DARIEN, Conn. Darien dog owners have been following the rules for off-leash hours enacted in September. And now town officials may add more hours at Cherry Lawn Park that would allow dogs to be off their leashes on weekends and during the summer.
Mary Flynn and Erika Morris conducted a review of the off-leash hours to see how effective they have been. The number of dogs off leashes has decreased substantially, Chris Filmer of the Darien Land Trust said, estimating that 75 percent of dogs are kept on their leashes.
The rules have been successful, agreed Dot Kelly and Meg Orner of the Friends of Woodland Park. They told the members of the Parks and Recreation Commission that about 75 percent of dog owners were in compliance, although five or six dog owners are leaving their dogs off their leashes near a side street adjacent to the park.
The Darien Dog Owners Group said the weekday off-leash hours in the morning were working at Cherry Lawn Park, but they wanted some hours on weekend mornings for people who work during the week. They also asked that dog owners be allowed to keep their pets off-leash during the summer.
Members of the dog owners group reviewed how many children are in the park in the mornings. They said they saw children in the park before 8:45 a.m. on only four Saturdays in October. They requested that the commission amend the rules to allow dogs to be off their leashes from dawn to 8:30 a.m. on weekends.
At the meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission on Tuesday night, several members said they were open to amending the rules to allow dogs to run free at Cherry Lawn on weekend mornings. However, they wanted to wait to see how many children are in the park during the summer before they change the off-leash hours.
Darien police told the commission that the regulations seem to be working, and that no tickets have been issued.
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