising info (provided by the Hill Hounds Treasurer) into DPR's quarterly report form every three months and send it to them.

Good news! We've heard back from the Department of Parks and Recreation that, weather permitting, the construction company will be back at Kingsman Dog Park next week finishing the surface and fixing other issues.

Apparently the delay was that the supplier from which the construction company purchases asphalt needs a certain amount to be ordered before it goes into production.

The repairs/continued construction will include:

• Finishing the surface of the basketball court
• Fixing the "mud pit" area
• Closing the small gap in the fence in the northeast corner
• Installing the community bulletin board

Thank you to all of the volunteers who have been locking and unlocking Kingsman Dog Park, especially Brittany Kramer and Allie Hagan, who are coordinating the schedule. Hill Hounds has additional roles for which we need park users to volunteer.

While Kingsman Dog Park is a city park, dog park partner groups are expected to take on a lot of responsibility. This culture may change in the future, but when leaders in the DC dog owner community were negotiating the terms of the laws and budget to create official DC dog parks in 2007, they were willing to agree to a lot of responsibility for the parks in order to get the rules passed. That was because it took many years of advocacy by DC dog owners to even get to the point of the city government considering laws and a budget for official dog parks. And when members of the Hill Hounds Steering Committee applied for Kingsman Dog Park in early 2008, we knew that once the park was built, the awesome dog owners of the neighborhood (that's you!) would step up to help out.

If you can volunteer for any of these roles, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Park Maintenance Volunteers and Park Maintenance Coordinator- While the Department of Parks and Recreation picks up the trash from the park and will do major repairs like resurfacing, Hill Hounds is responsible for the rest of the day-to-day park maintenance. The maintenance supplies are kept in the locked plastic chest at the park.

The Coordinator will:

• order supplies, such as dog poop bags, trash bags and sanitary spray, and be reimbursed with Hill Hounds funds in a timely manner
• coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to hose down the surface of the dog park with sanitary spray once a week between October and May and twice a week between June and September
• coordinate a schedule for maintenance volunteers to rake the surface of the park at least once a month
• coordinate a dog park clean up day every three months where the greater Hill Hounds membership will help do larger clean up & maintenance tasks, like painting over graffiti or planting shrubs

The Volunteers will:

• check on day to day items when they visit the park, like making sure there are bags in the poop bag dispenser and making sure any fliers posted on the community bulletin board (which DPR will be getting installed soon) are appropriate
• participate in hosing down and raking the surface as scheduled by the Coordinator (see above)

Hill Hounds Secretary- The Hill Hounds Steering Committee needs an organized individual to join as Secretary. The Secretary's main duty will be fulfilling our reporting requirements to DPR.

• Hill Hounds must send DPR notes from our Annual Meeting, which the Secretary will take and send.
• Hill Hounds must also send DPR quarterly reports on activities at the park and our fundraising that quarter. Therefore the Secretary will keep track of the dates and details of anything significant that happens at the park, such as our quarterly clean ups, and compile that info with fundraising info (provided by the Hill Hounds Treasurer) into DPR's quarterly report form every three months and send it to them.

Now that Kingsman Dog Park is open, we want to give you some tips and reminders for its use.

1. With the double-gated entry, please NEVER open the main gate when there is an unleashed dog in the entry area. Please wait until the owner of the dog in the entry area has had a chance to re-leash him or her. 

2. Please try to keep your dogs from forming a "welcome committee" to those entering the park. There have been a few incidences of aggression between those inside and those trying to enter. Things are calmer once everyone is inside and not feeling cornered or intruded upon.

3. We have a small dog area (gate on the right of the entry area) and a main play area (gate on the left of the entry area). All dogs are welcome in the main play area, regardless of size. But if your dog is small enough to get picked on by larger dogs, is older and needs a more tame play environment, etc, the small dog area is there for your use.

4. Be sure all dogs remain on-leash until inside the double-gated area. The walkway from the D Street sidewalk is an entrance to the dog park, the playing field and the basketball court. Therefore, we need to be curteous to the users of these other resources and keep our dogs on-leash when we're not in the park.

5. Please make sure to comply with the Department of Parks and Recreation Dog Park Rules.

If you've noticed other things that we should give tips on, feel free to contact the steering committee at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .