The City of Hastings does not have official notice seeking termination of the agreement with the Hastings Dog Park Companions, or formal notice of its intent to close the dog park.

Unofficially, the committee has let the city know that is their intent.

The group’s members have voted to disband its board and close the dog park, according to papers left at Hastings City Hall.

City Manager Jeff Mansfield said unsigned notes or minutes, apparently from a meeting of the Hastings Dog Park Committee, were left on Community Development Director Jerry Czarnecki’s desk at Hastings City Hall last week.  The notes indicated the group voted to disband the dog park board, close the park, and notify the City of Hastings of its intent, he said.

Vice President of the group, Leslie Sitzer, told Mansfield in an e-mail that he should assume that the notes that were dropped off are an official record of a meeting of the Hastings Dog Park Companions. "But, because we are dealing with a legally binding contract here between the city and a formal non-profit organization, I need to be a bit of a stickler for detail,” Mansfield said.

Sitzer referred calls to companion President Christopher Geisert and supplied his telephone number. A call to Geisert’s number to ask if there was a connection of the decision to close the park and Hastings City Council action on Sept. 25, found his mailbox “is full and not accepting any messages. Goodbye.”

Committee members had come to the council meeting seeking an increase of number of dogs per person allowed at the park from three to four. Instead, citing the difficulty of one person controlling more than two dogs in an incident and possible injury to people or dogs, the council voted to set the number of dogs allowed per person at two, down from the present three.