Natick Dog Park rule: Dog breed Pointer, yes; laser pointer, no

Mounting complaints about a regular at Eddie’s Park, the Natick dog park, has resulted in a new rule: No toys or laser pointers.

The Natick Conservation Commission at its Feb. 4 meeting (shortly before the 2-hour an 13-minute mark of the Pegasus recording) voted in favor of adding these items to a longish list of prohibitions that also includes dogs in heat and smoking.

Marianne Iarossi, planner/conservation agent with Natick’s Community & Economic Development Department, broached the subject during a discussion about new dog rule signs headed to Eddie’s Park, Lavezzo Field at Memorial Elementary School, and Connor Heffler Park. The signs will boast consistent features, including the town seal (might wanna hold off on that actually…).

“There’s been some issues with people following the rules, so we thought it made sense to have some more legitimate town-looking signs out there,” Iarossi said.

Before going forward with the signs, Iarossi said it made sense to run the addition of “Toys or laser pointers” to the prohibited list by the ConCom, which owns the dog park property.

“There’s a lot more context behind that but I don’t know if you want to get into that right now…” she said.

Oh yeah, said Chair Matt Gardner.

So Iarossi went on to describe the presence of a Framingham man whose behavior, and that of his dog or dogs, have been reported by fellow park users numerous times. The man has allegedly used a laser pointer to instigate trouble.

Gardner says the Commission has been working with police and town counsel on how to ban the person from the park, and said this will be an agenda item at an upcoming meeting.

Meanwhile, bring your dogs to the park, but leave the laser pointers at home.

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