The Will County Forest Preserve District is revising its procedures for handling permit violations, including those that resulted in one woman being banned from using the district’s dog parks.
Once the district board approves new procedures, rules and permit fees this fall, the board will review the case of Deb Reiners, of Shorewood, who operates a dog-walking business and frequented the Hammel Woods dog park until her permit was not renewed at the beginning of this year due to repeated violations.
Reiners’ friends and customers have urged the board to review its policies, saying she was unjustly punished without due process.
The proposed revisions, presented Wednesday to the board’s operations committee, include written documentation, eliminating verbal warnings for all offenses and setting up an administrative review that allows for input from the alleged offender. They will apply to all permits, including those for dog parks, camping, ground fires, and shelters and other structures within the forest preserves.
The forest preserve district’s executive director, Marcy DeMauro, said the revisions were prompted by Reiners’ case, but the policies and procedures needed to be reviewed regardless. Next month, the board will look at raising permit fees, she said.
Currently, forest preserve district police can issue verbal or written warnings or ticket an offender, which carries a small fine. They also can charge someone with an ordinance violation that has a heavier fine for more serious violations. The executive director can revoke a permit because of violations. A person who has been issued a ticket can go to court or petition the district board to review the matter.
The proposed changes would eliminate verbal warnings, which were previously undocumented, and repeat offenses would be documented by a written warning or citation. A third offense could result in an automatic one-year suspension.
However, if there is an aggressive dog or owner, there would be no written warning, and a dog park permit could be suspended on a second offense, depending on its severity, according to the new rules. DeMauro said because of the nature of dog parks, a troublesome situation has to be controlled or it can quickly escalate.
A dog park permit is now required to use the district’s five dog parks, and it must be displayed on its lanyard at a park, according to the forest preserve district. An applicant can register up to three dogs and must provide a current rabies tag number for each dog. A business license for a dog-walking business such as Reiners’ is $250 per year plus $25 for each dog, up to a maximum of 10 dogs.
Reiners has said she cares for more than 10 dogs but never takes more than three to a dog park at once. She also questioned why she should pay for a dog park permit when the owners of the dogs already purchased one.
In 2009, the forest preserve district changed its permit policy to allow for dog-walking businesses based on several requests, but the district board felt that a dog park should be for residents not businesses, DeMauro said.
