Dog Waste Bags on Budget Chopping Block

(Update as of 3/15) There is the possibility that the city may no longer offer dog waste bags at parks and Willard Beach due to budget cuts. The bags are on the list of suggested cuts created by our City Manager. Public comment on the budget will begin in April (more information will follow re: City Council meetings, how you can make your voice heard, etc.).

Please note, the city operations budget is separate from the school budget which is set to be approximately $40-$41 million as of 3/15).

Here are a few dog bag facts:

• Dog waste bags are available throughout the city (funded by taxpayers) to encourage dog owners to pick up after their pets consistently.
  
• The city wide budget for dog waste bags (the Mutt Mitts) is $8,000 annually.
• This $8,000 accounts for approximately 0.029% (adjusted amount as of 3/15) of the city's 27+ million per year budget. (please note as of 3/15 the budget number for the city operations is $27,141,704 - not $29 million. The $27 million dollar figure is a new adjustment)
• Each bag costs less than ¢0.03 each.

Take a minute to write a comment below or answer our poll to the right to share how you feel about the use of bags in our city. You can also email southportlanddog@gmail.com with your response.

My major concern is that if we don't have the bags and some dog owners don't clean up we will have more complaints and end up where we were two years ago,with complaints from unhappy residents. After all of the work we have done in the past two years I don't want it to be lost over a service provided by the city that is a very tiny (approximately three one hundredths of one percent) part of our overall city budget.

Thanks a lot! Crystal