No More Horses

Great news! Horses are no longer allowed at Rotary Park. Many months ago, FORP asked Parks and Recreation Director Stacy Goodwin to present a proposal to ban horses from Rotary Park. The proposal was put before the Montgomery County Conservation Board. Members of Friends of Rotary Park including Carl Gadsey and myself were called on to explain to the board why horses should be banned. Among those reasons were: user conflicts (horses are easily spooked by dogs, other animals, bikers, and hikers and can harm other users or their riders opening the county up to serious civil liability), severe damage to the trails caused by equestrian use, the fact that many of the horses are not properly shoed for that type of use, and damage done to the field by parking horse trailers off of the paved parking lot. The board agreed but needed the approval of the county attorney. Since the original proposal, the county had to review the federal grants used for the park's initial purchase and upgrades to make sure that such a ban would not affect future grant initiatives.

I have not previously written about this on this Blog. The reason being is I hoped that this would be able to proceed through with no opposition from the equestrians. Word did not leak and there was no opposition. Now, it is official and we can cheer publicly. NO MORE HORSES! I understand that the equestrians are just as passionate about their sport/hobby as we are ours. However, Rotary Park is not large enough to accommodate them, the trails are not built to support equestrian traffic, and the parking lot is not adequate for their trailers. Law enforcement will still be able to bring their horses into the park but they never use the trails. Their presence is a good thing. FORP will be working with the county to have the proper signage installed.

Also, the county adopted new park rules for all Montgomery County parks. The county will maintain these rules with some being posted in the parks. One rule to note is that no one can build trail in any of the parks without first getting the approval of the Parks and Recreation Director. At this time, FORP is the only organization authorized to build trail in Rotary Park. Other benefits to Rotary Park come by way of a budget increase for the Parks and Rec department. Part of that budget includes money allocated for a new park survey and boundary markers to clearly mark the boundaries of the park. Both of these things are long overdue. Kudos to Stacy for working hard to get this done. Thanks, Stacy.

Other good news, our meeting went very well last night. We had several people renew their membership for FORP's second year. We also had a new family join. In all, we accepted $100 last night by way of membership dues.

The only bad news I have to report is that we have decided to cancel the big workday for Saturday, April 21. I did not realize that was the same weekend as Rivers and Spires. I encourage everyone to go and enjoy the Rivers and Spires Festival. It is always a great time and reminds us of what a fantastic city we live in.