West Central Reporter

The village of Oglesby is yet to be promised a new dog park.

“Yes, they all thought it was a great idea,” Councilmember James Cullinan said during the meeting. “When I talked to every one of them individually, they said, ‘Well, I thought that was the idea we were going to go with in the first place.’ And I said, yes, that was the idea. Until the mayor says, Well, I think you need to find a different piece of land. I go, Are you okay with the initial location, and everyone on there told me they were fine with the location. It was just that they thought that the mayor wanted us to look for another piece of land. And I can't put a dog park up by 39. For one, they talk about child abduction and dogs getting loose running on the interstate.”

The council uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the city’s Facebook page.

At their March 20th city council meeting, the city officials of Oglesby had an item on their agenda for possible action to spend $15,000 on a new dog park in the city. The meeting started with two residents who came out to speak in the public comment portion in favor of a new dog park. They spoke about the wishes of many dog owners and residents who want an area of more freedom and community for their dogs, rather than leashed paths, and how it would help clean up other areas and make them safer from runaway dogs.

The board also discussed regulating the installation of stationary electrical generators throughout the city.

This discussion has been a heated debate in the city council for several months now, with the same item for potential action being placed on the agenda at their last meeting and no action having been taken on it then. The issue at hand is agreeing on a location for the proposed dog park. Commissioners Cullinan and Tom Argubright are in favor of a location by the water tower, however, Mayor Dom Rivara and Commissioner Jason Curran say they want to wait and receive more public input on other possible locations. Those in favor of the dog park feel that the mayor is stalling purposefully and grew frustrated as their conversation went nowhere during the meeting.

"I told you, you get your park board together, you get a consensus between all of them,” Commissioner Curran said during the meeting. “I'll vote for wherever you want it. I told you that."

The council will meet again at 7 p.m. on April 17 at the City Administrative Building on 110 East Walnut Street.

The council meeting eventually descended into a controlled chaos, with Commissioners Cullinan and Argubright refusing to vote on any of the following agenda items after they moved on from the dog park without any action yet again. All but one item about fostering animals within the city died for a lack of a second. The council also placed the item on the Park District’s agenda for their input and recommendation, and board members were upset and felt they were being used. They were not pleased that the council gave them a project without a location or price details to review just days before an election, especially when the council didn’t ask for their input on two recent park projects, and so they refused to discuss the matter either.