Riverhead meeting reveals dog law glitch

Dogs won’t be running loose on Riverhead’s town beaches this summer, even though a proposal to allow dogs to run loose in special dog parks is working its way into the Riverhead town code, in the section reserved for beaches.

That little glitch was pointed out at a public hearing Tuesday night, when Eric Biegler — the only resident to comment — said it would be more appropriate to include the resolution under the parks section of the town code. He also complained that dogs would now be required to have a permit, and that owners of seeing-eye dogs might be required to get them before going into a town park or beach.

Currently, town code lumps beaches and recreation centers together in the same section of the town code. There is no section authorizing dog parks.

Still, the town board has been working to open its first dog park at the town-owned Enterprise Park at Calverton, and a new chapter of the code is needed to allow the town to do it. The board has already announced — and later canceled — the official opening of the park, and the new code chapter was written to spell out their legal authority to open it.

Supervisor Sean Walter said the intent of the code change was clear, and that the town clerk would not be issuing permits for dogs to run loose on beaches. He agreed the code change should be rewritten and that beaches and recreation centers should not be lumped together, but be separate operations in the town code.

“It sounds like a Ray Coyne winter project,” Walter said. Coyne, the town superintendent of recreation, is normally much busier during the summer than in winter.

Some town board members said they were concerned that people would complain about dogs running loose on beaches because of the code change.

The town board kept its public hearing on the dog park proposal open for written comments until May 25.