Proposal to create dog park fails in Council
The Committee to Save the Franklin Street Green Space lost its fight to turn a small grassy area on Franklin Street into a dog park at the Kirksville City Council meeting Monday evening.
The Council voted to give the city-owned 18-by-100 foot space on the 400 block of South Franklin Street to the land developer who owns the property on either side of the proposed park.
Committee Chairman Drew Heller said giving land back to the owner does not serve the general public in any way, but it benefits the adjacent landowners.
“My main focus was getting something downtown and saving a city-owned piece of land that they wanted to give away,” Heller said.
Heller said the city-owned property could have been a community park, but will now be privately owned. However, it will stay a green space.
Kenneth Read, Heritage House Realty owner, said he and his wife Debra have no intention of paving the entire alleyway.
“We are going to pave the back 18-by-18 feet, where the north-south alley is for parking, and the majority of the 18-by-100 foot area that was vacated will continue to be green area,” Read said.
Read said when the project is completed, the area will be more of a green area than it is now. He said they plan to take care of their properties and keep them well maintained.
“We want to provide quality housing that’s safe and has an environment that’s conducive to good university relations,” Read said.
Junior Meghan McDonnell, a rallier for the petition, said other community members thought their due process was violated at the city council meeting because a vote on city-owned property was not publicly announced.
“We were trying to get as many signatures as possible to show the City Council that people care about this green area and that this is something that people want,” McDonnell said.
McDonnell said one of the reasons she came to Truman was the amount of green space that she thinks is slowly being paved over.
“I don’t want a downtown where it’s just all sidewalk and parking lot and no place to sit and relax when the weather’s nice,” McDonnell said.
Before Monday’s Council decision, a copy of the petition, which received more than 350 signatures, was available at the Jinn Lounge downtown.
“I think that the overall beauty of Kirksville and its future, economically and for the generation of students coming in would be benefited by maintaining some public space there and making some of that green again,” Jinn Lounge owner Daniel Nixon said.
Nixon said part of the problem with green space in Kirksville is the large amount of developers that are coming in and building apartment buildings close to campus where Truman students want to live.
“If it is because of the development and if we don’t start doing something about it and adding a little bit of green space, making it a nicer place to live, we are going to end up with a big student slum around college,” Nixon said.
McDonnell said they still are looking to create a park downtown where students and residents can enjoy a green area in Kirksville.
Filed Under: News • Off campus
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