THE BELL CURVE

Joseph N. Bell

Let’s dispose of the bias up front. Patt Bell is my daughter. She is

also a longtime member of the Costa Mesa Bark Park Volunteer Committee

and was quoted at some length in the Pilot a couple of weeks ago with

regard to a city-proposed renovation of the park that would replace grass

with wood chips.

Since my daughter and I communicate fairly regularly, I have been

aware of the Bark Park’s frequent difficulties over the years in pleasing

both city officials and the several hundred local dog owners who use the

park weekly. I have been sorely tempted to write about these problems

several times but backed off at my daughter’s request. She would still

prefer I keep out of it, but this wood chip caper is too good to ignore.

For those of you who haven’t followed the story in the Pilot, quick

briefing. The Costa Mesa Bark Park, now going into its fifth year, has

been fiercely independent about meeting its own financial needs. The city

services it like any other municipal park. The special needs to

accommodate dogs and their owners have been met through some highly

creative Bark Park fund-raisers. The sole exception has been a fence the

city erected around the park to replace one that was falling apart.

But this year, serious renovations were required. The biggest problem

was the sprinkler system which was archaic and mostly dysfunctional

because of broken and leaking sprinkler heads, many buried beneath dirt

and debris. The visible grass at the Bark Park is a precise indicator of

where the sprinklers are still functioning.

So Bark Park members created a thorough renovation plan that included

a new sprinkler system and replanting of grass, among other improvements,

then set out to devise means of raising the money to make it happen. All

that changed when a member of the Costa Mesa City Council attended a

fund-raiser last November and decided firmly that this was a project the

city should take on. When the Council voted $150,000 to renovate the Bark

Park, the members abandoned their fund-raisers to work with the city on

the renovation.

Ideas were being exchanged congenially until the wood chips were

placed on the table -- or rather underfoot as a ground cover in place of

grass. Reaction of the dog owners to frolicking in wood chips was

immediate, angry and virtually unanimous. They hated the idea. But just

to make sure, the Bark Park distributed a remarkably objective survey. Of

the 285 survey forms returned, 280 were adamantly opposed to wood chips.

Local citizens rendered the same verdict last week when the city held

an open house to get public reaction to three proposed new designs for

the Bark Park. Although the ground cover wasn’t supposed to be an issue,

of the 128 people who filled out reaction forms, “about 99%t” -- said

Donna Theriault, city of Costa Mesa management analyst -- emphatically

stressed a preference for grass.

Meanwhile, the Bark Park committee did some extensive research and

discovered that a review of biomedical literature concludes that regular

exposure to wood chips can cause respiratory disease and asthma in humans

and -- according to an epidemiology study at the U. of North Carolina --

“is likely to be even more pronounced on small mammals ... in close

contact with wood chips.”

Further research discovered that of 50 municipal Bark Parks in

California, only three have used wood chips; one combined them with grass

and another rakes them up after the winter rain. The third is in

Huntington Beach, where wood chips are being showcased. So I went over to

have a look for myself. I didn’t take my trusty dachshund, Coco, for two

reasons. She is antisocial with other dogs and tends to hang around our

legs. And she is also a decidedly “small mammal.”

The day I visited, there were a half-dozen large dogs racing around

raising dust in the piles of chips, but the terrain was like mush

underfoot -- difficult for my gimpy knee -- and would clearly be

inhospitable to both disabled owners and dogs. Wheelchairs would have

tough going here -- and they are both welcomed and present at the Costa

Mesa Bark Park. It occurred to me that Coco might get lost under the

chips, but that had apparently also occurred to the Huntington Beach

people who had provided a separate area with fewer chips for little dogs.

If Coco was socially well-adjusted and wanted to hang out at our

friendly neighborhood Costa Mesa Bark Park, I’d raise hell about wood

chips, too. It seems like a no-brainer. The people who use the park are

universally and emphatically opposed to wood chips. They have come up

with a whole litany of thoughtful and specific reasons for rejecting

chips.

Yet, Donna Theriault says that the city staff -- which will report to

the City Council on this matter -- hasn’t yet decided on whether or not

to recommend a surface. The reason appears to be purely economic. The

city can get the wood chips free. Grass and sprinklers come a little

higher.

Given the way this matter evolved, it would be the worst decision

since the Angels traded Nolan Ryan if the local dog owners who have

creatively and firmly paid their own way -- and were prepared to do it in

this instance, too -- are force-fed a wood chip Bark Park they strongly

oppose.

JOSEPH N. BELL is a Santa Ana Heights resident. His column runs

Thursdays.

QUESTION

Bag the chips?

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