KING CITY — Four pet waste stations were installed in King City and three in the Pine Canyon area earlier in July, with another two on the way.
All seven stations were donations from Dr. Timothy Cheney of King City Veterinary Hospital, who said he plans to keep the stations supplied with plastic bags in order to help area pet owners when they’re out on a walk.
“What’s really cool about this was we’ve had a lot of requests from the public for this and Dr. Cheney came forward,” said City Manager Steve Adams.
Adams said Cheney’s involvement with keeping the stations supplied differs from other cities that install such stations but community members soon find serve only as waste bins due to a lack of bags.
“The kids are the ones who forget the bags when they’re walking the dog,” said Evette Wheeler, the city’s parks and recreation commissioner.
“Hopefully we’ll see less of that stuff on the ground,” Council Member Rob Cullen said about seeing pet waste on the ground while out on walks or jogs.
The first four station locations are at City Park, Forden Park, San Antonio Park and Creek Bridge Baseball Park.
“It’s part of our effort to develop public-private partnerships to improve our parks,” Adams said. “Part of this was that we allow Dr. Cheney to put a recognition plaque on them in exchange for his maintaining them. It’s a much smaller version of what we did at the soccer park, where we got a company to sponsor the park.”
Additional pet waste stations are being planned on River Drive and by the Little League Field at City Park.
Due to Covid-19, city parks remain open only for walking, jogging and walking pets. All pets being walked in city parks must be on a leash.
