How about a sign elaborating more on what is expected when you bring your pet and has been in our site guidelines for years? We shouldn’t bend the rules for the very few that do bring pets.

Pets must be on leash and supervised at all times. Pet owners will be responsible for any damage the pet may cause.

Pets are permitted only in the parking lot or on the patio. Pets are not permitted in the landing zone.

 

It is somewhat difficult to enforce many of the rules at the LZ all the time, unless we have a 24/7 security guard policing the area.

1.) We can’t be there 24/7 to see everything that happens at the LZ, which is why we have to rely on our members who are present when these things happen, to say something and then bother reporting it to us.

2.) Since most people don’t want to be confrontational and we’re all just volunteer pilots trying to have fun and to keep this place going as best as we can, unless there’s a real concern coming from multiple sources, we try to handle these things privately.

CSS boards in the past have tried to address the issue of pets at the LZ. Solutions were suggested, but never implemented. Many responsible members (local or visiting) own dogs and either choose, or must bring them along. They should certainly never be left unattended. If you can’t have eyes on your pet at all times, that pet should not be there, or at the very least should be placed in a crate with water and food if necessary.

If/when any of these pets become a repetitive nuisance, we have a chat with the owners. As stated above, we’ve never had more complaints about a specific dog than we did about Max and Sonny (and the horses). The owner was warned multiple times. When that didn’t work, the warning was set in writing. When that didn’t work, the ban was put in place. Should we punish everyone, including the responsible ones, due to the repeated failures of one? We’re trying to do our best under the circumstances. If that’s not good enough, then please consider helping any way you can.

A sign would be nice like we had in the past so people who don’t bring their dogs don’t have to police those who do.

There is already a sign at the LZ stating that dogs must be supervised & picked up after by owner. Next time you’re at the LZ, look at the two framed posters on the wall and read rule #8.

If only people took the time to read signs and follow rules. Maybe then people would actually pay for a membership, wear their helmets when kiting/flying, land at the appropriate time, adhere to the appropriate landing pattern, and stop smoking whatever they’re smoking at the LZ.

Well, it’s been 8 months since Gene was banned from being on the CSS LZ , in part due to claims of his dogs roaming freely and crapping on the LZ and bothering pilots and spectators. Neither Max nor Sonny are anywhere near AJX now, yet large dogs are walking unleashed, and yesterday I barely missed some dogsh*t while packing my wing. Can we either enforce the rules for everyone, or drop the stupidly pointless and hypocritical ban ?

If you see a particular dog defecating in the LZ and the pet’s owner doesn’t pick up after their dog, please e-mail one or more of the board members to let them know what you saw and when you saw it. We will then take the time to speak to that person about the issue and urge them not to let it happen again.

If the owner is found to ignore our warnings, they will also be asked not to bring their dog back. If they bring the same dog back after multiple warnings, they will also be banned from entering the LZ. Thus far we have not received any official, multiple complaints about anyone specifically, other than Gene. In Gene’s case, it wasn’t just about the dogs, it was also about the horses roaming free, posing a risk to pilots landing, and multiple nice and friendly warnings gone completely disregarded.

Also keep in mind that we have stray dogs (dropped off in the hills by irresponsible owners) and coyotes coming around, hunting gophers. They defecate on the grass as well, so if you didn’t actually see a dog defecting, there is a small possibility that it may not have been a pet at all.

In Gene’s case, multiple people on multiple occasions contacted the board privately to complain about specifically his dogs urinating on their gliders and equipment. In one case, one of his dogs urinated on the reclining chair while I was sitting in it. If I hadn’t said anything to Gene, he would have never noticed and never taken the time to clean the chair. If the dog had been supervised, or on a leash, that could have been avoided. This happened just before the ban, and perhaps during the “warning” period.

I don’t know about now, but in the past Max never even had a collar where a leash could be attached. He had to be dragged away by the skin on his neck, so that he could be returned to Gene. He’s a huge dog and if he doesn’t want to cooperate, there’s not much you can do about it without a collar and leash.

When Gene was asked to control his dog, his rebuttal was that the dog couldn’t read the rules. This is true, but you are the owner of that dog and therefore responsible to either train, or restrain him from doing what he shouldn’t be doing. A collar and leash are basic tools to accomplish exactly that.

Bille, please read my reply one more time. Hopefully you’ll see the answer you’re looking for.

Yes, Bob was kind enough to help us out. Gracie needs repair and we had to wait for the heavy rains to stop before renting a tractor. Grading the road before that would have washed away any progress.

In the meantime, pilots were using the neighbor’s fixed back road to get into AJX. Unfortunately one or two drivers didn’t respect the speed limit, which can cause damage to the fixed road, and this rightfully upset Bob.

The last thing we want to do is upset our neighbors, so Owen and Luke (? I believe) approached Bob about helping us fix our road in exchange for whatever compensation seemed fair. Bob turned down any payment from us and fixed the road on Friday last week.

We are extremely grateful to Bob for helping us out! I was told he’s a fan of Coors Light, if any of you would like to thank him personally. 😉

I’m glad this was resolved. Hopefully their road won’t be as busy and our pilots can get to AJX using the road they’re used to. We get more time to fix Gracie, or raise funds to buy a new tractor so that we can continue to keep our own roads graded.

I too am super excited about Kathy running for Events this year. She’s helped out with SO many past events and has always done a great job. She takes it very seriously. Now we just need Nacho and Noel to come help BBQ at the next fly-in. 😜