Volunteers instead of fees will clean Kane County dog parks

There will be no new fee to walk dogs in certain Kane County forest preserves.

Forest preserve commissioners received so much backlash about a proposed $40 annual permit for Kane County residents to walk their dogs in local dog parks that the plan was pulled from the budget Tuesday.

“Since last week when you walk around all people want to talk to you about is that fee,” Forest Preserve Commissioner Jesse Vazquez said. “They ask, ‘What were you guys thinking.’ ”

Forest preserve staff pitched the fee just last week as a means to address out-of-county residents flocking to the preserves and problems with people not cleaning up after their dogs. The money was expected to generate about $80,000 a year in new revenue for the forest preserve district and pay for the cost of supplying plastic bags, dispenser units and placards dog owners would wear while at the dog parks to show they paid the fee.

“We’ll take it out of this year’s budget process,” Forest Preserve President John Hoscheit said. “I challenge Mr. Kenyon and Mrs. Allan to maybe put a volunteer committee together to oversee the cleanup of the parks.”

Commissioners Mike Kenyon and Deb Allan were the leading voices against the fee when it was first proposed. Kenyon insisted a $40 fee was too much to ask for. Allan said such a fee might keep people from using the dog parks at all.

After the meeting, Kenyon said he doesn’t mind creating the extra work for himself in forming a volunteer committee.